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Never forget what EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta said about the tax rate-setting strategy: "The moment in which we introduce a tax on financial transactions, of course, everything looks different. Then we can also raise the tax rates."

Someone needs to tell it like it is sooner rather than later. By the end of this month Merkel and her cronies will be pitching the stamp tax to an ignorant public as "a way to make the financial sector pay their fair share." In reality, just the opposite is true. Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citi, etc...

Merkel's strategy has always been to isolate the UK. By making this phony stamp tax offer she's trying to swing more votes her way and leave Britain standing alone. She's made it clear she'll stop at nothing to destroy London. We'll find out more at the EU meeting at the end of January.

You may be right. The UK, Sweden, Denmark and even Malta aren't afraid to say no to Merkel. So perhaps the Dutch PM thinks if he just keeps quiet, others will fight the battle for him. Too bad about that. The Dutch FM used to be a very vocal opponent of the FTT. Obviously somebody told him to...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9025589/Secret-plan-revealed-for-new-EU-taxes-on-Britain.html Secret plan revealed for new EU taxes on Britain: Germany and France have opened new battlefront with Britain over a demand for new EU powers to set business and energy taxes on...

I've also been frustrated by the fact that a year ago the Netherlands was strongly against the FTT and then suddenly shifted into neutral and refused to take a position. But, perhaps, there's a method to their madness that could be to our benefit. The Dutch government has to contend with the...

More straight talk from Denmark. Sounds like they've had their fill of Merkozy. http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/45293 The Danish government is right and suddenly it seems the Franco-German juggernaut is facing major roadblocks in trying to shape the EU as it wants. And Ms. Vestager was...

Thanks for the correction. Here's the updated list. EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AGAINST THE FTT: EU-27 countries: (1) UK (2) Sweden (3) Czech Republic (4) Romania (5) Bulgaria (6) Denmark [recently announced they would only support FTT if it’s global] EZ-17 countries...

As best as I can tell, following is the current EU FTT scorecard. EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AGAINST THE FTT: EU-27 countries: (1) UK (2) Sweden (3) Czech Republic (4) Romania (5) Bulgaria (6) Denmark [recently announced they would only support FTT if it’s global] EZ-17...

European legal firms must be licking their chops right now. Moving and restructuring will create a huge amount of work for lawyers.

If banks move their trading operations out of Germany, the exchanges can't be far behind. Deutsche Börse already has locations in Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic; and they have offices in Beijing, London, Chicago, New York, Hong Kong, and Dubai. It won't take long for them to...

The mention of Professor Kenneth Rogoff in the above article caused me to search for the source. It turned out to be a gold mine from a Harvard Economics Professor (and former Chief Economist for the IMF). The following article by Ken Rogoff is one of the very best I have ever read about...

Perfect! If there are any artists in this forum, perhaps they'll draw it for us. It could be the official poster for the FTT.

The NYT slants their FTT stories toward the angle that the FTT is a great thing and that all EU countries are clamoring for it except that evil Britain is standing in the way. The NYT rarely mentions that Sweden's adamantly against the FTT, nor do they mention that Malta, Cyress and the Czech...

It sounds ridiculous when the PM and FM are making opposite public statements. The same thing happened in Luxembourg when the FM said the FTT would be disaster for their banking business and two weeks later the PM came out and said they must have the EZ-FTT as soon as possible. Crazy. The...

Perhaps you should send Sarkozy those poll numers... All he seems to care about is getting re-elected.

Wow... you're really going out on a limb predicting Romney. Intrade pegs him at an 80% chance of winning the nomination. http://intrade.com/v4/markets/contract/?contractId=652757 Incumbent presidents get re-elected over 70% of the time, so that's not much of a prediction either...

Why wouldn't Cameron want it brought to a vote? There's no way to get a unanimous vote supporting either EU or EZ FTT.

Your argument is correct and extended upon by the 2010 IMF study on the FTT: http://www.imf.org/external/np/g20/pdf/062710b.pdf It is a weakness of the FTT that it taxes transactions between businesses, including indirectly through the impact on the prices of non-financial products. The...

Every 90 days I send a polite email or fax to my Senators and Congressman to express my opposition to the financial transactions tax. Until now, the responses I got from them were unfocused and ambiguous. However, the specificity of this response from Senator Feinstein tells me that our...