Talk:Tobin tax

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The following paragraph is about to be deleted as it is nonsensical if literally interpreted (if the major economic institutions are pro-globalization and the Tobin tax is intended to remove the negative effects of globalization, then there is no conflict). Perhaps someone would care to revise it?

Another difficulty is that this tax is meant to limit the negative effects of globalization whereas the major economic institutions like the World Trade Organization and the World Bank are essentially pro-globalization.

What's the problem with the paragraph? I think it's obvious that the type of globalization that the major economic institutions favour includes, according to the Tobin tax supporters, the negative effects that the tax is inteded to remove. I'm restoring it. Sir Paul 03:18, Mar 4, 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] How "recent" is "recently"?

A sentence in this article tells us that Chavez "recently" said such-and-such open the subject. The term "recently" is meaningless in a reference work. Could somebody give us a date -- at least a month and year -- for his comments?

[edit] Inappropriate style

That language is ambiguous. Does "in concert" mean an international authority has to agree before Canada will act? Or simply that Canada will enact such a tax unilaterally once it is confident it has consulted properly with other countries' treasury officials? or something else?
That's the nub of the issue. Are currency speculators, such as George Soros, a 'useful lot' or are they doing something that ought to be discouraged?

I'm moving these sections to talk pending some rephrasing: they seem to be framed in a register not appropriate for an encyclopedia. Sir Paul 03:12, Mar 4, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Here is recent

President Chirac has come out with an international tax proposal which seems to have a Tobin like tax component.

[edit] My changes

Opinion are divided between who believes that the Tobin tax would improve the economy of countries that are damaged by financial speculation and defenders of pro-globalization goals that believe that it would constrains globalization in ways which conflict with the policy of economic institutions like the World Trade Organization and the World Bank and would have then to be rejected. Other people argues that the tax would promote globalization but limit its negative effects. That's good? (I hope I didn't make any mistake with English)

I put a new paragraph about Tobin's view on his own tax and antiglobalization movement (it's not NPOV to put Tobin's critic behind the link at the bottom of the page) and reorganized a little bit the page--Juliet.p 15:17, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks Juliet, and Query about Spahn

I'm going to trim what I think is an excessive bit of wikification. "Commission of Finance and Budget in the Belgian Federal Parliament approved the bill implementing the Spahn tax (version of the Tobin tax proposed by Paul-Bernd Spahn)."

Spahn doesn't seem to be notable for anything other than this tax proposal. So it seems unnecessary duplication to have a bio article on him and an article on his proposal ... why not just a bio article which will discuss his proposal? Anyone looking for this info should be able to find it that way.

Query, though: does he really hyphenate his first name? I've seen the name without that hyphen. --Christofurio 18:10, May 22, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Tobin tax is a scam, part of attempts to create a socialist world order

all free peoples of the world should unite and stop any attempt to create an international tax overseen by the corrupt and incompetent UN. It is part of an attempt to create a socialist world government. We remember that Marx and Lenin said that socialism eventually must lead to communism. We must stop the future tyranny of the socialist/communist world order (think gulags, mass executions of opponents -like in the former Soviet Union-) while we still can. We must remember that all socialists hate our freedoms and want to abolish national sovereignty.

And did you notice that they keep saying this Tobin tax is 'for the children' or 'for the poor'. Do not be fooled, it really is to enable a world socialist/communist government. And then all opponents of socialism will be put in labor camps or liquidated, remember that all socialist/communist states have done this in the past, all of them. --82.156.49.1 10:55, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

It seems to me, as a newcomer to the subject, that the principal effect of a Tobin tax is to protect political over- and under-valuations of currency against the corrective levelling effect of speculation. This supports mercantilism, rather than one-worldism of whatever flavor. —Tamfang 17:40, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
Every tax has at least two effects -- one depending upon what it deters, the other depending upon what is done with the money it generates. Some of the Tobin tax advocates want to deter currency speculation, which they regard as xcessive and destabilizing. You have a point -- this might be regarded as the defense of mercantilism. Other advocates (or the same ones at different times) are more concerned with what good things can be done with the money that'll be raised. User 82 has a point too. If one dislikes the idea of a world govt., one might plausibly suspect that this tax is a scheme for funding such a thing, and one would oppose the latter in order to oppose the former. --Christofurio 20:17, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] link to Der Spiegel for citation

There is a Spiegel citation concerning the Tobin interview, but the words are a bit different than those mentioned in the wiki article http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,154539,00.html

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