Financial Transactions Taxes (also known as Tobin taxes) are the fond friend of the banker-bashing left, believing that there are vast fortunes of money swirling around the ether that, if only they could take a tiny cut of it all, they could save the world.
It has been advocated widely by the likes of Paul Krugman, Bill Gates, Resource intensive fat capitalist dickhead hypocrite Michael Moore, Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, Occupy Wall Street and Fidel Castro
So the EU proposed one, and it has been getting introduced in 11 EU Member States.
It appears to be failing to deliver ... and the Swedes would rightly say, having been there before, "told you so".
City AM reports the record so far:
- Hungary's 0.1% FTT raised only 13 billion Forints (US$54.6 million) in one month, less than half what was projected.
- France's 0.2% FTT on sales of shares of major firms raised 200 million Euro in three months, not the 530 million expected.
- Italy's FTT starts this month, and trading volumes in the country have already dropped 38%, whereas German and Spanish share trading volumes proportionately increased.
So, quite simply, people rearrange their affairs to minimise their tax liability.
Of course this will bolster support for the world government universal tax lobby, that thinks it is just immoral that people try to protect their own money. The simple point to this is that FTT is fine for any country that wants to decimate its financial sector.
No comments:
Post a Comment