Matt Taibbi: We Need a Financial Transactions Tax Before It's Too Late

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Sunday’s CNN Money headline was terrifying:

“The $6.3 trillion debt binge: American companies have never owed this much”

Thanks to low interest rates, Trump’s tax cuts and a financial unsafe-sex atmosphere where regulatory oversight is almost nonexistent, companies are borrowing massive amounts and encouraging waves of stock buybacks, sending an already insane market to worrisome new heights.

That $6.3 trillion debt bomb upon which corporate America is sitting is now bigger than any in history, eclipsing even pre-2008 levels. The national “economic miracle” Trump keeps lauding is – like his own financial empire – resting on a bed of borrowed cash.

For more than a year, the soaring stock market – and particularly the seemingly unsustainable performance of tech stocks – has led to whispers of a new speculative bubble.

Maybe it won’t all blow up this time, but it sure feels like we should pump the brakes. This would be a great time, for instance, to reinstate the doomed Glass-Steagall act, whose 85th birthday passed noiselessly late last month. The law curbed speculation for generations by separating commercial and investment banking.

The problem is, the current administration – and a bipartisan group of Senators – are determined to go the other way, having just rolled back more provisions of the already-weak Dodd-Frank Act. Returning to Glass-Steagall, which was designed to prevent banks from over-creating bad loans and pumping them into the economy via investment banking operations, seems like a distant fantasy.

A new approach to reining in speculation is needed, which is why the tiny glimmer of good news from late last week was so welcome.

On June 27th, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) became the first co-sponsor to S. 805, the “Inclusive Prosperity Act of 2017,” originally introduced by Bernie Sanders.

The bill is the American version of a Financial Transactions Tax, a plan to raise revenue and curb speculation by attaching micro-taxes to financial transactions. The E.U. moved toward an FTT plan for 11 Eurozone countries in 2013.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/financial-transactions-tax-695000/

[still_one]

1. F**k Matt Taibbi. Accussed the FBI and the media of employing "McCarthylike tactics againt poor

Mother Russia", by "falsely" insinuting that Russia interfered in our election.


He did everything to undermine and attack Hillary after she become the nominee

and is a misogynist self-righteous SOB

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-two-expat-bros-who-terrorized-women-correspondents-in-moscow/2017/12/15/91ff338c-ca3c-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.df07407d027d

The asshole as far as I am concerned, has ZERO credibility

[Sophia4]

2. So, because he was wrong in the past, he couldn't be right this

one time?

I think he probably is. Right this time.

And the money collected should be spent on reducing the cost of post-secondary education and job training for all Americans.

[still_one]

4. Yeah, the messenger DOES MATTER. There are plenty of credible people, including Sanders

who have delivered this message credibily


but fine, you want to hold him up as a shining example, be my guest. As far as I am concerned he is a hypocritical grandstanding piece of garbage, and using him as the messenger detracts because of his bullshit from the past

In fact the asshole helped make any chance of Glass Steagal being reimplemented.less likely because of his influence to dissuade impressionable people not to vote for the Democratic nominee, because of his distortions, lies, and misinformation

[Mopar151]

7. Don't kill a good idea because of one pundit.

The financial services tax is brilliant, as it can be used to discourage shenanigans like "high-speed trading" ( variation on the "race wire" scam from The Sting) and synthetic derivatives (3-card Monte gone upscale). Not to mention that it will restore some balance to the financial markets, in 50 different ways.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

3. No need to jump on Taibbi every time his name comes up

Read the article. Or don’t . He is provocative and avoids group think.

[Qutzupalotl]

5. Good. Keep this idea alive

until we take back the House and Senate and can actually pass it.

a) We need the revenue, and b) Wall Street needs a bailout fund for he next collapse. Oh, and c) high-frequency trading cheats the small investor.

[stuffmatters]

6. Totally agree. A Fin Trans Tax would enrich &protect our economy w no financial pain to 99.9% of us

It's always been a nobrainer. Any politician who opposes it does not represent the best interests of Constituents or Country.