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02 Nov 2011
THE ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury has called for a debate on the implementation of a financial transaction tax.
In an article for the Financial Times, Rowan Williams said there was a mood that the City has regained its "business-as-usual" attitude following the financial crisis. The protest outside St Paul's Cathedral was the "expression of a widespread and deep exasperation with the financial establishment".
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Williams said of the 0.5% levy on financial transactions that the "modest rate of taxation conceals the high levels of return that could be expected."
The supporters of the tax, including George Soros, Bill Gates and others "cannot be written off as naive anti-capitalists," Williams added.
"The objections made by some who claim it would mean a substantial drop in employment and in the economy generally seem to rest on exaggerated and sharply challenged projections and, more importantly, ignore the potential of such a tax to stabilise currency markets in a way to boost, rather than damage, the real economy," he said.
The UK has already said it would not accept a financial transaction tax, also called a Tobin tax, unless it was introduced on a global basis. But the German finance minister this week said he will support the tax, despite UK objections.
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Tobin Tax
An extract from robinhoood.org website:
Won’t companies just avoid the tax or move their businesses offshore?
This is a common and misguided criticism, and one that’s easy to answer.
The short answer is no. As the IMF says, financial transaction taxes (FTTs) “do not automatically drive out financial activity to an unacceptable extent”.
FTTs can be designed so that they are very difficult to avoid. The best example of this is the UK, where we have a stamp duty of 0.5% on all share transactions. The UK’s major competitors do not have this and there certainly is no global agreement, yet it is a successful FTT that raises around £5 billion pounds each year. It is designed so it can’t be avoided and London remains one of the biggest stock markets in the world.
There are many reasons banks would not leave the UK, not least that they need a big enough government that they know will bail them out if things go wrong. There are not many governments with the ability or willingness to provide this implicit guarantee, certainly not the Cayman Islands or even Switzerland...
Posted by: johnt12free, 03 Nov 2011 | 10:34
Offshore status
Lets be honest here.
The "masters of the universe" like London and New York because their wives can shop, eat, drink and share the school run with Elle and Claudia.
All the stuff about relocation is [not genuine].[Comment moderated]
It would be better if the Tobin was worldwide but the EU is not a bad place to start.
And hey, how much worse can the Eurozone get!
Posted by: Eleanor, 04 Nov 2011 | 19:08