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richardhutnik on 22 June 2012
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Kasz216 said:
zimbawawa said:
richardhutnik said:
zimbawawa said:
1% business transaction tax?
Target those rich bitches :)

Do you mean VAT tax, where value added to a product or service is subject to a tax?  Or do you mean one on financial transactions.  The former is used in Europe and a lot of countries around the world to fund things.  The later was proposed, not necessarily to sock the rich, but to curb flash trading and things where they will perform like 1000+ trades a second, causing instability in the market.  Also, it was seen as a way to raise money to help offset any future financial meltdowns.


VAT is a universal tax, I was referring to the latter which targets a specific group. Its a reasonably sound proposal. Have to do a bit of research to see if any traction has been made thus far, but it looks like a case where sheer political will is needed.

Well it's not like that's never happened before.

Sweden had a Financial Transactions tax for a while.

It ended up creating such a drop in trading that the tax ended up being "Revenue neutral"...

it ended up greatly hurting their stock market, only returning to form when the market tax was lifted.

So, I'm a little curious as to why people think it's a good idea... though if your wondering why Sweden is against such a tax...

that's why.  They implemented one it caused their stockmarket to plunge until they removed it.

If you want to stop high frequncy trading there are much better ways to do so.  Espeically since a LOT of high frequency trades get canceled before the order gets filled.  Which is often what's seen as the "Distorting" aspect.

What are some of the proposals for dealing with high frequency trading?  What I see gets lost is that it is either, REDUCE regulations which means getting rid of laws and cutting enforcement, or increasing both.  Things get so partisan that doing it better isn't discussed.  Maybe this is because the details are to complex for people who vote to really care about.  It is just spin government or rich folks as the bad guys, use emotional language to charge things up, and then attach what you want to this language.