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

[benwm]

Quote from slumdog:

yes.. but certain instruments are more easily taxed than others. In the UK shares are taxed regardless of where they are traded and it seems to raise revenue.

The UK stamp duty (tax) raises revenue because it exempts dealers so liquidity is not destroyed. It is only the small trader that gets hit. Just the sort of regressive tax that governments love because it keeps the big boys happy whilst still stealing nickels off the little guys. In Sweden from 84-91 there were no exemptions so there was no reason for the big boys to stay, and so business moved to London.

So you either raise some revenue and screw the little guy or raise no revenue because you don't give exemptions.

Ironic that it's sold as a "bankers tax" that will "raise billions" when the two events are mutually exclusive.

 

[Rantany]

Commission wants adoption of Tobin Tax at EU level

(AGI) Brussels - An EU spokesman said the tax on financial transactions has been "a priority of the EU Commission for a long time." Spokesman Alejandro Ulzurrun emphasised that Brussels wants it to be adopted "at the European Union level" rather than simply by the eurozone or individual countries. He explained that the issue is "an initiative of the Commission," already "defended at the G20." The executive "acknowledges and appreciates the intentions of France and Germany," and in any case, "the work will go ahead under the Danish presidency" and we expect developments "in the coming months," Ulzurrun concluded. . .

 

[sheda]

Coalition at risk over financial transaction tax

Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing a crisis in her governing coalition after agreeing with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to push for a financial transaction tax, even if Britain opts out


“I clearly warn the chancellor against going further in this direction. She is bound to keep to the relevant agreements, otherwise we as the FDP will no longer have to keep to the arrangements,” he told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper on Tuesday.

“I say it again – such a tax must apply to all EU states, not just for the euro states,” said Philipp Rösler, leader of the FDP and Merkel’s Economy Minister.

http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20120110-40023.html

 

[sheda]

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

PARIS (Dow Jones)–French officials urged discerning adoption of a Europe-wide financial transaction taxation though warned that Paris can’t go it alone, suggesting a supervision is losing wish of putting a taxation in place before presidential elections in April.

Finance Minister Francois Baroin pronounced he intends to plead

 

[tomdavis]

Quote from Rantany:

Commission wants adoption of Tobin Tax at EU level

"the work will go ahead under the Danish presidency" and we expect developments "in the coming months," Ulzurrun concluded. . .

This quote from Ulzurrun comes right after the Danish Finance Minister said that the EU-FTT would "cost hundreds of thousands of jobs," and that Denmark would only support the FTT if it was global.

What a clusterf*ck. Do these people have any idea how stupid they sound?

And Merkel seems to have run off the rails, changing her story every day.

Will they self-destruct? We can only hope.

 

[d08]

Quote from tomdavis:

This quote from Ulzurrun comes right after the Danish Finance Minister said that the EU-FTT would "cost hundreds of thousands of jobs," and that Denmark would only support the FTT if it was global.

What a clusterf*ck. Do these people have any idea how stupid they sound?

And Merkel seems to have run off the rails, changing her story every day.

Will they self-destruct? We can only hope.

It's politics. Saying it "has to be global" is the same as saying "it won't happen ever but it would lower my popularity if I said it straight". Scandinavia and a few places in eastern Europe are the only progressive places left here and most of Europe is dying, they're just trying to keep it alive for a few more years or at least until they (politicians) are old enough to retire.
One can get fairly wealthy with trading, the old money of old Europe doesn't like competition at all - most of Europe is already very unfriendly towards start-ups...trading is just the next target.

 

[JamesL]

EU commission rejects NYSE/DB merger on anti-trust issues:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204124204577152901635406964.html

GOOD! I was afraid it may have been a back door to introduce the FTT on stocks if FTT was instituted, especially with the blind fury that Merkel has of late pushing this tax abomination.

 

[andohmeeta]

http://www.thelocal.de/article.php?ID=40023#comment2646873

 

[Robert A. Green]

Sarkozy refuses to drop financial tax proposal - FT.com
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2ed2a23a-3b90-11e1-a09a-00144feabdc0.html

My comment on this FT article:

Accepting FTT is caving into socialists. Center-right Sarkozy in France and Merkel in Germany are talking FTT to keep socialists from winning back power. Europe is broken because of socialism, not because of banking. Yes, bankers should never have financed the out-of-control PIIGS spenders. FTT penalizes investors the most, not banks, so why not fix the ills of socialism - crony capitalism, propping up obsolete industries, public-sector unions, government debt and spending - rather than attacking investors?

No politician with a basic understanding of economics wants FTT, it's financial-market suicide. But, it's a poison-pill politicians feel they must swallow to keep socialists in their control. I say, vote down socialism instead, that's the real fix we need in Europe.

Wake up Europe, even our liberal New York Times in America understands the Euopean-welfare-state model is broken. Stop scapegoating bankers.

FTT is a socialist pipe dream to avoid reality. Socialism and FTT both destroy economies, markets and jobs.

We need Grover Norquist to export his tax-protection pledge to Europe to block FTT.

 

[Robert A. Green]

S&P should downgrade France and their banks over Sarkozy's FTT solo-FTT plan, if it happens.

I think Sarkozy feels FTT and his agenda melting away, starting in Cannes at the recent G-20, when the G-20 powers said no to FTT. As he pushed hard for Libya, he is now pushing hard for FTT too._

Sarkozy is frustrated with Chancellor Nein Merkel, and her trepidation and stand-off politics back in Germany. He claims if there is no French FTT first, then FTT will never happen. Bingo. Sarkozy's best shot was during his recent French presidency of the EU, and he lost that initiative. Now the Danish presidency will mire FTT in EU-wide politics and it won't happen on an EU level - with the rock solid UK veto.

Sarkozy will probably have trouble passing FTT in France, certainly on such a quick timetable, in time for the election in May. His bluff, got some minor players in the euro zone to say 'wait France, we will pass it in the euro zone or it should be EU wide.' It's inappropriate to pass FTT in France alone in other EU members' views.

I doubt France will jump the gun to hurt their banks, and suffer the competitive consequences. The banks will either move, or S&P should downgrade them for FTT impairment - from clients leaving and paying FTT too. France should also then be downgraded by rating agencies too. France won't collect much tax revenue, and they will need to spend more on GDP loss and bailing out banks.

It's time for us to focus in like a laser on France and Sarkozy and to take the FTT battle to France. Who can contact S&P about Sarkozy's financially-destructive plans for a solo FTT?