1/4% Tax on all stock trades pushed in NY Times today
- Thread starter seasideheights
- Start date
+1
There are definately some forces at play here with this entire treaty and ftt issue. I wonder if this will blow up the entire eurozone if not the EU? Especially if the EU tries and push through the ftt as some sort of 'fee.' I'm sure a lot of these countries will say enough is enough at some point and things could get ugly.
-Guru
My take on things:
FTT is not about raising revenue... it's about taking power away from non-governmental entities. They want to make trading illegal. This is a very Marxist stance ...that the government should and can control the economy.
This is why the pro-FTT crowd turns a blind eye to the clearly documented negative effects and "it doesn't work" reality. FTT is an ideological thing - not a practical thing.
For this reason I believe that exemptions will NOT be handed out. However they will exempt those who deal in sovereign debt of course!
So - there is a line in the sand here... socialism/marxism on one side and capitalism on the other. We'll see where the chips fall.
Yes, my prediction is that it will first be Sweden and Luxembourg. Sweden already tried it and won't do it again unless all other European countries are on board at least. And Luxembourg has a disproportionately large financial economy and would suffer more than the others.
Once they see that they aren't alone, then Ireland will probably follow, because they are currently a target for off-shore funds. They would lose most of that business to the Caymans.
"Hungary and the Czech Republic have raised concerns about the EU's plans for closer fiscal union, saying they should apply only to eurozone states."
And,
"Our Europe correspondent Chris Morris says the two leaders' remarks appear designed to warn Paris and Berlin that there will be resistance if the two countries try to put references to a financial transaction tax and a common corporate tax into the draft agreement."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16206783
And,
"Our Europe correspondent Chris Morris says the two leaders' remarks appear designed to warn Paris and Berlin that there will be resistance if the two countries try to put references to a financial transaction tax and a common corporate tax into the draft agreement."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16206783
According to this article, the FTT and common corporate tax were taken off the table at the summit.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111209/local/malta-successful-at-eu-summit.397605
Malta's efforts to keep its economic flexibility paid off this afternoon as a possible introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax and a Common Corporate Tax Base as originally proposed by France and Germany were removed from the final agreement.
The BBC piece posted earlier says the first draft should be ready next week. At this point I don't even think the ftt language will find it's way into the new treaty. Like was mentioned earlier in the thread Paris and Berlin need to get something signed and I just don't see that happening if the actual document calls for the ftt.
The more likely scenerio at the point is that they will call on individual countries to sign up voluntarily for the ftt. They may try and and force it in backdoor via some sort of fee but IMHO that won't fly and would just alienate member states even more.
Just my take,
-Guru
This is interesting, I think. It's the latest from our friend Dean Baker. Here's the url, which I've purposefully not posted as a link:
www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/04/the-specious-case-against-a-financial-transactions-tax/
This is the smoothest, most professional presentation I've seen from him. Seems to me he's tightened his arguments, perhaps in response the the excellent work of Robert Greene, among others.
In so tightening, however, he's conceded a point that effectively turns this F.T.T. into a political third rail. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that he's just torpedoed F.T.T. in the U.S. in the current recessionary environment.
Thanks for the Christmas gift, Mr. Baker!
www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/04/the-specious-case-against-a-financial-transactions-tax/
This is the smoothest, most professional presentation I've seen from him. Seems to me he's tightened his arguments, perhaps in response the the excellent work of Robert Greene, among others.
In so tightening, however, he's conceded a point that effectively turns this F.T.T. into a political third rail. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that he's just torpedoed F.T.T. in the U.S. in the current recessionary environment.
Thanks for the Christmas gift, Mr. Baker!