Quote from benwm:
I notice a new site has appeared
http://www.ceedweb.org/iirp/
"Tobin Tax Initative"
it is the second entry when you do a google search on 'Tobin Tax'
Quote from ZeroSigma:
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While proposing to tax others (Americans), Mr Keynes himself enjoyed speculation to the fullest, running an early precursor of a [[hedge fund]]. As the Bursar of the Cambridge University King's College, he managed two investment funds, one of which, called Chest Fund, invested not only in the then 'emerging' market US stocks, but also periodically included commodity futures and foreign currencies, albeit to a smaller extent (see Chua and Woodward, 1983) . His fund achieved positive returns in almost every year, averaging 13% p.a., even during the Great Depression, thanks to very modern investment strategies, which included inter-market [[diversification]] (i.e. invested not only in stocks but also commodities and currencies) as well as [[shorting]], i.e. selling borrowed stocks or futures to make money on falling prices, which Keynes advocated among the principles of successful investment in his 1933 report ("a balanced investment position [..] and if possible, opposed risks.") According to Ziemba and Ziemba (2007) Keynes risk-taking reached 'cowboy' proportions, i.e. 80% of the maximum rationally justifiable levels (of the so called [[Kelly criterion]]), with overall return [[volatility]] approximately 3 times higher than the stock market index benchmark. Such levels of volatility, responsible for his spectacular investment performance, would be achievable today only through the most aggressive instruments (such as 3:1 leveraged [[exchange-traded fund]]s). His pronouncements on the speculation-curbing transaction tax should be therefore taken as merely [[normative]] ideas, good for others, but not for himself. He instead chose modern [[speculation]] techniques practiced today by [[hedge funds]], which are quite different from the simple [[buy-and-hold]] long-term investing. (SEE BELOW TWO FOOTNOTES)</ref><ref>Chua, J. H. and R. S. Woodward, 1983. The investment wizardry of J. M. Keynes. Financial Analysts Journal 39 (3), 35-37, URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4478643</ref><ref>Ziemba, Rachel and William Ziemba, 2007. Good and Bad properties of the Kelly criterion" in: Ziemba R. and W. Ziemba, 2007, "Scenarios for risk management and global investment strategies", John Wiley & Sons, p. 29-31.</ref>
I guess it took the author some time and research before he could discredit their chief scientist so spectacularlyAnd now this splendid example of 'tu quoque' is gone forever... so I'm preserving it at least here
