Recording not available here. Can you please summarise the discussion, or do you know if there's a transcript? Thankyou.
1/4% Tax on all stock trades pushed in NY Times today
- Thread starter seasideheights
- Start date
Recording not available here. Can you please summarise the discussion, or do you know if there's a transcript? Thankyou.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703713504575475190251222922.html
Main article on WSJ today.
EU-wide bank levy is job number one this week, but there is also official-preliminary discussion of an additional bank-related tax, an expanded financial-transaction tax (FTT). Not just on currency transactions, but on stocks, bonds and derivatives.
The EU wants a bank contribution to bailout costs, and they are focusing on the bank levy which takes that pound of flesh - and covers prior or future bank bailout costs. That's the main debate, what to do with that revenue.
So FTT is an add-on tax idea, and not the main idea, which takes some of the pressure off passing it. Many EU countries can object to FTT, since the bank levy is the main bank contribution to bailout costs. Some finance ministers keep repeating that FTT won't work on a country-by-country basis, that it needs to be passed EU-wide, and even G-20-wide or UN-wide - in other words globally. They are certainly right, trading will move to non-FTT markets - if allowed.
By the way, notice how the CFTC may not allow Americans to get higher leverage offshore with new forex trading rules. See our blogs and podcasts about that. Could regulators and tax authorities use extraterritorial reach on an FTT too? We've been busy on this CFTC issue recently.
The bank levy approach focuses on banks and bailouts, whereas FTT focuses on putting sand-in-the-wheels of speculators in addition to banks. Most FTT sponsors suggest using the FTT revenues for social ambitions rather than a bank safety net.
By the way, President Obama's proposed $90 billion bank responsibility fee - bank levy - has dropped off the debating scene in Congress. Extending Bush tax cuts and other tax extenders and small business packages with job stimulus have taken center stage. Passing any tax-related bills before the November 2010 midterm elections will be difficult. The lame duck session will be tough too. The Republican filibuster seems to be holding for blocking tax increases. Sens. Brown (R-Mass), Collins and Snowe (R-Maine) filibustered Dodd-Frank Fin Reg until Democrats dropped the $19 billion of bank taxes. This indicates these three Republican Senators might filibuster the Presidentâs $90 billion bank fee proposal too. To bring the bank fee up for vote in the Senate now is bad politics at this time. Let the EU act first this time, since the U.S. acted first with passing financial regulation (Dodd-Frank).
Global ambition with the FTT reminds me of similar difficulties in negotiating a global climate change treaty (Kyoto and Copenhagen). It's hard to win global consensus, especially during a dangerous and long drawn out economic recovery. A global FTT is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Hopefully, the EU and U.S. will focus on the bank levy - which is not necessarily a good idea anyway - and punt an FTT, as a separate less-focused idea, down the road.
With current miniscule interest yields on government bonds, a FTT is an even more terrible idea than ever before. Why should an investor pay a 1% FTT (or even lower percentage) on both the purchase and sale of a government bond to earn well under 1% - the rate on U.S. treasuries now? Would government seek to give itself an exemption again, as it does on paying taxes - teachers donât pay state taxes on their fixed pensions? If you want to completely freeze the movement of money and investments, and put a deathblow on stimulating the economies around the world, then keep considering a FTT.
FTT continues to be a catchall idea for hitting up traders (investors and speculators) with unaffordable and excessive government spending programs. Why should important financial market makers (traders) and retail investors pay for state-central planning excessive spending programs? If green energy is so great, then why donât consumers buy it more? It's like allowing a reckless-spending parent to run up big bills and then get away with forcing their rich sibling or children to pay their bills. That's not fair play.
Political regime change is the best answer. In the U.S. upcoming midterm elections, solidify the Republican filibuster â with more Republican Senators and Representatives - as Sens. Brown, Collins and Snowe can't be trusted to maintain the current Republican filibuster. Donât be concerned with Democrats as President Obama can always veto Republican bills. If the US blocks a FTT, then the EU will too.
Robert A. Green, CEO Traders Association
Main article on WSJ today.
