Duck-and-cover in Berlin
http://www.financialtransactiontaxes.com/financial-transaction-tax-ftt-news.html
http://www.financialtransactiontaxes.com/financial-transaction-tax-ftt-news.html
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1/4% Tax on all stock trades pushed in NY Times today
- Thread starter seasideheights
- Start date
Quote from Explorer:
No progress made on European transaction tax according to joint Merkel-Cameron press conference just now.
Scary quote from Cameron if it's true. He's not actually against the FTT, just under pressure from London.
âThe financial transactions tax⦠I must be against it, otherwise I would be hanged in the City. But just between us: I agree with the Archbishop of Canterbury, that it's not a stupid idea."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8846201/Debt-crisis-live.html
Quote from tomdavis:
Scary quote from Cameron if it's true. He's not actually against the FTT, just under pressure from London.
âThe financial transactions tax⦠I must be against it, otherwise I would be hanged in the City. But just between us: I agree with the Archbishop of Canterbury, that it's not a stupid idea."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8846201/Debt-crisis-live.html
Thankfully it is not true! From a bit earlier in that article:
"12.52 Handelsblatt has published a "fictitious speech" for David Cameron ahead of his meeting with Merkel. Ostensibly it looks some vintage German humour. "
Quote from Explorer:
Thankfully it is not true! From a bit earlier in that article:
"12.52 Handelsblatt has published a "fictitious speech" for David Cameron ahead of his meeting with Merkel. Ostensibly it looks some vintage German humour. "
Thanks for pointing that out. I skimmed the article and nearly had a stroke!
FT article on prospects of FTT in EU and EZ, with discussion of implications of "residence principle" of taxation if eurozone goes it alone:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a4317b6-107f-11e1-8298-00144feabdc0.html
[...]a big flashpoint could be the âresidence principleâ for enforcing the levy[...]
[...]Barney Reynolds, a lawyer at Shearman & Sterling, said any effort to enforce a tax in this way could trigger âpolitically charged constitutional disputes over extraterritoriality and interference in UK affairs.â[...]
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a4317b6-107f-11e1-8298-00144feabdc0.html
[...]a big flashpoint could be the âresidence principleâ for enforcing the levy[...]
[...]Barney Reynolds, a lawyer at Shearman & Sterling, said any effort to enforce a tax in this way could trigger âpolitically charged constitutional disputes over extraterritoriality and interference in UK affairs.â[...]
Quote from Explorer:
FT article on prospects of FTT in EU and EZ, with discussion of implications of "residence principle" of taxation if eurozone goes it alone:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a4317b6-107f-11e1-8298-00144feabdc0.html
[...]a big flashpoint could be the âresidence principleâ for enforcing the levy[...]
[...]Barney Reynolds, a lawyer at Shearman & Sterling, said any effort to enforce a tax in this way could trigger âpolitically charged constitutional disputes over extraterritoriality and interference in UK affairs.â[...]
Getting an agreement on a Eurozone FTT could prove difficult. At the last EU meeting, Malta and Cyprus were outright against the FTT unless it was global. Ireland and Italy said they couldn't support it unless the UK is included. Even Luxembourg is now expressing concerns that part of their financial sector could relocate. And the Netherlands is grumbling about the fact that too much of the tax falls on pensioners.
Malta, the smallest country in the EU (pop. 400k), could potentially be the most stubborn. The financial sector is the fastest growing segement of their economy and is now more than 12% of GDP. They also have an advantage that no other EU country has -- the FTT only has about 30% popular support in Malta compared to over 60% in the rest of Europe. So Maltese politicians can take a strong stand against the FTT without fear of a popular backlash in the next election.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203699404577045842226980020.html
"Mr. Cameron made clear that Britain would never agree to a European tax on financial market transactions that put London's financial center at a disadvantage."
"We are united in saying that a global financial transaction tax would be introduced by both countries immediately," Ms. Merkel said, but acknowledged that no progress was made on a possible introduction of such a levy by Europe alone."
Merkel is tricky here saying "global." All politicians are boxed into saying they would support a global tax if everyone passed it, just like climate change too. Who wants to stand out as a defender of banks and hedge funds, which is how the public views it? But, everyone knows it will never be global either.
The WSJ article points out that this Cameron Merkel meeting was the UK's turn to meet with Merkel over her initiative for EU power enhancement over fiscal policy - which includes budgets besides taxes too - coming up in December.
Job one for this crisis is for the EU to figure out its governance better and how to deal with PIIGS problems and budget cheating. It's much broader than a FTT.
Seems like Merkel is becoming the odd woman out now. Germany is against the ECB being the lender of last resort. Germany is insisting on punishing austerity and budget controls and penalties. Germany is pushing the FTT.
