Bjoern Hacker
The negotiations between EU member states on the introduction of a financial transaction tax have so far been fruitless. The basis for negotiation is a European Commission proposal that Carsten Sieling, a member of the Bundestag Finance Committee, presented and analysed for the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. In his view, the causes of the financial, economic and Eurozone crises lie in global deregulation and lack of supervision as a result of a radical market ideology concerned exclusively with maximising profits, capital yields and bonuses.
The original service function of financial markets for the public good has been completely sidelined. A financial transaction tax would serve to re-establish this function. It would both make speculation more expensive and have a considerable fiscal impact. The European Commission’s plan to levy a tax on all transactions involving financial instruments, as long as at least one of the counterparties is resident in the EU, is an intelligent proposal, according to Sieling: »Now European governments are being called upon to introduce it in the EU, but possibly also within the framework of extended cooperation with at least nine EU member states.«
Sieling, Carsten
Financial Transaction Tax. Sensible, Feasible, Overdue / Carsten Sieling – Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, International Policy Analysis, 2012, http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/id/ipa/09063.pdf
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“Long overdue”? A Financial Transaction Tax! Yes, why not make the whole of the EU even less competitive with the rest of the World!? Maybe it is time somebody in EU-Brussels realised that there is a lot of truth in the old adage: ‘When you are in a deep hole of almost entirely your own making it is better to stop digging!’