EU-wide bank levy is job number one this week, but there is also official-preliminary discussion of an additional bank-related tax, an expanded financial-transaction tax (FTT). Not just on currency transactions, but on stocks, bonds and derivatives.
The EU wants a bank contribution to bailout costs, and they are focusing on the bank levy which takes that pound of flesh - and covers prior or future bank bailout costs. That's the main debate, what to do with that revenue.
So FTT is an add-on tax idea, and not the main idea, which takes some of the pressure off passing it. Many EU countries can object to FTT, since the bank levy is the main bank contribution to bailout costs. Some finance ministers keep repeating that FTT won't work on a country-by-country basis, that it needs to be passed EU-wide, and even G-20-wide or UN-wide - in other words globally. They are certainly right, trading will move to non-FTT markets - if allowed.
By the way, notice how the CFTC may not allow Americans to get higher leverage offshore with new forex trading rules. See our blogs and podcasts about that. Could regulators and tax authorities use extraterritorial reach on an FTT too? We've been busy on this CFTC issue recently.
The bank levy approach focuses on banks and bailouts, whereas FTT focuses on putting sand-in-the-wheels of speculators in addition to banks. Most FTT sponsors suggest using the FTT revenues for social ambitions rather than a bank safety net.
By the way, President Obama's proposed $90 billion bank responsibility fee - bank levy - has dropped off the debating scene in Congress. Extending Bush tax cuts and other tax extenders and small business packages with job stimulus have taken center stage. Passing any tax-related bills before the November 2010 midterm elections will be difficult. The lame duck session will be tough too. The Republican filibuster seems to be holding for blocking tax increases. Sens. Brown (R-Mass), Collins and Snowe (R-Maine) filibustered Dodd-Frank Fin Reg until Democrats dropped the $19 billion of bank taxes. This indicates these three Republican Senators might filibuster the Presidentâs $90 billion bank fee proposal too. To bring the bank fee up for vote in the Senate now is bad politics at this time. Let the EU act first this time, since the U.S. acted first with passing financial regulation (Dodd-Frank).
Global ambition with the FTT reminds me of similar difficulties in negotiating a global climate change treaty (Kyoto and Copenhagen). It's hard to win global consensus, especially during a dangerous and long drawn out economic recovery. A global FTT is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Hopefully, the EU and U.S. will focus on the bank levy - which is not necessarily a good idea anyway - and punt an FTT, as a separate less-focused idea, down the road.
With current miniscule interest yields on government bonds, a FTT is an even more terrible idea than ever before. Why should an investor pay a 1% FTT (or even lower percentage) on both the purchase and sale of a government bond to earn well under 1% - the rate on U.S. treasuries now? Would government seek to give itself an exemption again, as it does on paying taxes - teachers donât pay state taxes on their fixed pensions? If you want to completely freeze the movement of money and investments, and put a deathblow on stimulating the economies around the world, then keep considering a FTT.
FTT continues to be a catchall idea for hitting up traders (investors and speculators) with unaffordable and excessive government spending programs. Why should important financial market makers (traders) and retail investors pay for state-central planning excessive spending programs? If green energy is so great, then why donât consumers buy it more? It's like allowing a reckless-spending parent to run up big bills and then get away with forcing their rich sibling or children to pay their bills. That's not fair play.
Political regime change is the best answer. In the U.S. upcoming midterm elections, solidify the Republican filibuster â with more Republican Senators and Representatives - as Sens. Brown, Collins and Snowe can't be trusted to maintain the current Republican filibuster. Donât be concerned with Democrats as President Obama can always veto Republican bills. If the US blocks a FTT, then the EU will too.
Robert A. Green, CEO Traders Association
International backing grows for 'Robin Hood tax' on banks
EU ministers edge closer to financial transaction levy amid signs that International Monetary Fund is softening opposition to 'Robin Hood tax'
Larry Elliott, economics editor
The Observer, Sunday 5 September 2010
European Union finance ministers will step up talks on raising extra money from banks this week amid signs that the International Monetary Fund is softening its opposition to a "Robin Hood tax" on financial transactions.
