When I mentioned in my blog a little over a year ago – in the run-up to the European elections – that an anti-speculative tax on financial transactions was highly necessary to prevent the casino-speculation in the banking sector that led to the financial crisis, this seemed still an idea of the very few, among which the Greens. The idea is from the late economist and Nobel-laureate James Tobin and therefore dubbed ‘Tobin tax‘, which comes down to levying a very small tax on financial transactions which makes speculation with money and all its derivates less attractive and thus would bring the business of money back to what it was supposed to do: invest.
The idea is gaining more and more support, first EU leaders and now 350 economists are signing up to it, meanwhile also dubbed ‘Robin Hood tax‘ as of course there will be revenues. Such revenues could be used for the poor and the good: to achieve the millenium development goals and/or to combat climate change. It seems that only the bankers are still opposed, but their arguments against it are running out (see video).
