海角大神

One of Bernie Sanders鈥檚 most important proposals didn鈥檛 receive enough attention and should become a law even without a president Sanders. Hillary Clinton should adopt it for her campaign.听

It鈥檚 a tax on financial transactions.听

Putting a small tax on financial transactions would:

1. reduce incentives for high speed trading, insider deal making and short term financial betting. Buying and selling stocks and bonds in order to beat others who are buying stocks and bonds is a giant zero sum game. It wastes countless resources, uses up the talents of some of the nation鈥檚 best and brightest and subjects financial markets to unnecessary risk.听

2.听generate lots of revenue. Even a one tenth of 1% transaction tax would raise $185 billion over 10 years according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. It could thereby finance public investments that enlarge the economic pie rather than merely rearranging its slices. Investments like better schools and access to college.听

3.听it鈥檚 fair. After all, Americans pay sales taxes on all sorts of goods and services, yet Wall Street traders pay no sales tax on the stocks and bonds they buy, which helps explain why the financial industry generates about 30% of America鈥檚 corporate profits, but pays only about 18% of corporate taxes.听

Wall Street鈥檚 objections are baloney.

Wall Street says even a small transaction tax on financial transactions would drive trading overseas since financial trades can easily be done elsewhere.听

Baloney. The U.K. has had attacks on stock trades for decades, yet remains one of the world鈥檚 financial powerhouses. Incidentally, that tax raises about 3 billion pounds yearly. That鈥檚 the equivalent of 30 billion in an economy the size of the United States, which is a big help for Britain鈥檚 budget. At least 28 other countries also have such a tax and the European Union is well on the way to implementing one.听

Wall Street also claims that the tax would burden small investors such as as retirees, business owners and average savers.听

Wrong again. The tax wouldn鈥檛 be a burden if it reduces the volume and frequency of trading, which is the whole point. In fact, the tax is highly progressive. The Tax Policy Center estimates that 75% of it would be paid by the richest 5th of taxpayers and 40% by the top 1%.听

So, why aren鈥檛 politicians of all stripes supporting it? Because the financial transactions tax directly threatens a major source of Wall Street鈥檚 revenue. And if you hadn鈥檛 noticed, the Street uses a portion of its vast revenues to gain political clout. Which may be one of the best reasons for enacting it.听

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