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

A provision of the TARP law when passed was a re-evaluation of the costs to the taxpayers in year 5 and if the taxpayer is not repaid in full, the President will submit to Congress a "means" (i.e. tax on Wall Street) to recoup those losses.

With everyone and their mother tapping TARP (Wall Street, automakers, mortgage modifications, TALF, etc) when the bill comes due, and the returns will inevitably come up short (does anyone really think we will get any money back from Detroit?) is Wall Street still going to be on the hook for the spreadsheet imbalances that WILL be there in year 5?

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/21/new...htm?postversion=2009102103&eref=googletoolbar
 
Barney Frank discussed that about 5 months ago saying he put that provision in the bill and it will be more like a fee on banks not a transaction tax. Becuase he was worried about capital fleeing. He also said that it would not happen during this administration at all and if it does happen it will be after this term is up and see how we did on tarp. Becuase some of tarp was not meant to be paid back, I.E. mortgage stimulus and what not. So we shall see in a few years
 
Here's a little blurb from Politico:

TALKER -- Tax Notes, “Geithner Pans Tobin Tax,” by Lee A. Sheppard: “‘I haven’t seen a proposal that would work or make sense, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible,’ Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a questioner when asked about a Tobin tax last week at a seminar on the financial meltdown sponsored by The Economist magazine and held at Pace University in New York. … Geithner added that he believed that finance should pay for the costs of future bailouts. He had in mind not taxation but assessments, akin to deposit insurance fees, levied on financial intermediaries in proportion to their size. When his questioner pressed that a Tobin tax would ruin things for financiers, Geithner reiterated that he ‘hadn’t seen a version of the tax that’d make much sense.’”

http://www.politico.com/morningmoney/1009/morningmoney3.html

-Guru
 
You know, there is this newly gathering anti-wall st. sentiment brought on by the "wall st. is recovering(at the expense of taxpayers) but main street is not" situation. Increased visibility of the RAJs fuel the distrust. At some point, the public rage against wall st. will hit a crescendo and something will be DEMANDED to be done to punish it. There will be triggering set of events that tips the balance toward emotional reactions. All the well reasoned arguments will go out the window at that point. I believe that a second, and more brutal economic wave down is coming once all the "forced" govt efforts to prop things up exhaust themselves. I don't think we're close to being out of the woods(Geithner's opinion or not) as in the end, we really do have a socialist president in the white house. Let's just hope that whatever punitive policy is enacted in response to rage venting, that it will not be in the form of the tax we all fear and that we can continue to profit from whatever drives the mkts whichever way.
 
I like that Geithner said "I haven't seen a transaction tax proposal that makes sense" and that later he said it should be proportional to the size of the institution, which is great for individual traders. It certainly sounds like Geithner is against what's been proposed so far, which is good news for us individual traders.

It'll be great next summer when hopefully we can vote our Republicans back into Congress and do away with the socialist influences currently taxing and spending into oblivion. The key is we need some good policitians, which is an oxymoron lol.
 
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