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

[Landis82]

Quote from BullAlert:

The case can be made that no one should be allowed to profit from words alone and that making a living simply by expressing your opinions by typing them constitutes unproductive behavior.

Therefore professional journalists, reporters, writers and editors should have all of THEIR income subjected to a 25% surtax over and above the current marginal rate for engaging in such trivial, useless activities.

Little socialist nanny bitches.

Done.



January 13, 2009 10:34 am


If you are looking for additional sources of tax revenues, I propose the following:

1. A tax on op-ed articles, say 10 cents a word. Not only would considerable revenue be raised, but this is a "green" initiative as it would cut down on paper usage and methane (from b/s) production.

2. A tax on bribes, say 50% to both the giver and receiver. Since we cannot control bribes, especially here in Illinois, home of the "pay for play" Democratic Party, the people might as well benefit from the process.

3. A tax on political contributions over $250. With the hundreds of billions spent in 2008 election cycle a 10% tax would raise tens of billions to be invested in infrastructure, economic stimulus, or IRS and SEC enforcement mechanisms.

— pete, orland park, illinois

http://community.nytimes.com/articl.../opinion/13herbert.html?permid=220#comment220

 

[Landis82]

Quote from KCalhoun:

welcome to the new socialist order that the poor people voted into office... bah. let's hope this doesn't pass. unfortunately there's a lot more poor people than rich people, and they're in charge now, and will tax us every which way they can.

-k

You mean Hillary Clinton and George Soros are poor?

Didn't she make nearly $100,000 "trading" cattle futures contracts with only $1,000 in her account back in 1978?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/whitewater/stories/wwtr940527.htm

Yep.
You sure hit the nail on the head.
The "POOR" are in charge now!

 

[wjk]

Quote from BullAlert:



Therefore professional journalists, reporters, writers and editors should have all of THEIR income subjected to a 25% surtax over and above the current marginal rate for engaging in such trivial, useless activities.

Little socialist nanny bitches.

This is a fantastic idea!!!! Hell yes!!!

 

[Diamond Geezer]

Quote from KCalhoun:

I really hope this doesn't happen, it would harm individual traders. And they're targeting "speculators" -- what's wrong with speculation? This would damage everyone who wants to day and swing trade. It's the "anti active traders tax". Fight it with all power.

-k

They are targeting speculators because they are an easy target. I hate this too and doubt it will make it through but I understand why its being discussed.

Trade off, they take out the little guy at a loss of significant but not critical liquidity. The gain is significant tax revenue and a PR coup. It happened in the UK and London is pretty much equal to New York as a financial capital (its downfall if it happens won't be the stamp duty).

 

[Anaconda]

Quote from bears21:

for one thing we worry about what the big guys are doing not the other way around. if you think the big houses gave a shit of what the little guys quant box is doing or how this trader is scalping the eminis than im glad i am a little guy. but like you pointed out maybe im just being too naive.

Would you care if a small fry compared to you started eating into your profits & your edge? How about when it became 10 of them?

It's a rhetorical question but I hope you see the point.

 

[BullAlert]

This socialist NYT writer is not accepting any more comments, so I emailed him the contents of my post above.

 

[wjk]

Quote from Anaconda:

Would you care if a small fry compared to you started eating into your profits & your edge? How about when it became 10 of them?

It's a rhetorical question but I hope you see the point.

You make an interesting point, but couldn't this comment apply to the taxes imposed on self employed individuals, including but not limited to traders? That's how I feel about the gov, though they are no small fry.

 

[shorty_mcshort]

Quote from BullAlert:

Absolutely.

Perhaps there are tens of thousands of traders and investors out there believe that newpaper journalists engage in "non-productive activities." They don't do anything besides write, right?

The case can be made that no one should be allowed to profit from words alone and that making a living simply by expressing your opinions by typing them constitutes unproductive behavior.

Therefore professional journalists, reporters, writers and editors should have all of THEIR income subjected to a 25% surtax over and above the current marginal rate for engaging in such trivial, useless activities.

Little socialist nanny bitches.

Amen to that brotha! I was thinking the same thing today on the way home from work.

 

[ang_99]

Anybody who thinks 1/4 of a percent hit on a financial transaction is trivial is a fucking clueless moron.

Never mind traders, I'm talking mom and pop long term investors here.

What a fucking jackass. Fee's on managed accounts aren't even that high. God, I can't even handle this conversation.

 

[cubical]

How would this effect institutions or trading firms? Would they be exempt? Would this cause all the individual traders to go to prop shops?