Thank You James Tobin

Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) is proposing a transaction tax on financial transactions.
This tax, called a “Tobin Tax”, after its creator, Nobel Prize winning economist James Tobin, would serve to disincentivize speculative activities:

Wall Street would bear the brunt of the latest tax proposal as Democrats jockey for the most progressive tax ideas with the approach of the 2020 elections.

Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, is working on a plan that would tax financial trades, according to his spokesman, Michael Inacay, who declined to provide details on how, exactly, it would be structured.

Financial transaction taxes typically place a levy of a fraction of a percent on the price of a securities trade. The idea has gained popularity within the Democratic Party as a way to curb high-frequency trading as well as raise revenue for progressive policies such as free college tuition.

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Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, another 2020 presidential candidate, as well as Sanders, has backed plans that would tax financial trades. The revenue of a tax set at 0.1 percent of the value of a securities trade is estimated to raise about $777 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Overseas, the idea for a tax on financial trades in gaining steam. Stock buyers in Europe would pay a 0.2 percent tax under a plan that Germany and France proposed last month.

Of course, such a tax might not raise that much money, because it would serve to discourage reckless speculation.

To quote Randall Munroe, “Mission f%$#ing accomplished.:

Assuming that it is properly structured, so, for example, short sellers would have to pay for each of their 4 transactions, (borrow, sell, buy, return) any revenue shortfall would be just fine with me.

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