Danes and others are saying hold your horses Germany, and no more referendums, try to fix the crisis first and don't use it as an excuse to do a bigger power grab. They are right. So agree with Tom Davis, the EZ members will probably say no to EZ FTT only.
The UK is saying okay to Germany for trying to figure out the EU mess, but saying don't use EZ-only rules to penalize EU non-EZ members, keep things EU-wide - so the UK can block the FTT and more too.
Bottom line. Cameron is cooperating on being a good EU citizen - no other choice - and not letting the EZ club take advantage of the EU non-EZ members.
"Mr. Cameron made clear that Britain would never agree to a European tax on financial market transactions that put London's financial center at a disadvantage."
"We are united in saying that a global financial transaction tax would be introduced by both countries immediately," Ms. Merkel said, but acknowledged that no progress was made on a possible introduction of such a levy by Europe alone."
Merkel is tricky here saying "global." All politicians are boxed into saying they would support a global tax if everyone passed it, just like climate change too. Who wants to stand out as a defender of banks and hedge funds, which is how the public views it? But, everyone knows it will never be global either.
The WSJ article points out that this Cameron Merkel meeting was the UK's turn to meet with Merkel over her initiative for EU power enhancement over fiscal policy - which includes budgets besides taxes too - coming up in December.
Job one for this crisis is for the EU to figure out its governance better and how to deal with PIIGS problems and budget cheating. It's much broader than a FTT.
Seems like Merkel is becoming the odd woman out now. Germany is against the ECB being the lender of last resort. Germany is insisting on punishing austerity and budget controls and penalties. Germany is pushing the FTT.
Danes and others are saying hold your horses Germany, and no more referendums, try to fix the crisis first and don't use it as an excuse to do a bigger power grab. They are right. So agree with Tom Davis, the EZ members will probably say no to EZ FTT only.
The UK is saying okay to Germany for trying to figure out the EU mess, but saying don't use EZ-only rules to penalize EU non-EZ members, keep things EU-wide - so the UK can block the FTT and more too.
Bottom line. Cameron is cooperating on being a good EU citizen - no other choice - and not letting the EZ club take advantage of the EU non-EZ members.
Just had lunch in Vegas with the CEO of a major trading school. He is from Germany and moved to the US in the early 1990s, so I asked him about Germany and FTT. He follows the German news closely too.
Learned a lot. Germany has few to no online or regular brokerage firms for traders. Investors are force fed bank owned mutual funds, where banks pick the investments. Probably channeling money to their lending customers and buttressing German industry I presume. So like the Vanguard mutual fund CEO in the US, they rail against the evils of trading and glorify buy and hold mutual fund investing. No wonder why German banking hasn't fought back harder against FTT.
Germans do hate speculation and think trading is evil and that traders and banks must pay now with FTT. They are dead set for a federal EU led by Germany and they want the German-led EU to run the world.
It's scary to think that Germans who are so biased and prejudiced against finance could one day dominate regulation and tax policy over finance. This must be fixed and not allowed.
I wrote a Comment about this in that FT article today. Germany is increasingly becoming the odd man out.
Learned a lot. Germany has few to no online or regular brokerage firms for traders. Investors are force fed bank owned mutual funds, where banks pick the investments. Probably channeling money to their lending customers and buttressing German industry I presume. So like the Vanguard mutual fund CEO in the US, they rail against the evils of trading and glorify buy and hold mutual fund investing. No wonder why German banking hasn't fought back harder against FTT.
Germans do hate speculation and think trading is evil and that traders and banks must pay now with FTT. They are dead set for a federal EU led by Germany and they want the German-led EU to run the world.
It's scary to think that Germans who are so biased and prejudiced against finance could one day dominate regulation and tax policy over finance. This must be fixed and not allowed.
I wrote a Comment about this in that FT article today. Germany is increasingly becoming the odd man out.
Financial Transaction Tax Punishes Main Street more than Wall Street
http://www.hftreview.com/pg/blog/tr...ax-punishes-main-street-more-than-wall-street
http://www.hftreview.com/pg/blog/tr...ax-punishes-main-street-more-than-wall-street
Quote from tomdavis:
Scary quote from Cameron if it's true. He's not actually against the FTT, just under pressure from London.
âThe financial transactions tax⦠I must be against it, otherwise I would be hanged in the City. But just between us: I agree with the Archbishop of Canterbury, that it's not a stupid idea."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8846201/Debt-crisis-live.html
Can you imagine the uphill battle our cause would have if Brown had won instead of Cameron? We'd be so screwed if that happened.