Treasury sources said the chancellor, George Osborne, was prepared to back a financial activities tax on bank profits and pay at the Brussels meeting provided it was universally introduced, but was wary of a broader Robin Hood tax. Campaigners said last night, however, that a leaked IMF report showed growing international backing for a broader tax and urged Osborne to look at the revenue-raising potential of a levy of transactions.
David Hillman, a Robin Hood Campaign spokesman, said: "The rug has been pulled from under critics who claim that a Robin Hood tax would damage the wider economy or is unworkable. The IMF, EC and Leading Group of 60 nations have all said it is feasible. The main losers would be those who make lots of money from socially useless trades but the winners would be millions of people at home and abroad pushed into poverty by the economic crisis or whose public services are under threat."
An IMF paper, Taxing Financial Transactions: Issues and Evidence, said securities transactions taxes (STT) existed in many countries with little evidence that they distorted markets. It argued that a small levy on transactions might help to dampen the "herding behaviour" encouraged by computer-program trading. "Unilateral STTs, even if levied on fairly narrow bases, are certainly feasible as witnessed by their use in numerous developed countries. The fact that major financial centers such as the UK, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Africa levy forms of STTs indicates that such taxes do not automatically drive out financial activity to an unacceptable extent," it said.
Link to the rest of the article below.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/eu-imf-robin-hood-tax
EU ministers edge closer to financial transaction levy amid signs that International Monetary Fund is softening opposition to 'Robin Hood tax'
Larry Elliott, economics editor
The Observer, Sunday 5 September 2010
European Union finance ministers will step up talks on raising extra money from banks this week amid signs that the International Monetary Fund is softening its opposition to a "Robin Hood tax" on financial transactions.
Treasury sources said the chancellor, George Osborne, was prepared to back a financial activities tax on bank profits and pay at the Brussels meeting provided it was universally introduced, but was wary of a broader Robin Hood tax. Campaigners said last night, however, that a leaked IMF report showed growing international backing for a broader tax and urged Osborne to look at the revenue-raising potential of a levy of transactions.
David Hillman, a Robin Hood Campaign spokesman, said: "The rug has been pulled from under critics who claim that a Robin Hood tax would damage the wider economy or is unworkable. The IMF, EC and Leading Group of 60 nations have all said it is feasible. The main losers would be those who make lots of money from socially useless trades but the winners would be millions of people at home and abroad pushed into poverty by the economic crisis or whose public services are under threat."
An IMF paper, Taxing Financial Transactions: Issues and Evidence, said securities transactions taxes (STT) existed in many countries with little evidence that they distorted markets. It argued that a small levy on transactions might help to dampen the "herding behaviour" encouraged by computer-program trading. "Unilateral STTs, even if levied on fairly narrow bases, are certainly feasible as witnessed by their use in numerous developed countries. The fact that major financial centers such as the UK, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Africa levy forms of STTs indicates that such taxes do not automatically drive out financial activity to an unacceptable extent," it said.
Link to the rest of the article below.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/eu-imf-robin-hood-tax
EU Seeks Consensus On Bank Levy:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...HZ9ahNFNQh_4Qqd9Q&sig2=aRy-AcySbVceG4J9gRU40Q
BRUSSELSâWays to protect taxpayers from bearing the cost of any future banking crisis will top the agenda at a meeting of European Union finance ministers on Tuesday.
EU countries paid out sums amounting to 16.5% of the bloc's gross domestic product to prop up financial firms during the credit crunch, according to EU figures, sending government debt skyward. Governments are keen to ensure that banks and other financial institutions that caused the crisis contribute to the cost of these and any future bailouts.
Two kinds of financial taxes will dominate discussions by the EU's 27 finance ministers at their monthly meeting, which will precede a meeting of 16 finance ministers from countries that use the euro. At center stage is a plan for an annual levy on banks and financial firms that could raise billions of euros to create a safety net for any future bank losses.
Germany, France and the U.K. have already agreed to act together to introduce such a tax from January. Other EU nations are likely to agree in principle that a coordinated EU approach is needed to avoid a patchwork of different tariffs across Europe or multiple tariffs on cross-border companies, according to diplomats.
