VIDEO: Tobin Tax on Bankers

by Nick Mathiason Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010 at 11:05 AM
mbatko@yahoo.com

The powerful new coalition of domestic and overseas charities, unions and church groups argue that a Robin Hood tax could generate $700bn (£450bn) worldwide. The tax would see 0.05% levied on each bank trade.

Joseph Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia University: "A tax structure that does not reward short-term, very speculative gains would be good. If you were investing for a year or five years or 10 years it would be a small tax but if you were holding it for just one minute it becomes a very high tax. The important question is implementability. It's designed to tackle high frequency activity for which it is hard to find any societal benefit. The only question is, can it be effectively implemented? Will it be circumvented? There's a growing consensus it can be implemented, if not perfectly, effectively enough to make a difference."

to read the article published in: The Guardian UK, Feb 9, 2010, click on
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/09/tobin-tax-nighy-curtis-film