tobin tax

Tobin tax: is Japan onside too?

February 17, 2010 5:34 pm by FT writers

For years, taxes on capital flows were seen as a barbarous relic of the 70s, on a par with Demis Roussos and Baked Alaska. No friend of free markets dared support the idea of US economist James Tobin, dreamed up to curb currency volatility after Bretton Woods collapsed.

That’s changing. Since Lord Turner, chairman of the UK’s Financial Services Authority, started stirring interest in taxing financial transactions last year, politicians in Germany, France and Australia have voiced tentative approval. Now Japan, through the musings of vice-finance minister Naoki Minezaki, might just be falling in line. Read more

Tags: Asia, Japan, tobin tax
Posted in Uncategorized | Permalink

Taxing banks – the global state of play

January 12, 2010 12:15 pm by Chris Giles

Special taxes on banks are catching on – but moves around the world are disparate and show few signs of coordination so far, either in detail or in ambition.

In all of this, the big effort globally is to ensure banks have greater buffers against failure (higher capital) and that the authorities work to getin tinto a position where bad banks can fail (to minimise the implicit state insurance), but also to get banks to pay for the residual insurance that taxpayers are likely to provide for future systemic crises. Read more

Tags: bank levy, Global, tobin tax
Posted in International Monetary Fund | Permalink

Economic news digest

November 30, 2009 2:38 pm by Emma Saunders

All eyes on Abu Dhabi: the focus has shifted from the health of companies to the relationships between emirates. On this, the consensus is that Dubai’s oil-rich, older, wiser brother may “ride, but not race” to the rescue. The UAE central bank has offered to make funds available, improving liquidity. But investors want more, ideally a debt guarantee: “This isn’t just a liquidity crisis, it’s a solvency crisis.”

It’s also a confidence crisis. Read more

Tags: bail-outs, bonds, capital controls, credit default swaps (cds), credit ratings, debt, dubai, excess capacity, Global, retail sales, sukuk, tobin tax, UAE
Posted in Uncategorized | Permalink

Economic news digest

November 20, 2009 1:23 pm by Emma Saunders

Short-term interest rates in the US have turned negative. This might mean imminent disaster or it might be traders chasing safe investments as they look to secure end-of-year profits – choose between numerous explanations.

There are also competing explanations for the rise in US mortgage delinquency rates. Most of the rise is in people who are extremely late on their payments, rather than just a little: Read more

Tags: bonds, equities, foreclosures, GDP, Global, government spending, interest rates, Japan, mortgage, negative rates, rates, regulation, tobin tax, too big to fail, unemployment
Permalink

Economic news digest

November 9, 2009 1:58 pm by Emma Saunders

More good news for China, Russia and India and more warnings for the US, UK and EU. George Soros asks if the new communist/capitalist divide has been replaced by a polarisation between international capitalism and state capitalism. Read more

Tags: Africa, asset bubbles, bail-outs, banking, energy security, farming, Global, gold, insolvency, IPO, public finances, soros, tobin tax
Posted in G20, International Monetary Fund | Permalink

The global tax on banks and bankers, again

November 7, 2009 1:19 pm by Chris Giles

Gordon Brown has just tried to upstage the G20 finance ministers meeting by reheating the idea of a global levy on financial transactions – a tobin tax of sorts. His words were rather more cautious than the spin and this idea is still going absolutely nowhere, writes Chris Giles of the Financial Times. Read more

Tags: bail-outs, banking, financial regulation, G20, Global, tobin tax
Posted in Uncategorized | Permalink