Last Wednesday, the Robin Hood Tax project got under way. The Independent reports:
Some 350 prominent economists from all over the world have written to the leaders of the G20 calling on them to implement the so-called "Robin Hood tax" on the banks "as a matter of urgency".
Two Nobel prizewinners, including the outspoken critic of the financial system Joseph Stiglitz, and scores of professors at universities from Harvard to Kyoto, are calling on G20 governments to back a financial transactions tax on speculative dealings in foreign currencies, shares and other securities of 0.05 per cent – say £500 on a £1m transaction.
The letter argues: "This tax is an idea that has come of age. The financial crisis has shown us the dangers of unregulated finance, and the link between the financial sector and society has been broken. It is time to fix this link and for the financial sector to give something back to society.
"This money is urgently needed. The crises of poverty and of climate change require an historic transfer of billions of dollars from the rich world to the poor world, and this tax would offer a clear way to help fund this."
You can read the four-paragraph letter signed by numerous Americans, including Jeffrey Sachs, here. And, in the campaign's video, you can see actor Bill Nighy as a profoundly discomfited banker reacting to the tax here:
Somebody at Goldman-Sachs wasn't swayed by banker Nighy. Last week, an attempt to game an opinion poll on the campaign's Web site was detected when there was a spike in traffic that was traced to a computer server registered at the investment giant.
That, of course, is just one of the many tactics likely to be used to shut down this idea. While a transaction tax on securities was proposed nearly four decades ago by James Tobin, his had a regulatory purpose in mind, and a levy of 0.5%, the Robin Hood Tax has revenue as its object and would be 1/100th size of Tobin's original proposal.
A proposal similar to the Robin Hood tax popped up at the G20 meeting November 7 when Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested it.
A transactions tax would face tough sledding in the U.S. For instance, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is dead set against it. As is, no surprise, Wall Street. The White House has proposed a levy on banks that would raise $90 billion over a decade.
House Democrats led Oregon Rep. Pete DeFazio introduced their own transaction proposal - with the idea of raising $150 billion a year - in December as HR 4191. The bill has 29 co-sponsors, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated cautious support for the idea. But Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Mike McMahon of New York, and Debbie Halverson of Illinois, are actively opposing the bill.