Impose a healthy Tobin Tax, say .5% of transaction amount for all transactions. That will cause everyone to consider whether and for how long each "investment" should be made. Then direct the proceeds to a public election finance fund!
OK; Big trader me has no objection to $50 on every $10,000 going in, and hopefully coming out.
But I think that you are going to have to start defining exactly what you mean. There are trillions in the currency exchange market weekly...much by government to government...is that exempt? what about bank to bank?
Commodities...I suppose I pay the tax on the entire contract, even if I am buying on margin? should I pay more if I don't have any intention of taking any delivery (Good idea on both, says I~!)
I see from NASDAQ Daily Summary that there was an daily average of 45 billion in trading just on that floor last week. That would put a daily 225 million into the public election coffers.
It will take a long time to find and figure all the stats for what you are talking about...but it appears that the definition needs to get refined.
Not that I am against it at all. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
By my rough estimate from your numbers NASDAQ would generate ~$58 Billion a year on existing volume, but the point of the Tobin Tax is to calm things down and extend horizons beyond the minute, hour and day. My own disederata also include creating longer investment horizons and putting a stop to nonsense like HFT trading alogs, even if the SEC allegedly is banning them, and in general to pour salt on the Wall Street leaches that are attached to the economy.
A 0.5% Tobin Tax on financial transactions, probably excluding those between individuals and corporations and their bank checking and savings accounts, but including all other transactions between individuals and corporations and all other bank or financial service entities, including precious metals, Forex, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc., would likely cut the transaction frequency by a factor of at least three. HFT by prop desks and to create bogus "liquidity", etc. is thought to comprise >60% of the volume on a typical day currently. It should be madness to execute transactions that last less than a minute with that kind of tax. It would also reduce the amount of day trading.
Even if it divided volume by five, then NASDAQ would generate about $1.17 billion a year. With all US exchanges included the annual yield would likely be over $10 billion. Put the extra $8 billion or so/year into publicly funded news gathering. Between publicly financed elections and publicly financed news coverage we might be able to start making democracy of the people, by the people and for the people more than the joke it is today.
Accomplishing those two goals would drive a stake through the heart of the current system of vampire economics. So, accomplishing it would be comparably resisted. It would have to be done at high noon on the longest day of the year and under a cloudless desert sky. But such a reform would probably give our children and grandchildren at least another hundred years to piss away such liberties as they were born with, whereas the way things stand, they are truly screwed. Perhaps then they could effectively attempt to stave off the looming environmental catastrophy. That is something worth fighting for. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
