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

[sheda]

Great Italy has another super sonic economical genius at the driving wheel.

 

[bjw]

italy isn't going to pull any weight in this even when they were supposedly still opposed to the tax. the country is on the verge of bankruptcy, they have other things to worry about.

 

[benwm]

tortoise -

Maybe you should make the photo on the main page a little smaller? She's a bit too hot for everyone!

I can kinda see why this might take everyone's attention from the task in hand, and if traders are not opening the site because their wives think they're watching porno it's not ideal.

 

[itatrader]

Monti has studied with James Tobin at Yale, so he could not favour this wrong version of that tax.

 

[tomdavis]

Quote from bjw:

italy isn't going to pull any weight in this even when they were supposedly still opposed to the tax. the country is on the verge of bankruptcy, they have other things to worry about.

Even though Italy isn't a major player in the FTT battle, they're a great example of how things can change literally overnight.

There are a lot of people right now feeling very confident that an FTT could never happen in the US because the House of Representatives is controlled by Republicans. And that's true -- but only in the short run.

Look at what happened in Denmark. A year ago Denmark's Finance Minister gave a speech in which he called the the EU-FTT "ill-conceived and economically destructive." A year later, his party is voted out of office and the new Finance Minister says "the FTT must be enacted as soon as possible."

All it takes is one election to put all of us out of business.

Denmark and Italy are perfect examples of this.

 

[Explorer]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vnCO7N9Mdnw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The whole debate (1h36m) can be seen at http://video.consilium.europa.eu/webcast.aspx?ticket=775-979-10381,

I started watching the full session but I must admit I lost patience with the endless buffering. I might try again another time.

 

[benwm]

Quote from Explorer:


I started watching the full session but I must admit I lost patience with the endless buffering. I might try again another time.

I think George did pretty well there...

 

[tortoise]

New page:


http://www.financialtransactiontaxes.com/Financial-Transaction-Tax-FTT-Cascade-Effect.html

 

[justrading]

Quote from tortoise:

New page:


http://www.financialtransactiontaxes.com/Financial-Transaction-Tax-FTT-Cascade-Effect.html

I suppose it all hinges on how they define a transaction.

 

[tortoise]

Quote from justrading:

I suppose it all hinges on how they define a transaction.

Yes, that's what I'll be developing later.

Their choice is to hit everyone equally (as the EC proposes), or to exempt the pros (as the uK stamp tax does). If they choose the former, they get the cascade effect. If they choose the latter, they're only taxing the little guy.