Should countries enact a Tobin tax?

[Aeson]

Did you really think this made any sort of sense?

I was fully prepared for the eventuality that you wouldn't be able to comprehend it.

[Tupac Shakur]

Probably a smart move when you're cranking out pure drivel.

[Dauphin]

Isn't that a legacy of the 17th or 18th century? Adam Smith complained about them...

It's the same tax that caused the colonials to get uppity.

[Tupac Shakur]

It's the same tax that caused the colonials to get uppity.

Tea Party

[KrazyHorse]

Stamp tax, I think it's called. Sort of silly...

By the way, transactions whose price and quantity are reported provide market discovery, which is a positive externality. If anything, they should be subsidized.

Blithely claiming that volume drives volatility ignores the empirical and theoretical evidence which both imply (weakly) the opposite.

[Egbert]

Did you really think this made any sort of sense?

Read it again, particularly the third paragraph. You should be able to make sense of it.

[Egbert]

Stamp tax, I think it's called. Sort of silly...

By the way, transactions whose price and quantity are reported provide market discovery, which is a positive externality. If anything, they should be subsidized.

Blithely claiming that volume drives volatility ignores the empirical and theoretical evidence which both imply (weakly) the opposite.

Subsidising transactions. Yup, I could make money buying and selling shares to myself. Offer to buy for $1 each and offer to sell for $1 and collect the subsidy, rinse and repeat whilst reinvesting the profits for ever larger scale. Awesome.

[Egbert]

The label "Tobin" doesn't appear to have any real emotional draw to it in any case.

Quite true. I, personally, would prefer it to be called something more appealing. Perhaps calling it a "pinky pie' tax would be better.

[C0ckney]

a financial transactions tax is a good idea, if implemented properly, and could raise a substantial amount of money.

Research on the possible revenues from a financial transactions tax published by Tax Research LLP in 2010 suggested that total global yields from a tax of one half of a basis point (one 200th of 1% or 0.005%) on spot and derivative foreign exchange dealing would raise approximately $33 billion annually, while a tax at a similar rate on exchange-traded and over-thecounter bond, gilt, derivative, swap and other trades could yield approximately $118 billion per year.

[Hauldren Collider]

Taxing transactions sounds to me like the kind of tax with the maximum possible deadweight loss.

[DaShi]

Seriously?

[Kitschum]

**** France. That is all.

[Aeson]

Taxing transactions sounds to me like the kind of tax with the maximum possible deadweight loss.

Um... what do you tax if you don't tax transactions? Non-transactions? "Hey, you've got your money invested in that IRA long enough.. take it out or we'll tax ya!"

[Aeson]

I guess there would be property taxes still. Anything else?

[Hauldren Collider]

I guess there would be property taxes still. Anything else?

Income taxes, sales taxes...I was referring specifically to financial transactions.