1/4% Tax on all stock trades pushed in NY Times today

Austan Goolsbee (a member of Obama's Council of Economic Advisors) made some comments on the transaction tax at a conference today:

Today, at the Economist’s World in 2010 conference, Council of Economic Advisers member Austan Goolsbee was asked about the transactions tax. He said he thinks such a tax “would be hard” to implement, and that the FTT was merely a “serving as a proxy” for more robust financial regulation:

It’s clear it would have to be done by everybody, and don’t overlook the temptation of a bunch of small — there are a whole bunch of, I don’t know if it would be Singapore or somebody who wants to be a financial center — saying ‘everybody else is going to tax your transactions but we won’t, so you should move all your stuff here.’

So I think it would be hard…Tobin himself would often say ‘well I don’t know if it exactly could work,’ because everybody’s got to do it together. The second thing I’d say, though, is it’s clearly getting at don’t we need a stronger regulatory environment. The Tobin tax is serving as a proxy for ‘don’t we need tougher, tighter, more robust oversight.’

Video clip here:

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/12/07/goolsbee-ftt/
 
Quote from Arnie:

What do you expect Schumer to say?

Of course he "against" it. Until he's for it. If the UK goes for it, I think this will pass, and you can bet Schumer will be voting "aye".
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I agree that Schumer is a chameleon (some might say a snake), but New York will be devasted if this tax passes. Politicians only care about two things: money and votes. He will lose both if he supports a bill that puts thousands of his constituants in the unemployment lines.

As I said earlier, we still have to keep up the pressure.
-- Sign petitions.
-- Contact your representatives (phone, email and fax)
-- Don't stop until this tax is dead

We only have two choices: Fight or quit.
 
Quote from listedguru:

Austan Goolsbee (a member of Obama's Council of Economic Advisors) made some comments on the transaction tax at a conference today:

Today, at the Economist’s World in 2010 conference, Council of Economic Advisers member Austan Goolsbee was asked about the transactions tax. He said he thinks such a tax “would be hard” to implement, and that the FTT was merely a “serving as a proxy” for more robust financial regulation:

It’s clear it would have to be done by everybody, and don’t overlook the temptation of a bunch of small — there are a whole bunch of, I don’t know if it would be Singapore or somebody who wants to be a financial center — saying ‘everybody else is going to tax your transactions but we won’t, so you should move all your stuff here.’

So I think it would be hard…Tobin himself would often say ‘well I don’t know if it exactly could work,’ because everybody’s got to do it together. The second thing I’d say, though, is it’s clearly getting at don’t we need a stronger regulatory environment. The Tobin tax is serving as a proxy for ‘don’t we need tougher, tighter, more robust oversight.’

Video clip here:

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/12/07/goolsbee-ftt/
More...

Good article but I wish they would publish these things on better sounding blogs or news media. The WONKROOM just sounds wrong:)
 
Quote from Arnie:

What do you expect Schumer to say?

Of course he "against" it. Until he's for it. If the UK goes for it, I think this will pass, and you can bet Schumer will be voting "aye".
More...

Stabbing some of the largest employers, supporters, and campaign contributors in the back is not what got pols like Shumer into office.

If you are a large industry or corporation in your state one of the most important things that you do is line the pockets of key policy makers in the form of campaign contributions and pay high profile lobby firms top $ to remind them who helped put them there.

Shumer or any other pol. in that area will go down swinging on issues that negatively impact their key constituents. It would take a real grass roots populist push from voters in his area, or massive "horse trades" for him not to be against such a tax. Its the guy who has no skin in the game that you have to worry about.
 
Can the senate rush a vote for less then 60 votes, I have heard some things about that tactic but not sure. They say the majority can do somethig where they only need like 50 votes instead of 60 but they do not use it often? I am not sure If anyone can enlighten me, would be appreciative.
 
Quote from rsikit:

Can the senate rush a vote for less then 60 votes, I have heard some things about that tactic but not sure. They say the majority can do somethig where they only need like 50 votes instead of 60 but they do not use it often? I am not sure If anyone can enlighten me, would be appreciative.
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I believe that process is called reconciliation in the Senate. They have threatened to use it to pass healthcare but have since backed down. I believe you only need 51 votes (a simple majority) to pass legislation in the Senate but you need 60 (3/5) for cloture (to cut off debate)...

As to your question - there is no chance they would use reconciliaton to pass a trans tax (IMHO)...

-Guru
 
Agree with you all. We have to win on the FTT in the U.S, and weigh in where possible in the UK, EU, G20 and worldwide. As I said all along, the U.S. punted to the G20/IMF report as a polite way to deflect global anger towards Wall Street, for its perceived role in the meltdown. Like much American-bashing, it’s not completely fair in my view, but it is a reality.