But consensus will be harder to achieve on the technical details of the tax, such as how much it should be, how it should be calculated and what the money should be used for.
Some nations, including France and the U.K., want the money raised to go into national budgets to recoup bailout funds. Others want the money kept in reserve for any future financial crisis, while others still fret that the creation of such a fund could encourage banks to take risks, safe in the certainty that there is a net if their ventures fail.
"We have to try to reduce moral hazard so that we don't encourage financial bodies to take risks in the knowledge that governments will pick up the bill," Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado said when the matter was last discussed in June.
The tenor of Tuesday's discussions will guide a proposal for an EU-wide levy to be drafted by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, later this year. The ministers will also want to find a common position ahead of the next meeting of the Group of 20 major economies in Seoul on Nov. 11-12. Progress has been harder to achieve at the G-20.
Also under discussion will be a separate suggestion for a levy on currency-exchange transactions, often known as a Tobin tax after a 1978 proposal by U.S. economist James Tobin. The EU deliberations will include widening the idea to include transactions on stocks, bonds and derivatives. In this area opinion is strongly divided, diplomats said.
Proponents of the Tobin tax have argued it would reduce speculative trading and reap substantial revenues. The European Parliament has backed the idea, calling for revenues to be used to swell the EU's budget. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has suggested revenue from the tax could help fund climate-change projects in the developing world.
But some countries, including Sweden, are fiercely opposed and few countries are willing to introduce the tax unilaterally, fearing traders will simply transfer their business to nontaxed markets. "The tax needs a minimum of global consensus to be viable. We do it together or not at all," one EU diplomat said.
Diplomats said discussions on the financial transactions tax were still at an early stage and no decision would be made on Tuesday. "It will be a first exchange of views," one diplomat said. "We also need to decide what will be our position internationally at the G-20."
The ministers are also expected to back a change to the bloc's budget rules to give the EU a bigger role in overseeing national budgets. The idea is to prevent individual nations from overspending to the point where it could destabilize the whole union.
Under the stricter rules there would be a "European Semester"âa six-month period every year when the commission and fellow EU governments would scrutinize the broad outlines of each nation's budget plans for three years ahead.
"The previous system just didn't work," one diplomat said. "The commission was looking at national budgets five or six months into the budgetary year."
Under EU rules, countries must keep their budget deficits below 3% of GDP, but nations have regularly breached those thresholds. Bank bailouts, coupled with stimulus packages, have sent national debt to levels that have threatened the economic stability of the whole region.
The EU, with the help of the International Monetary Fund, was forced to create a â¬110 billion ($141.85 billion) bailout for Greece when it came close to default in May. The bloc has also created a â¬500 billion support plan for countries facing financial meltdown with the promise of up to â¬250 billion in additional funds from the IMF.
The new European Semester is a first initiative of a task force set up by the EU's new permanent Council President, former Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy, to come up with ideas to strengthen budget discipline in the 27-nation bloc.
The task force is made up of government ministers, mostly finance ministers, as well as the EU's finance chief, Commissioner Olli Rehn, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of 16 euro-zone countries. The task force will produce a detailed report on strengthening economic governance in October.
Write to Carolyn Henson at carolyn.henson@dowjones.com
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...HZ9ahNFNQh_4Qqd9Q&sig2=aRy-AcySbVceG4J9gRU40Q
BRUSSELSâWays to protect taxpayers from bearing the cost of any future banking crisis will top the agenda at a meeting of European Union finance ministers on Tuesday.
EU countries paid out sums amounting to 16.5% of the bloc's gross domestic product to prop up financial firms during the credit crunch, according to EU figures, sending government debt skyward. Governments are keen to ensure that banks and other financial institutions that caused the crisis contribute to the cost of these and any future bailouts.
Two kinds of financial taxes will dominate discussions by the EU's 27 finance ministers at their monthly meeting, which will precede a meeting of 16 finance ministers from countries that use the euro. At center stage is a plan for an annual levy on banks and financial firms that could raise billions of euros to create a safety net for any future bank losses.
