The Tobin Tax: World Stability, World Peace
By Michael Boyajian
Richard Sarkisian of New York City responding to my recent collapse of the Sunbelt article suggests that all this hardship and upheaval and boom and bust and decline can be avoided with the implementation of a Tobin Tax on securities transactions.
Nobel Laureate James Tobin suggested such a tax on currency exchanges in the 1970s as a way to avoid hardships experienced by nations due to currency speculation. Richard Sarkisian applied it a step further to securities transactions saying it would fund super trains, infrastructure rebuilding, struggling state and local governments, pensions, Social Security and Medicare.
This is not so farfetched because a little research reveals that Tobin got his idea from John Maynard Keynes who originally wanted to use it yes as a tax on securities transactions in the 1930s. So yes, with this tax we can avoid the crash of the Sunbelt, bankrupting state and local governments, government benefit plan problems and infrastructure decline if implemented on the federal level. In addition to raising revenues it would end market volatility by keeping speculators in check.
But there’s more. The tax works better if carried out on a multinational level. Not hard to do if you consider half the world’s financial transactions take place in three cities, New York, London and Tokyo. You see Tobin’s plan was to have the tax lead to one world currency sort of like today’s Euro. One tax, one world, and all living in peace and prosperity with an end to the wild fluctuations in wealth caused by speculators.
Is there an urgency to implementing the tax? Yes, if you consider some “firsts” pointed out by Richard:
GM sold more cars in China than the U.S. so far this year.
This year China’s manufacturing output will surpass the U.S.
China now consumes more energy than the U.S.
That gives the U.S. and the world one option. Implement the Tobin Tax and initiate world unity, peace and prosperity or watch as the U.S. is folded into China as a new province. All food for thought
End