CAMBRIDGE European leaders are seriously considering a Tobin tax, which would put a small levy on financial transactions, thereby dampening trading.

The emotional appeal of a tax on all financial transactions is undeniable.

Revenue estimates for a small tax on international currency transactions run into hundreds of billions of dollars per year.

2210 Tax on foreign exchange transactions

With this battle won, the next worthy goal is a global financial transaction tax.

Taxing the Israeli Occupation

Existing proposals include a Robin Hood tax on financial transactions, a share of the profits from the EU s carbon emissions trading scheme, or a larger take from value added tax receipts.

CAMBRIDGE European leaders are seriously considering a Tobin tax, which would put a small levy on financial transactions, thereby dampening trading. But will the tax do as much as its proponents hope?

The third aim could be achieved country by country, but it is certainly arguable that an across the board banking levy, or a Europe wide financial transaction tax, would eliminate competitive distortions.

As a result, the ultimate revenue gains are likely to prove disappointing, as Sweden discovered when it attempted to tax financial transactions two decades ago.

Recently, the IMF proposed a new global tax on financial institutions loosely in proportion to their size, as well as a tax on banks profits and bonuses.

For example, a so called Tobin tax on financial transactions is a frequently proposed solution, but it is not a policy solution that could be implemented by corporate law judges.

In fact, it is worse than a straightforward carbon tax.

The European Union supports the initiative of a voluntary solidarity tax on air tickets.

Developing nations should also push for a Tobin tax a tax on global foreign currency transactions.

An FTT is most suitable for such a venture for two reasons.

Support for a global financial transaction tax is growing.

In plain English, an occupation tax is needed.

More broadly, FTTs violate the general public finance principle that it is inefficient to tax intermediate factors of production, particularly ones that are highly mobile and fluid in their response.

Consider, for example, a tax of 0.25 applied to all cross border financial transactions.

A Tobin tax would raise the cost of short term finance, some argued, somehow missing the point that this is in fact the very purpose of a Tobin tax.

A leading policymaker in the Anglo American empire of finance actually came out in support of a Tobin tax a global tax on financial transactions.

The third change is a tax on the financial sector, in the form of a Financial Activities Tax on profits and remuneration at big banks that enjoy implicit government guarantees.

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Owners of coal mines and their clients are thus strongly opposed to any tax on carbon.

A tax on oil, however, does not entail excess burdens. On the contrary, it implies excess benefits .

A tax on stock transactions encourages longer term holdings.

There is a critical need to address the issue of appropriate modalities to provide financial support for CPF members, for example via a trust fund for promoting cooperative work on forests need to secure adequate UN funding for administrative arrangements of the future IAF potential for a levy on wood products traded internationally to finance implementation of sustainable forest management.

Another possibility is that the Europeans concluded that an FTT s political advantages outweigh its economic flaws.

Turner, voicing his concerns about the size of the financial sector and its frequently obscene levels of compensation, said he thought a global tax on financial transactions might help curb both.

It is true that Latin American governments, particularly the Brazilian authorities, succeeded in raising more revenue from taxes on bank withdrawals (a crude version of an FTT) than most policy analysts thought possible.

Innovative proposals mentioned for financing social development included the creation of a tax on international transactions, a scheme for an international finance facility to improve the coordination and transparency of aid flows and programmes of exchange of debt relief for social development initiatives.

In addition, there should be a windfall profits tax on oil and gas companies.

A feed in tariff subsidizes the low carbon energy source rather than taxing the high carbon energy source.

But the FTT, despite its noble intellectual lineage, is no solution to Europe s problems or to the world s.

Rather than punitively taxing wealth, globalization strengthens the case for shifting to a flat tax on income (or better yet consumption) with a moderately high exemption.

The budget calls for a surtax on incomes to help pay for increased social expenditures.

Another issue with the potential to undermine the PD s standing is the party s advocacy of a new wealth tax.

Critics who worry about the cost of the energy tax have not thought about tax substitutions.

But there is a simple answer renegotiate if that is impossible, impose a windfall profit tax.

Instead, an occupation tax would target the settlers economy and the violation of Palestinians human rights.

In fact, a tax on foreign exchange transactions the so called Tobin tax, advocated by the late Nobel laureate economist James Tobin might be the simplest way to go.

As a bonus, an FTT will curb destabilizing speculation in financial markets.

A second approach would be to tax the big international banks, which are earning excessive profits on their speculative trading.

In contrast, the Center for American Progress report devoted very little space to financial sector reform in the authors view, such issues hardly seem to be a high priority. Van Hollen does have some concerns and proposes a financial transaction tax to reduce speculative activities.