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

[Wayne Gibbous]

Rev Shark has usually been the voice of reason and caution at The Street. How can he continue to be associated with that worthless jackass? That Cramer supports this tax, in any way, shape or form, is stunning.

Toddo Harrison cut loose from da Crammer and now has a very successful competing site. Maybe that is the way to get rid of Clown Cramer - let the market decide...

 

[listedguru]

From the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/24/AR2009112404014_pf.html

It calls for putting the transaction tax back on the table but says this at the end:

"In truth, none of this will create the jobs the country now desperately needs. But governing is as much about symbolism as it is about substance. Only by taking steps to assure the nation that the economy will no longer be rigged in Wall Street's favor can the president regain the political high ground and push through a new jobs agenda."

-Guru

 

[ksharmon]

Steve Perlstein column

A telling moment came at the meeting of finance ministers in St. Andrews, Scotland, earlier this month, when Geithner gave a back-of-the-hand to the idea of a global tax on financial transactions as a way of raising money for economic stabilization while also discouraging high-volume, short-term speculation. In the past, the problem with this idea was that if any country imposed such a tax, trading would simply move somewhere else. But with most industrial countries now willing to act in concert, a transaction tax could have been a viable option -- until, that is, Geithner dismissed it as a desperate political gambit by an unpopular British prime minister and vowed that the United States would never go along.

By itself, perhaps, the incident could have been written off as a difference of opinion about means rather than ends. But it seemed to be of a piece with Geithner's determination to avoid upsetting markets or upending the Wall Street order.

This was the same Geithner, after all, who has pushed not only to preserve but expand the powers of a Federal Reserve that had been the regulatory hand-maiden of Wall Street banks and investment houses.

It was Geithner and the Treasury that proposed to enshrine the doctrine of "too big to fail" into law, rejecting calls to break up the biggest banks and designating certain institutions for this special status. Treasury also opposed language that would have required creditors and counterparties of these institutions to take losses if some form of government receivership were required.

And it has been Geithner who, for all his talk about reforming the structure of Wall Street pay, has never been able to bring himself to declare the simple truth that Wall Street pay is absurdly high.

It's fair to say that Geithner's credibility has been so tarnished in the eyes of Congress and the public that President Obama will now have to devote more personal attention to these issues. ...

And Obama could ask the Group of 20 to put the transaction tax back on the agenda, and vow to use the $50 billion a year in revenue that it would generate here to finance the much-needed transportation infrastructure improvements that the president himself has proposed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/24/AR2009112404014.html

<i>I hadn't seen the previous post when I was posting this</i>

 

[Anaconda]

This has been discussed to death and so few of you actually understand what is going on.

It's very simple. The major Wall Street banks will get exemptions and the rest of the traders, particularly the small retail daytraders will go bye bye from the industry. That should create more applicants for the Armed Forces and Obama's "volunteer" programs, while Goldman and the gang get to enjoy fat ass margins on market making and prop trading. Institutions will still move stock around and pass the costs down to the investors.

Creating arguments how this will destroy jobs is like beating on a dead horse. The lackeys pushing this through publicly may not know what is going on, but those financing these lackeys know exactly what they are doing.

Get it through your head. This transaction tax is not an idiotic idea. It's great for a small minority and very bad for a large majority.

Oh and finally. The politicians do not care what you think, at least most of them. You are not the ones financing their campaigns or promising them favors after their terms. They really do not care. You can always check back to the overwhelming public resistance to the bailout bill and how that worked out.

 

[jj69]

I don't know, Anaconda's assertions are making more sense to me bit by bit.

 

[rsikit]

Quote from jj69:

I don't know, Anaconda's assertions are making more sense to me bit by bit.

Well either way its talk right now so we do not know what will come, and the journalists make it sound its getting much more talk then it is. Sure we all know the discussions , we also know the bill sat in the house ways and means with out any discussions all year by those who count. So we shall see when this new bill shows its face and then we can see where it leads as well. We can only do what we do as seaside has shown, email congress and put your thoughts on any article that has a comments section, email advertisers on the websites the advocate the tax that can harm those advertisers etc.. Thanks to seaside for your continued fight as well as thanks to listed guru for bringing up all the good articles and thought for us to see.

 

[cleveland45]

Quote from jj69:

I don't know, Anaconda's assertions are making more sense to me bit by bit.

Wall street hates the small, independent trader. You never know, it could be an end run to get back to the good ol' days when they controlled it all. This administration is stupid enough to fall for it.

 

[Emini Maestro]

Quote from Anaconda:

This transaction tax is not an idiotic idea. It's great for a small minority and very bad for a large majority.

And that is why it will pass. They are not asking the people.

 

[hoffmanw]

Quote from Anaconda:

....major Wall Street banks will get exemptions and the rest of the traders, particularly the small retail daytraders will go bye bye from the industry.....

The majority of small retail daytraders maybe go bye-bye to US industry, but not other exchanges around the world. There are numerous studies on the effect of transaction tax on daytraders in various countries. All studies show daytraders will simply move their operations overseas to where no such tax is imposed or very little transaction tax is imposed, or they change their trading strategies. They will not die off if they can trade. US will become a less attractive place for traders and investors. That is all.

 

[traderbigt]

The effect of the tax is to wipe out small retail traders, who did not participate in the horrors the public blames Wall Street for. MMs and other big playa's will get critical EXEMPTIONS that widen the divide between rich and poor, and will benefit a well funded and lobbyist armed MINORITY (can you say Goldman Sachs?) at the expense of the MAJORITY, IOW, people like most of us.

The little guy will be frozen out, and this is in fact the way it has been going for ages, even under Democrats, because there is an unholy alliance between Washington and Wall Street and other big playa corporatist entities. Notice who got balied out when they gambled and lost, it aint you, little retail day trader.

Politicians do not care about you, your opinions, finance logic or economic soundness, they care only about power, control, and re-election.

Ironically, with SEVERAL countries getting on board, it helps them force this to be passed, because running out of the USA to trade is off the table.

Anyway, they will demand US CITIZEN's trades abroad will be subject to the tax, undoubtedly, so unless you trade with a nation outside the US and leave here, it is hopeless. You will not be able to use Interactive Brokers and trade abroad markets and evade this tax.

Pols see revenue and an easy mark because the public is uninformed, hates Wall Street, and would support this.

A lesson in statism is seen here: Many countries are jumping on board because in those countries, human nature, and politics are the same, the statist pigs in those other nations also want revenues for the same reasons our statists do. Game. Set. Match.