Germany, France and the U.K. have already agreed to act together to introduce such a tax from January. Other EU nations are likely to agree in principle that a coordinated EU approach is needed to avoid a patchwork of different tariffs across Europe or multiple tariffs on cross-border companies, according to diplomats.
But consensus will be harder to achieve on the technical details of the tax, such as how much it should be, how it should be calculated and what the money should be used for.
Some nations, including France and the U.K., want the money raised to go into national budgets to recoup bailout funds. Others want the money kept in reserve for any future financial crisis, while others still fret that the creation of such a fund could encourage banks to take risks, safe in the certainty that there is a net if their ventures fail.
"We have to try to reduce moral hazard so that we don't encourage financial bodies to take risks in the knowledge that governments will pick up the bill," Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado said when the matter was last discussed in June.
The tenor of Tuesday's discussions will guide a proposal for an EU-wide levy to be drafted by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, later this year. The ministers will also want to find a common position ahead of the next meeting of the Group of 20 major economies in Seoul on Nov. 11-12. Progress has been harder to achieve at the G-20.
Also under discussion will be a separate suggestion for a levy on currency-exchange transactions, often known as a Tobin tax after a 1978 proposal by U.S. economist James Tobin. The EU deliberations will include widening the idea to include transactions on stocks, bonds and derivatives. In this area opinion is strongly divided, diplomats said.
Proponents of the Tobin tax have argued it would reduce speculative trading and reap substantial revenues. The European Parliament has backed the idea, calling for revenues to be used to swell the EU's budget. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has suggested revenue from the tax could help fund climate-change projects in the developing world.
But some countries, including Sweden, are fiercely opposed and few countries are willing to introduce the tax unilaterally, fearing traders will simply transfer their business to nontaxed markets. "The tax needs a minimum of global consensus to be viable. We do it together or not at all," one EU diplomat said.
Diplomats said discussions on the financial transactions tax were still at an early stage and no decision would be made on Tuesday. "It will be a first exchange of views," one diplomat said. "We also need to decide what will be our position internationally at the G-20."
The ministers are also expected to back a change to the bloc's budget rules to give the EU a bigger role in overseeing national budgets. The idea is to prevent individual nations from overspending to the point where it could destabilize the whole union.
Under the stricter rules there would be a "European Semester"âa six-month period every year when the commission and fellow EU governments would scrutinize the broad outlines of each nation's budget plans for three years ahead.
"The previous system just didn't work," one diplomat said. "The commission was looking at national budgets five or six months into the budgetary year."
Under EU rules, countries must keep their budget deficits below 3% of GDP, but nations have regularly breached those thresholds. Bank bailouts, coupled with stimulus packages, have sent national debt to levels that have threatened the economic stability of the whole region.
The EU, with the help of the International Monetary Fund, was forced to create a â¬110 billion ($141.85 billion) bailout for Greece when it came close to default in May. The bloc has also created a â¬500 billion support plan for countries facing financial meltdown with the promise of up to â¬250 billion in additional funds from the IMF.
The new European Semester is a first initiative of a task force set up by the EU's new permanent Council President, former Belgian prime minister Herman Van Rompuy, to come up with ideas to strengthen budget discipline in the 27-nation bloc.
The task force is made up of government ministers, mostly finance ministers, as well as the EU's finance chief, Commissioner Olli Rehn, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of 16 euro-zone countries. The task force will produce a detailed report on strengthening economic governance in October.
Write to Carolyn Henson at carolyn.henson@dowjones.com
Several (leftist) sites lately are saying that the IMF has suddenly been influenced by the proponents and is now becoming pro FTT - secret leaked documents... bs.
This leftist site mentions what I said above and:
European Commission Plans to Argue Against a Financial Transaction Tax at ECOFIN meeting
...However, another proposal, that of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) - - is getting less attention...
...However, the proposal, currently supported by France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria, and which is due to be discussed tomorrow, does not seem to have any fans within the EU commission itself....
http://www.irishleftreview.org/2010...ial-transaction-tax-ecofin-meeting/#more-3346
This leftist site mentions what I said above and:
European Commission Plans to Argue Against a Financial Transaction Tax at ECOFIN meeting
...However, another proposal, that of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) - - is getting less attention...
