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

Follow up on why a European PM, FM and others in government may be opposite on FTT.

It's probably because they are generally in different political parties, with one being center-right, and the other being a socialist or left. Plus, the center-right may need help in upcoming elections from the left etc. for a coalition.

It's much more politically complicated than in the U.S., where generally everyone in the administration is in the same party as the President. Plus in Europe, you have Presidents versus Prime Ministers too.

In Finland, the PM is against FTT and he is center-right. The FM is a socialist ex-school teacher with little finance experience, and she is pro FTT.
 
Quote from Robert A. Green:

Follow up on why a European PM, FM and others in government may be opposite on FTT.

It's probably because they are generally in different political parties, with one being center-right, and the other being a socialist or left. Plus, the center-right may need help in upcoming elections from the left etc. for a coalition.

It's much more politically complicated than in the U.S., where generally everyone in the administration is in the same party as the President. Plus in Europe, you have Presidents versus Prime Ministers too.

In Finland, the PM is against FTT and he is center-right. The FM is a socialist ex-school teacher with little finance experience, and she is pro FTT.
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It sounds ridiculous when the PM and FM are making opposite public statements. The same thing happened in Luxembourg when the FM said the FTT would be disaster for their banking business and two weeks later the PM came out and said they must have the EZ-FTT as soon as possible. Crazy.

The core of strong anti-FTT countries have been very consistent. The PMs/FMs of the UK, Sweden, Malta, and the Czech Republic haven't wavered at all and I think that's helped them.

I asked my friend in Sweden about what's going on in Finland. He said he doesn't believe that Finland would support the FTT because a significant part of the Finnish finance sector would pack their bags and move to Sweden.
 
Quote from Robert A. Green:

S&P should downgrade France and their banks over Sarkozy's FTT solo-FTT plan, if it happens.

[...]

It's time for us to focus in like a laser on France and Sarkozy and to take the FTT battle to France. Who can contact S&P about Sarkozy's financially-destructive plans for a solo FTT?
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S&P to Cut France by One Notch

S&P has informed the government of France, Europe's second-largest economy, that the country's triple-A rating will be lowered one notch to double-A-plus.
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Never expected it would be so easy ;)
 
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Wednesday threw his support behind a new tax on financial transactions, backing a push by Germany and France, but said he would prefer to have it apply across the whole European Union.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/business/global/italy-backs-financial-tax.html?_r=2

Is this true, and would he really agree in an EZ-FTT, or is it just a bad translation from a lazy journalist?



There is also Ireland news:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0113/britishirishcouncil.html

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said Ireland could not accept a financial transaction tax that does not apply in Britain.
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Wikipedia tells me that 'the Taoiseach' is the prime minister of Ireland ;)

So they still persist.
 
Quote from Rantany:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/business/global/italy-backs-financial-tax.html?_r=2

Is this true, and would he really agree in an EZ-FTT, or is it just a bad translation from a lazy journalist?
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The NYT slants their FTT stories toward the angle that the FTT is a great thing and that all EU countries are clamoring for it except that evil Britain is standing in the way. The NYT rarely mentions that Sweden's adamantly against the FTT, nor do they mention that Malta, Cyress and the Czech Republic have been consistently against it. Rarely do they ever provide any coverage when other countries (e.g., the Finish Prime Minister just a few days ago) say that they'll only support the tax if it's EU-wide. Nor do they mention countries that change toward resisting the tax, such as when Danish FM said the other day that the EU-FTT would "cost hundreds of thousands of jobs" and that Denmark would only support it if it's global.

Look at the title of the story: "Italy Backs Financial Tax." But to find out what it's really about you have to dig into the story for the one quote that really matters: "We are open to supporting this initiative at the EU level," Mr. Monti said.

What does that mean, "at the EU level"? It means there are many EU countries that won't support it and therefore it's not going to happen at the EU level.

Rather than provide real analysis, the NYT would rather pitch the "Italy Backs Financial Tax" headline because that supports their pro-FTT agenda.

The NYT stories about the FTT have been biased since day one and they've made it clear that they have no intention of providing objective coverage.
 
Thanks, good to know. I indeed opened that article because it was from NY Times (normally i don't open articles with such a title any longer (already knowing his current position).
 
On bike at club, just watched S&P person explain EU country downgrades on CNBC now.

Read between the lines and it seems that FTT talk probably contributed to downgrades. For sure FTT continued talk and passage will cause more downgrades, causing even more harm.

S&P said they won't raise ratings back without growth. FTT reduces growth per all studies, so it will cause further downgrades, not recovery.

S&P person said it doesn't like diverging competitiveness across EU. FTT in some countries and not EU or G-20 wide makes this problem worse.

S&P is watching the German financial sector to see if it gets worse. FTT could trigger downgrade for Germany.

S&P person said disintegration hurts and caused the downgrade. FTT makes disintegration and infighting worse and it already was probably part of the reason for downgrade today.

FTT will surely accelerate rating agency downgrades, and it's reckless for Sarkozy, Merkel and socialists to keep it on the table.

Call it the Merkozy downgrade. Time to reverse course.
 
The common refrain now is "I'd like to see an FTT in my country, so long as we all do it together."

I keep coming up with the image of a bunch of lemmings standing at the precipice of a steep ledge, squeeking, "You go first...then I'll follow."
 
Quote from lindq:

The common refrain now is "I'd like to see an FTT in my country, so long as we all do it together."

I keep coming up with the image of a bunch of lemmings standing at the precipice of a steep ledge, squeeking, "You go first...then I'll follow."
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Ha! +1
 
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