“For decades, the “Tobin Tax” — a proposed global tax on currency transactions — has remained far from economic mainstream thought, being primarily the hobby horse of left-wing academics and advocates of world government, such as the World Federalists, or communist dictators, such as Fidel Castro. The past few years, however, have seen a host of Tobin-type proposals coming from more establishment sources. ”
“In the past few months, it has been boosted by liberal-left economists Paul Krugman and Robert Kuttner, as well as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Council, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou (who is also president of the Socialist International) and the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Adair Turner.”
“Advocates of the Tobin tax, named for the late Yale economics professor and Nobel laureate James Tobin, suggest a tax on foreign currency transactions would engender international currency stability by discouraging speculation. Some politicians, like Gordon Brown and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, have pushed for Tobin taxes at the national level. However, as the British journal The Economist noted, “Unless a Tobin tax were implemented worldwide, trading would move out of any country that enforced it.” ”
William F. Jasper exposes the push for a new tax on financial transactions @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/2901-qtobin-taxq-and-un-global-taxman-making-a-comeback