Tea leaves show that key U.S. leaders’ doubt there will be global solidarity on a financial-transaction tax anytime soon. Austan Goolsbee, a member of Obama's Council of Economic Advisors has the President’s ear along with Secretary Geithner and his quote at http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2...7/goolsbee-ftt/ is similar to others in Congressional and administration leadership as well. Like me, they don’t see true global consensus coming anytime soon. Like with the Kyoto climate change treaty a decade ago, why should America sign the treaty if India and China would not?

Per my blog from weeks ago, the French and EU federalist-Belgians may want a Euro Tax based on this FTT. Even the UN wants a Global FTT for spending too. It’s a power grab for sovereignty in my and other’s views.

For sure, as Goolsbee well said, there are respected financial-centers in the world that will say no to a financial-transaction tax and they want to receive outsourced trading activity. Even if the UK says yes for short-term politics, it will probably reverse course later on when it realizes its huge mistake, or a new Tory administration takes over first and reverses course. It’s important to note that once you bury an industry it’s hard to restart it later on. There was not much America could do to compete with sweat shops and $1 per day wages in emerging markets, but we can certainly act to protect our leadership interests in financial services now.

If we win on the financial-transaction tax – and I still think we will win - I agree the tax raisers (Democrats) may come at us from other directions. We need to beef up defenses on trader tax status qualifications, use of Section 475 MTM ordinary "tax loss insurance" for traders and not just dealers, retain lower 60/40 tax rates on futures, have your cake and eat it rules on forex, no payroll taxes on trading gains and more. I agree with others, they will come at us from all angles. So let’s keep up our organized efforts and even take it to the next level. I am trying to do this with the Traders Association at http://www.greencompany.com/Association/index.shtml. We need more Face Book members and Officers on the face book Association page. If we win this tax, I think our Association and this thread and effort will be respected for having done something to help ourselves and we will be taken seriously. Acorn can line up bus loads of protesters to march with signs at events and we can bombard every online media presence with Comments. It may be just as effective and it’s free and easy. We are all investing time into this cause and I think it will pay off for us.
 
Quote from GreenTraderTax:

Agree with you all. We have to win on the FTT in the U.S, and weigh in where possible in the UK, EU, G20 and worldwide. As I said all along, the U.S. punted to the G20/IMF report as a polite way to deflect global anger towards Wall Street, for its perceived role in the meltdown. Like much American-bashing, it’s not completely fair in my view, but it is a reality.

Tea leaves show that key U.S. leaders’ doubt there will be global solidarity on a financial-transaction tax anytime soon. Austan Goolsbee, a member of Obama's Council of Economic Advisors has the President’s ear along with Secretary Geithner and his quote at http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2...7/goolsbee-ftt/ is similar to others in Congressional and administration leadership as well. Like me, they don’t see true global consensus coming anytime soon. Like with the Kyoto climate change treaty a decade ago, why should America sign the treaty if India and China would not?

Per my blog from weeks ago, the French and EU federalist-Belgians may want a Euro Tax based on this FTT. Even the UN wants a Global FTT for spending too. It’s a power grab for sovereignty in my and other’s views.

For sure, as Goolsbee well said, there are respected financial-centers in the world that will say no to a financial-transaction tax and they want to receive outsourced trading activity. Even if the UK says yes for short-term politics, it will probably reverse course later on when it realizes its huge mistake, or a new Tory administration takes over first and reverses course. It’s important to note that once you bury an industry it’s hard to restart it later on. There was not much America could do to compete with sweat shops and $1 per day wages in emerging markets, but we can certainly act to protect our leadership interests in financial services now.

If we win on the financial-transaction tax – and I still think we will win - I agree the tax raisers (Democrats) may come at us from other directions. We need to beef up defenses on trader tax status qualifications, use of Section 475 MTM ordinary "tax loss insurance" for traders and not just dealers, retain lower 60/40 tax rates on futures, have your cake and eat it rules on forex, no payroll taxes on trading gains and more. I agree with others, they will come at us from all angles. So let’s keep up our organized efforts and even take it to the next level. I am trying to do this with the Traders Association at http://www.greencompany.com/Association/index.shtml. We need more Face Book members and Officers on the face book Association page. If we win this tax, I think our Association and this thread and effort will be respected for having done something to help ourselves and we will be taken seriously. Acorn can line up bus loads of protesters to march with signs at events and we can bombard every online media presence with Comments. It may be just as effective and it’s free and easy. We are all investing time into this cause and I think it will pay off for us.
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Robert, I just joined your trader association on facebook. Thanks for taking the lead on these issues.
 
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