Tax on Trades Should Be Part of Rescue Plan, Some Democrats Say

[clacy]

Quote from swtrader:

it is a program to import massive forein workers into the tech occupations

mr 'two americas' john edwards, co sponsored a bill in oct 2000, to bring 195,000 foreign workers into the tech occupation right as the tech bubble burst

in 2001 9 out of 10 workers hired in tech in the USA were foreign in a period when the industry actually shed jobs

it was a complete nightmare, a 'kafka' like transformation where society turned on a group of people (tech workers), without provacation. it;s as though society decided arbitrarely, that a group of people deserved to lose everything they had worked for, without cause

for example. wes clark in the 2004 debates"

"Let them do the software in India; we'll do other things in this country. "

so if you worked in software, we;re tossing you out of your livelyhood

we cant tell you why, and we cant clarify what 'other things' means

What "other things" are there?

We've exported manufacturing. Now all we've got is ag and service, but we're outsourcing that too.

 

[m22au]

Maybe they can amend the proposal slightly, and make (1) selling of oil futures and (2) buying of equities both tax-exempt.

Oil up and equities down = bad
Oil down and equities up = good

What has the US come to?

Quote from seasideheights:

In a letter sent late yesterday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 16 Democrats asked her to ensure any rescue legislation include a ``transaction tax'' on all U.S. stock trades and on other types of trades, such as credit default swaps, options and futures. They are proposing the tax would be at a rate of one quarter of one percent on all trades.

``The same Wall Street speculators and investors who are principally responsible for having caused this avoidable financial crisis and profited from it must now be required to pay for it, not U.S. taxpayers,'' according to the letter, which was signed by Representative Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat, and Representative Pete Stark, a California Democrat.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a5UhcbI4jecU

 

[swtrader]

Quote from clacy:

What "other things" are there?

We've exported manufacturing. Now all we've got is ag and service, but we're outsourcing that too.

"other things", means 'innovation'. but nobody's ever clarified what we will 'innovate' and why 'innovation cant be outsourced.

frankly, having been in tech from 1987 to 2001, and part of a field that 'innovated ' more than almost any field in history in that space of time and created more wealth in same period, i find that kind of insulting

and that was 195,000 PER YEAR, plus about 65,000 per year L1 visas, plus the caps were not even enforced. those caps do NOT count renewals

I took daytrading as "other things"

but aparently, I didnt ask "captain, may I"

so I guess I deserve to lose this occupation too

 

[Fractals 'R Us]

Quote from Susannah:

Here's the actual letter DeFazio wrote, just for the record. I got it from this site: http://workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=9603

September 23, 2008

Dear Colleague:

The Bush Administration is asking Congress to authorize the U.S Mint
printing presses to crank out $700 billion to cover the illiquid assets
of Wall Street. This will sink our current record budget deficit to
levels never before imagined.

The $700 billion is to protect Wall Street investors, therefore the same
Wall Street investors should pay for this infusion of taxpayer money.
The easiest method to raise the $700 billion from Wall Street is a
securities transfer tax, a tax that has a negligible impact on the
average investor, and provides a disincentive to short-term traders.

This transfer tax would be on the sale and purchase of stock and more
exotic transactions such as credit default swaps, options, and futures.
A quarter percent (0.25%) tax on financial transactions could raise
approximately $150 billion a year.

There is considerable precedent for this. The United States had a
similar tax from 1914 to 1966. The Revenue Act of 1914 levied 7a 0.2%
tax on all sales or transfers of stock. In 1932, Congress more than
doubled than tax to help plug the holes from the Great Depression. In
1987, Speaker of the House Jim Wright offered his support for a
financial transaction tax. And today the UK has a modest financial
transaction tax of 0.25 percent, a penny on every $4 invested.

In the past, economists such as Larry Summers, John Maynard Keynes and
Nobel prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and James Tobin have supported
financial transactions taxes.

This tax could be easily implemented as the SEC currently implements a
very small tax per transaction to cover its costs. All Congress needs to
do is raise the rate by 0.25% and designate the new income to the
general treasury to pay for the $700 billion.

This guy is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. His precedent is in the period 1914 to 1966... lots of daytrading going on in those days for sure!! Maybe once he realizes that he will undergo a big net loss in tax revenues due to the death of the trading industry he will think it through one more time......

I sent letters to my congressman and two senators explaining how it's bad on several fronts...

 

[bears21]

if this law does pass watch how easy it will be to become a member of an exchange. nasdaq nyse arca these companies revolve around volume thats the name of the game. that is how traders are making a good living trading london, they get around the stamp tax because they are members of the lse. there will always be loopholes people no need to sweat it.

 

[drukes1234]

Quote from bears21:

if this law does pass watch how easy it will be to become a member of an exchange. nasdaq nyse arca these companies revolve around volume thats the name of the game. that is how traders are making a good living trading london, they get around the stamp tax because they are members of the lse. there will always be loopholes people no need to sweat it.

You said it man.. there are always ways around these things but instead of discussing how mentally retarded Defazio is, we have to take action.

1. Write your congressmen

2. Start looking for loopholes

 

[winsomelosesome]

So is 5 years really the new deadline? If that's true, I'm probably

ok with that. That's plenty of time for the CME and others to

develop alternatives (outside of the US) that may actually be

better for us than what we have now.....

American ingenuity isn't dead yet.....These giants are not going

to just give up and shut down

Many other countries would welcome what our politicians drove

away......I'm usually a pessimist but this whole thing may turn

out to be a blessing.. We may actually be using the "third finger

salute" when all is said and done.........I welcome opposing

thoughts.....

 

[Fractals 'R Us]

That is what I said in my email to my reps, that an entire industry was going to go offshore....

Here's another reason the transaction tax might not fly ever, it would affect hedge funds would it not? That is where the big money people have their money, no? Big money people will be writing THEIR congress people........

 

[jnbadger]

Quote from winsomelosesome:



American ingenuity isn't dead yet.....These giants are not going

to just give up and shut down.


This is along the lines of what I'm thinking, but also, can you imagine the discount brokers putting up with this shit? No way.

Imagine a doctor or dentist whose used to paying 10 bucks in commissions(or whatever it is nowadays) for 1000 shares of a 50 dollar stock, all of the sudden having to pay an extra 125 bucks for every trade.

I just don't see this happening.

 

[scarletviolet]

"HAD considered"....past tense language here is encouraging....

"The Senate aide said a number of specific ideas appeared to be gaining traction Saturday evening, most notably the concept of creating a "financial stability" fund financed by Wall Street and styled in the mold of the deposit insurance program run by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Lawmakers had considered levying a tax on some securities transactions to help offset the cost of the $700 billion rescue plan, but the idea of assessing fees on a wide swath of financial firms to help pay for current and future government bailouts had its proponents."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122252502326482359.html