Tax on investment bank speculators

[basilio]

There are huge amounts of money flashed around the world speculating on currency movements, commodity futures, CFDs and so on. These transactions are the core of large investment banks profits. Many observers believe the floods of cash in and out of countries and commodities is a prime cause of economic instability.

1000 economists have just proposed that a .05% tax be put on all financial transactions. Part of the argument is as follows

But 1,000 eminent number-crunchers from more than 50 countries have written to G20 finance ministers, urging them to slap a tax on City speculators to help the world's poor.
....They argue that if a tax were levied on transactions such as currency trading at just 0.05%, it could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to be ploughed into international development and climate change projects. Some of the proceeds could also be retained by governments in the countries where the transactions take place, including the UK, helping to repair the hole in governments' coffers.

"The financial crisis has shown us the dangers of unregulated finance, and the link between the financial sector and society has been broken," the letter says. "It is time to fix this link and for the financial sector to give something back to society." It adds that a financial transaction tax is "technically feasible" and "morally right".

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is chairing the G20, has commissioned Bill Gates to examine innovative ways to fund development, and France and Germany are known to be keen on the idea of a financial transaction tax. Staff from the Gates Foundation have been shuttling between G20 capitals trying to muster support for a tax, which could be imposed by a small group of countries if worldwide agreement proves impossible.

Thoughts ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/13/world-economists-robin-hood-tax

 

[tothemax6]

There are huge amounts of money flashed around the world speculating on currency movements, commodity futures, CFDs and so on. These transactions are the core of large investment banks profits. Many observers believe the floods of cash in and out of countries and commodities is a prime cause of economic instability.

1000 economists have just proposed that a .05% tax be put on all financial transactions. Part of the argument is as follows

Thoughts? Yet another bad idea. However, I have never heard any political leader propose anything other than a bad idea for at least 6 years now.
Speculation action is a positive economic effect - it is the means by which humans processing information about the world changes prices. It does not cause more adverse effects than clamp-downs on speculation.

And believe me, many more than 1000 economics have had much worse ideas.

 

[skyQuake]

That's akin to adding sand into a finely tuned engine.

5bps each side will seriously hurt liquidity providers. Algos, s/t traders. The big capital movers don't care about 5 or even 50 bps, they're the ones that move markets getting in and out.

I don't think any government deserves a single cent extra given the crap job they're doing.
Those 1000 economists should all be thrown into jail

 

[skc]

Look up Tobin Tax which is similar in concept but applies to cross-border, FX transactions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax

I personally don't think it's such a bad idea. 5bps is crazy, but something smaller might actually make some sense. And since I don't trade FX I am not hurt directly...