A taxing kind of spin

Cjamesk

My goodness, if there was ever a daily example of "Stockholm Syndrome" for those Psychology students currently studying, then this EU crisis is surely a fantastic case study.

MajorFrustration

Any news on the Euro - seems the Tobin yax is whats most important?

jheath

Things are moving on this - Die Welt (German only I think)reports that the CDU/CSU have adopted the policy and will press on with SPD support overruling the FDP. Apparently the tax will be levied on the individual (Privatperson) undertaking the transaction, and therefore a German undertaking a transaction in London will be taxed anyway. I am not sure of the implications of this.

The SPD believe that Obama will be so impressed that he will follow quickly - not sure if they have spotted a US election coming up!

Can someone answer me the question: how is a Tobin tax supposed to save the euro? Apparently according to the CDU spokesman it will ensure financial stability! I have to ask whether it will work very well in Greece.

Herbert Thornton

Well I never. Daniel must be having a lucid interval.

Fergus Pickering

But these are SWEDISH politicians - long-headed fellows, don't you know. The Gallic Dwarf is another thing entirely and - dare one say - quite stupid.

telemachus'

So you rejoice when the greedy bankers avoid a justifiable tax.
Do we really want these parasitic derivative traders living in London distorting property prices such that professional young people cannot buy even the humblest of dwellings?

Tom Pride

I get the feeling that if an imminent departure of England from the EC was on the cards there would be alarm if not panic in the minor and not so minor chancelleries of Europe. So easy to take cover under the coattails of the English while aiming their barbs of “un-European” and “failing to engage constructively” at us.

Michael C Feltham FFA, FFTA

Why is it that politicians can only consider anything in the perspective of tax?

Taxation was originally intended to raise money for essential state expenditure: kings fought wars and levied taxes on the people to pay for their hissy fits.

Since the People's Budget of 1909, Asquith's attempt to, quoting Churchill, then President of the Board of Trade, "Tax the rich as they have never been taxed before!", leftwing and liberal politicians have abused common taxes in vain (and failed!) attempts to achieve their Rubicon objective of redistribution of wealth.

Contemporaneously, politicians quite obviously believe taxation can exert socio-economic controls: which it cannot.

Meaningfully.

mongoose

"Who says politicians never learn?"
Those who have "learnt" are not the same politicians. It's a different party and they know better.

Tom Pride

“telemachus'
January 10th, 2012 6:34pm
So you rejoice when the greedy bankers avoid a justifiable tax.”

No – but that is not what you are supporting / proposing, is it? And, it is not the problem that we face. I take it the “greedy bankers” you refer to are the directors and employees of the banking companies. The tax you propose would fall on the shareholders of those banks (pension funds, other savings and insurance institutions and small shareholders) to the extent to which the banks cannot pass the costs on to their customers.

The employees would suffer no direct impact unless they lost their jobs when the banks closed their operations in London and transferred them to financial centres without such a tax. And if they did lose their jobs they would probably relocate to those same centres.

Tom Pride

Cont - “Greedy bankers” is a distraction - Sarkozy is proposing an EC tax which will raise 80% of its take from the UK in order to plug the financial black hole caused by the Euro project which the UK does not belong to. And, you support him.

(seems there are posting restrictions today)

Russell

Thank god for the bankers and their massive contribution to the tax 'take' by the government, which is used to pay towards hospitals, schools, military etc.

This stupid EU proposed tax on Insurance and Pension fund transactions should and will be vetoed by Cameron despite Clegg and miliminor.

Verity

Herbert Thornton, that took me by suprise and sparked a genuine lol.

Michael C Feltham FFA, FFTA

Yes: I was hit by that, Tom.

I had to delete most of my post!

libertarian

Dear Telemachus

You are seriously deluded and out of touch with the reality based community if you think anyone other than the "young professionals" and indeed workers of all kinds will be the ones actually paying this "banking" tax

Heartless P.

Ah! Merkozy! Waving bye-bye?

Robert Christopher

Tom Pride: "Sarkozy is proposing an EC tax which will ..." ... and also hit private sector pension funds, in Britain and I would expect elsewhere.

Russell

My apologies to the moderator who I thought had banned me from comments on a previous 'story' as they were a tad anti scottish, my comments eventually appeared even though a long time after later comments than mine and inserted at the correct earlier time of posting.

Verity

Vive Marine Le Pen!

2trueblue

Gee, all the politiians who have spent our taxes/contributions so frivilously over the years now want to pass this off as a 'banking tax'. It is a tax on our pensions etc and will damage those of us in this country. Those inompetents in the EU just want to take more from us. We need to exit the EU and mend our economy. Most of the countries who ran and grossly expanded their public sectors in the deade prior to the finanial crisis are the ones suffering most. The banks were not the only problem. it was acepted that borrowing was the answer to anything you wanted is the reason we are where we are. The banks just moved the money aroud for the politiians. None of them were complaining when they could borrow so easily then.

TomTom

Big City Banks like Deutsche Bank also fund Merkel's CDU; they are hardly likely to want to be paying a hypothecated tax to the EU Commission desperate for its own revenue stream