...However, the proposal, currently supported by France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria, and which is due to be discussed tomorrow, does not seem to have any fans within the EU commission itself....
http://www.irishleftreview.org/2010...ial-transaction-tax-ecofin-meeting/#more-3346
It's interesting that the article specifically mentions Sweden as being against the tax. A friend of mine lives in Stockholm and works in the banking industry. Everyone there is familiar with the disastrous FTT that Sweden imposed in the 1980s. The net effect was to REDUCE overall tax revenues. The failed FTT was repealed and the maximum tax on trading profits is now 30%, considerably lower than the 57% maximum tax on ordinary income. He said that Sweden has a much more positive view of trading that the rest of Europe.
This is slightly dated but of interest
Clyburn pushes for Wall St. tax for road aid
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/sep/01/clyburn-pushes-for-wall-st-tax-for-road-aid/
U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said he is working on a plan that would charge a new tax on Wall Street transactions that would end up generating the $500 billion to fund a new transportation bill and pay back money toward the national deficit each year. Trades would be assessed a 0.25 percent tax, under the proposal.
Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, said financial executives are back to their old behavior of handing out big bonuses and lavish job perks after being bailed out by taxpayers and now they should pay the public back. The transportation bill, filed by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., likely has enough support to pass the U.S. House but needs buy-in from the U.S. Senate and President Barack Obama, Clyburn said.
Clyburn pushes for Wall St. tax for road aid
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/sep/01/clyburn-pushes-for-wall-st-tax-for-road-aid/
U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said he is working on a plan that would charge a new tax on Wall Street transactions that would end up generating the $500 billion to fund a new transportation bill and pay back money toward the national deficit each year. Trades would be assessed a 0.25 percent tax, under the proposal.
Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, said financial executives are back to their old behavior of handing out big bonuses and lavish job perks after being bailed out by taxpayers and now they should pay the public back. The transportation bill, filed by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., likely has enough support to pass the U.S. House but needs buy-in from the U.S. Senate and President Barack Obama, Clyburn said.
Apologies for the (now) dead link.
Has been moved here:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tnf4m/Newsnight_03_09_2010/
Finance Ministers Fail to Agree on EU Financial Transaction Tax:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...on-proposed-eu-financial-transaction-tax.html
Banks escaped a tax on financial transactions after the U.K. and other countries undermined plans to use the levy to help repair the damage to national budgets caused by the banking crisis.
âItâs difficult to see how in practice a financial- transaction tax would work,â U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said in Brussels after a meeting with EU finance chiefs. âItâs been discussed for many decades past and I suspect it will be for many decades to come.â
Very good news
-Guru
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...on-proposed-eu-financial-transaction-tax.html
Banks escaped a tax on financial transactions after the U.K. and other countries undermined plans to use the levy to help repair the damage to national budgets caused by the banking crisis.
âItâs difficult to see how in practice a financial- transaction tax would work,â U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said in Brussels after a meeting with EU finance chiefs. âItâs been discussed for many decades past and I suspect it will be for many decades to come.â
Very good news
-Guru
I would like to find out more info on this IMF paper that was supposedly leaked titled: Taxing Financial Transactions : Issues and Evidence.
I think I remember reading that sometimes IMF economists will write papers such as this one but those views expressed in the paper are not those of the IMF (as a whole). Bascailly it's just the view of the author of that particular paper. I wonder if thats the case here? If anyone knows anything about this paper I please let us know.
I just can't believe the IMF would be changing their view on FTT's after they just issued their report to the G20 back in June in which they basically said FTT's were not a good idea...
-Guru
I think I remember reading that sometimes IMF economists will write papers such as this one but those views expressed in the paper are not those of the IMF (as a whole). Bascailly it's just the view of the author of that particular paper. I wonder if thats the case here? If anyone knows anything about this paper I please let us know.
I just can't believe the IMF would be changing their view on FTT's after they just issued their report to the G20 back in June in which they basically said FTT's were not a good idea...
-Guru