Thursday, December 11, 2014

Financial Transaction Tax

Warren Buffett and other business leaders* (click here)
In a position paper published by the Aspen Institute, the group put forth several recommendations to encourage long term focus among investors, including the proposal to “revise capital gains tax provisions or implement an excise tax in ways that are designed to discourage excessive share trading and encourage longer-term share ownership.”

If the Democrats in the US House and Senate are conflicted with the omnibus bill before the due to the burgeoning deadline for funding the government, I'd like to suggest something.

One of the reasons it is important to maintain regulations is because the USA has no residual for carrying out another bailout. It just doesn't. It is still involved in costly war and the national debt is a burden that cannot be ignored. Additionally, there were job losses and the American Dream was trashed. If the deadline for midnight is important than consider adding a "Financial Transaction Tax." It has to be permanent until a significant amount of the National Debt is paid down (at least 50%) and not recalled as of January 2014.

With a well established residual in the US Treasury the USA can at least have the ability to take care of it's citizens. The best venue for American employment, due to the role of the USA in the world, is to grow the Small Businesses in the country. They were the first ones to recover from the Great Recession.

The USA has a friend in Warren Buffet. If we can't trust a good friend and a successful fund leader, then we are simply demanding an ideology out of the wounds of the past. Wounds are a good reason, but, the USA has to find methods to rise above this nonsense that goes on with the Republicans. We have to have a long term strategy for the country and for financing the well being of our citizens. I think a Financial Transaction Tax can be a vehicle of resolving differences in the party.

*Co-signers of this paper include John Bogle (Vanguard Group), Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway), Steven Denning (General Atlantic), Jack Ehnes (CalSTRS), J. Michael Farren (Xerox), Barbara Franklin (former Secretary of Commerce), Bill George (Harvard Business School), Louis Gerstner, Jr. (IBM), David Langstaff (Veridian), Jay Lorsch (Harvard Business School), Ira Millstein (Yale School of Management),Peter Peterson (Peter G. Peterson Foundation), James Rogers (Duke Energy), Felix Rohatyn (former US Ambassador to France), Charles Rossotti (former Commissioner of Internal Revenue), Judith Samuelson (The Aspen Institute), Henry Schacht (Cummins Inc. and Lucent Technologies), Lynn Stout (UCLA School of Law), Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO), John Whitehead (Goldman Sachs), John Wilcox (TIAA-CREF), Ash Williams (Florida State Board of Administration), James Wolfensohn (World Bank Group). 

If the USA moves this tax forward, the EU will be close behind in implementing theirs.
Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres, and Magnolia Pictures We need to figure out a way to revert the Stock and Bond Markets, and the derivative instruments created from these equities, back to their original purpose, a place to raise capital for growing business… The simplest way to change this is to place a very simple per share tax on every transaction… The market thrived when spreads and transaction costs were much higher just a few short years ago. It will survive now.

The actual damage to the USA's economy in 2008 was about $1.7 trillion. That is no laughing matter and to simply allow Wall Street to do it all over again is completely irresponsible in any office of the government. But, it this flip flopping of laws is going to be the wave of the future, then we need a fix that rises about the gaming of our politics.

The banks, like Citicorp, like to state they paid all the bailout back with interest. But, they never admit the citizens of this country were never made whole again! So, before Citicorp becomes self-righteous they need to reassess their real landscape of disaster.

The end of Quantitative Easing is over as well. The banks are squirming at the fact they might actually have to work for a living.