Sarkozy moots Tobin Tax

This news item probably slipped under the mat for most of us:

BBC NEWS | Business | Sarkozy to press for 'Tobin Tax'

It seems the greed of Government knows fewer limits than even the filthy bankers!

Essentially Sarkozy is saying that such a tax would limit excessive speculation by financial institutions.

Here in the Antipodes we suffered a "Debits Tax" for a few years, later abolished. The idea was to levy a tax of 0.02% on every debit transaction on every banking account. The Tax was levied by Australia's State Governments, though I am unsure of its application across all states. Certainly Queensland had it for a time.

From time to time, Countries do cap the level of their currencies - Australia did it back in June 2009, holding the AUD under USD$0.8250 for a four-week period, at a cost of a few $billion.

So any tax on currency transactions, as Sarkozy is proposing to the G-20, would effectively cost taxpayers more, as Governments either prop or cap their respective currencies.

The french and germans have long favoured this tax inorder to dethrone London from its status as the major financial center for fx and other markets.

Politicians in the UK and US also pay lip service and say its a good idea in theory but isnt likely to ever happen in practice.