At 09:00 AM 12/22/98 -0500, Neva Goodwin wrote:
>A comment on the Tobin tax, which I have always thought was a
>great idea, and I hope it still is -- but I was recently at a
>talk by George Soros in which someone asked him about this.
>He replied that he had intended to push it in his new book, but
>that, after looking into it, he concluded that it was no longer
>workable, because there are many novel forms of currency
>trading and international transactions --
I am no expert in finance (though I do have an MBA)
But I totally support the Tobin tax and have done for several years. I
recently saw a one-hour program on CBC Anne Petrie where several experts
including Tobin suppported the feasibility and justice and effectiveness of
the Tobin Tax.
It is the responsibility of the People to make these decisions (currently
vested in so-called Representatives), not the Experts, be they called Tobin
or Soros, who have individually got vested interests.
All that is currently proposed is a debate in Parliament.
I have circulated the postings to my networks with my support.
through new instruments
>that have just been invented in the last few years -- and many of
>these cannot be monitored or controlled by governments. A Tobin
>tax, he said, would just create a perverse tax-avoidence incentive
>for people to do their transacting through these instruments.
> I don't know enough about financial markets to be able to
>assess this conclusion (I don't even know the names of many of
>these new instruments!) -- I'd be interested in reactions from
>those who are more up on this. I fear that Soros opinion is one
>that has to be taken pretty seriously; he's had more experience
>in these areas than almost anyone, and, though he certainly has
>mixed motives (the desire for profits continues to burn strong
>in him), I believe that his wish to contribute to a world of
>sanity and freedom is also strong.
What is missing is not the ingenuity, but the WILL of the legislatures,
particularly in the US, Canada, and the rest of the G 7
Colin Stark
