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

Finland's Finance Minister Urpilainen supports financial transaction tax

“I hope the tax would be effective over the widest possible geographical area with the participation of several European countries. We need to agree on a tax model that other nations can accept. As a result France would not need to go forward solo on the issue,” Urpilainen said.
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The question still remains: Will there be sufficient support for an EZ or EZ+ (then maybe without Malta, Ireland) FTT? Will Germany support this or not? German Minister of Finance Schäuble says last week he would, but the messages of the past days are in contradiction with his statements. And is a qualified majority of 10-15 countries going alone a real threat, or just a theoretic possibility?

Personally, i still think it won't happen, but you never know for sure with these opportunistic politicians.
 
Implementation of such a controversial taxation should be a common and concerted action among all 27 EU member countries, said Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"Under such a circumstance it must be clearly clarified, that the financial transaction taxation must be implemented collectively among all 27 EU member countries altogether and simultaneously, and that is our objective," Seibert said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-01/07/c_122548811.htm

Merkel and Sarkozy are scheduled to meet in Berlin next Monday to seek joint actions to turn the agreement struck on the EU summit in early December in Brussels into concrete and forceful measures.

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So we should hear more on this next Monday following the next meeting between Merket and Sarkozy... i.e. will Merkel stick to this line (EU wide only) or will she join France and others to form a coalition of the willing without the UK,Sweden,Malta and Ireland taking part.
Cameron has said today explicitly that he will Veto the FTT, so now Merkel can be in no doubt now that EU wide FTT is not going to happen anytime soon.
 
Quote from slumdog:

Implementation of such a controversial taxation should be a common and concerted action among all 27 EU member countries, said Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"Under such a circumstance it must be clearly clarified, that the financial transaction taxation must be implemented collectively among all 27 EU member countries altogether and simultaneously, and that is our objective," Seibert said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-01/07/c_122548811.htm

Merkel and Sarkozy are scheduled to meet in Berlin next Monday to seek joint actions to turn the agreement struck on the EU summit in early December in Brussels into concrete and forceful measures.

=============================================

So we should hear more on this next Monday following the next meeting between Merket and Sarkozy... i.e. will Merkel stick to this line (EU wide only) or will she join France and others to form a coalition of the willing without the UK,Sweden,Malta and Ireland taking part.
Cameron has said today explicitly that he will Veto the FTT, so now Merkel can be in no doubt now that EU wide FTT is not going to happen anytime soon.
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The article is quite revealing. "France was moving too fast and rashly to unilaterally introduce a financial transaction tax this year, a German government spokesman said on Friday."

Could it be that Germany doesn't want a few countries to go it alone because the FTT in a few EU countries is likely to fail quickly and spectacularly?

After the tax has been in place a year or two economists will rush to analyze the results of the FTT which may end up looking a lot like Sweden in the 1980s: trading firms moving to London, lost income and capital gains taxes greater than FTT taxes collected, etc.

Perhaps the sight of Anders Borg saying, "I told you so" is Merkel's worst nightmare.
 
Also Sarko and Merkel are on different election schedules.

The new German line could just be a tactic to delay things until their own elections.

Sarko must believe he get can max benefit from FTT now, for his french elections which are quite close.

And Merkel will want to milk the FTT idea for all it is worth come the German elections early next year.
 
Quote from tomdavis:

Could it be that Germany doesn't want a few countries to go it alone because the FTT in a few EU countries is likely to fail quickly and spectacularly?

[...]
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I think that's indeed the reason. That's why all (other) countries even after the last (Dec) EU summit still emphasize the importance of acting EU27-wide (instead of beginning to make preparations to go without UK, as some had stated they would do), and i think that's also why, after all what happens in the past weeks, Cameron still gets a second chance (to veto again ;) ).
They are still too afraid to go without the UK, and apparently they had still hope they could persuade Cameron as yet (maybe with help from the Lib Dems). But what would they do when they finally realize that the UK, Sweden, Malta etc. really won't cooperate, are they just bluffing about going alone or not.
 
Quote from slumdog:

Also Sarko and Merkel are on different election schedules.

The new German line could just be a tactic to delay things until their own elections.

Sarko must believe he get can max benefit from FTT now, for his french elections which are quite close.

And Merkel will want to milk the FTT idea for all it is worth come the German elections early next year.
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I think Sarko has manoeuvred himself in a bad situation. If he persists in introducing the FTT unilaterally, he has all the other EU countries against him. If he gives up this plan, it would be seen by the French voters as another defeat against Germany (Merkel) or EU.
 
Quote from Rantany:

I think Sarko has manoeuvred himself in a bad situation. If he persists in introducing the FTT unilaterally, he has all the other EU countries against him. If he gives up this plan, it would be seen by the French voters as another defeat against Germany (Merkel) or EU.
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And last I looked there are no dictators as heads-of-state in the EU, as much as they would like to think otherwise. Their proclamations don't carry the force of law. Let us not forget that each member nation needs to approve taxation through their individual political processes. And what are the odds that every legislative body in the EU is going to approve an FTT?
 
Tobin tax could cost EU billions

http://www.cityam.com/latest-news/tobin-tax-could-cost-eu-billions

A EUROPEAN Tobin Tax would knock GDP and end up costing governments billions of euros in lost revenue, accounting firm Ernst &Young will argue today – yet France looks set to press ahead with the tax without waiting for pan-European agreement.

The European Commission’s estimation that a financial transactions tax (known as a Tobin Tax) would raise €37bn (£30.5bn) is “based on overly optimistic assumptions,” Ernst & Young says today.

“The Commission has acknowledged that it did not address the impact of lower GDP on revenue collection from other taxes,” states economic adviser Marie Diron. “Even when modelled against the best case scenario this incurs a €39bn loss, making the net impact on overall tax revenues a loss of €2bn”.

Using the Commission’s worst case scenario, involving a 1.76 per cent hit to GDP, the tax could result in a net loss to public finances of €116bn, the firm calculates.

Yet French politicians last night pledged to go ahead with tabling the tax in parliament, as soon as next month.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said late last week that France would not wait for European Union partners to agree to a Tobin tax across the continent.

UK prime minister David Cameron said yesterday he would veto a Europe-wide tax unless it was adopted globally.
 
Quote from tomdavis:



Perhaps the sight of Anders Borg saying, "I told you so" is Merkel's worst nightmare.
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That's probably her second worst nightmare. Her worst nightmare when all fails if going alone, is without doubt the sight of *Cameron* and Osborne ROFLOLling together while repeatedly sneering: "Told you so :P" ;)
 
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