Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup metatuning Re: The Tobin Tax coming soon

X. J. Scott wrote:

> Steam is picking up for an international tax on a wide
> variety of things. Money will be given to the UN, the
> WTO, the World Bank and the IMF for various projects,
> including of course, the military power (I assume
> nukes) they will need to enforce collection.

Neither the UN nor the WTO nor the World Bank nor the IMF employs a single
soldier or owns a single warhead, nuclear or otherwise.

> To those who worry about this or that religion having a
> bad effect on the world, not to worry -- son religion
> will be standardized to permit only those beliefs which
> support the purposes of the United Nations (as the
> totalitarian misnamed 'UN declaration on human rights'
> sets up).

Please supply a reference.

> Harvard gets mentioned in a lot of this stuff. Peurhaps
> their international tax brainwashing institution
> explains it:
>
> http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/itp/

Yes, if they teach something you don't agree with it must be brainwashing.

> The Italians like the Tobin Tax, they see it as an
> ideal scheme for worldwide wealth redistribution and
> the only way to stop greedy international corporations.
> "From each according to their abilities, to each
> according to his needs." (Though presumably those put
> in power by this system will have considerably greater
> needs than most.)
>
> http://attac.org/italia/tobin/

I don't speak Italian, but I don't see anything approaching that quote in
the page you gave. I certainly don't see how a single web page can be
taken to speak for the entire Italian people.

> Here, the UN explainsin simple terms us common people
> can understand how the Tobin Tax will be the only way
> to remove all those land mines. Also notably is the
> point that $176 billion could be raised per year by the
> UN simply on the currency transaction aspect of the
> Tobin Tax alone! (Of course scholars recognize that a
> simple tax on currency is only the beginning and a
> international Tobin Income Tax, Value Added Tax, an
> internationally administered Social Security program,
> etc are only a short ways behind.
>
> http://www.ncrb.unac.org/landmines/UNACinfo/tobin-tax.h
> tml

Firstly, this is the "United Nations Association in Canada, National
Capital Region Branch" not "the UN". It suggests the tax could be used to
fund land mine removal, but says nothing about it being "the only way".
It says nothing about the other taxes you mention.

> In the uk, we are told that the Tobin Tax is the only
> way to stop the oppresion of the word's poor. Obviouly
> totalitarion regimes, corruption and graft do not
> contribute at all to world poverty -- the only
> contributor is the greedy capitalists who are soley to
> blame. Capitalism must be banned or at least strictly
> restricted, or poverty will abound:
>
> http://www.tobintax.org.uk/

Again, nothing about it being "the only way" that I can find, or about
greedy capitalists being "solely to blame" for anything..

> The tobin tax is a win-win solution for everyone except
> greedy capitalists:
>
> http://www.waronwant.org/tobin/briefing-2002.pdf

Internet Explorer decided to say "done" before it had finished downloading
this, and I'm not going back online to finish it. Whatever, it's those
War On Want people again.

> Note that the financial transfer tax will be charged
> whenever money moves:

False. The tax (at around 0.1%) is only charged when you change
currencies.

> Here we find that it is really a 'robin hood tax':
>
> http://www.waronwant.org/tobin/robin-hood.pdf

And, under "Enforcement and sanctions",

"""
- Incentives to encourage compliance

- Measures involving publication of details of breaches ie: political
embarrassment

- Cautioning member states in breach

- Suspension of international rights or privileges

- Imposition of financial penalties and compensation requirements
"""

Scary.

> Here we find many world governments implementing the
> tobidn tax, including canada and brazil:
>
> http://tobintaxcall.free.fr/

We find "the vote at the Canadian Parliament on a report in favour of the
installation of a Tobin type tax, the launch by 100 Brazilian
Parliamentarians of a 'Parliamentarian Front for the Tobin Tax'" but
nothing about any world governments (or even national governments)
implementing such a tax.

> General info on the great benefits of the tobin tax:
>
> http://www.ceedweb.org/iirp/
>
> Note the extensive bibliography and testimonials by
> experts who know far more than you do. It should be
> clear by now that ANYONE opposing this plan is clearly
> a terrorist!! What do you have to hide anyway?

It says not such thing. Of the expert testimonials it does say "These are
economists on both sides of the issue of economic feasibility."

> Perhaps you did not know that the US Congress is
> already making international tobin-style taxation a
> matter of law:
>
> http://www.ceedweb.org/iirp/ushouseres.htm

Oh, I've lost this one, but I'm sure I read it. It says Congress is going
to vote on something, but nothing about it becoming law. The US Congress
doesn't even have the power to make US law, let alone international law.

> Here's a long list of organizations that are lobbying
> internationally for the international tax scheme:
>
> http://www.ceedweb.org/iirp/camnet.htm
>
> The ones in the US are interesting - the AFL-CIO, for
> example...

What do you find interesting?

> This would be a good place to say that I have not found
> a single voice critical of this scheme. I find that
> point particularly interesting.

Have you ever heard of search engines? They can be quite useful. These
results

<http://www.google.com/search?q=tobin+tax+bad&hl=xx-elmer>

include

<http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:wMNgo4IbapkC:www.irpp.org/po/archive
/jul99/riggs.pdf+tobin+tax+bad&hl=xx-elmer>

"The Tobin Tax: A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Passed" which you may be able to
get as <http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/jul99/riggs.pdf>

<http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/glotax/currtax/cur7_14.htm>

"However, there are several arguments against the Tobin tax: levying such
a tax would be costly and complicated, and the high tax revenue would
cause greediness. In any case, it would probably be almost impossible to
reach an international consensus. Moreover, countries that suffer from
external imbalances and therefore use high interest rates to attract
foreign capital would have to raise their interest rates further by the
amount of the Tobin tax, with accordingly bad economic consequences.
Furthermore, such a tax would hurt market efficiency since - economically
speaking - it is hard to distinguish between positive and negative
speculation. "

and <http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/06-15-01.html> which says "It
was the Tobin tax that had sent the island economy reeling, the
unemployment rate doubling to 20%. Romero Barcelo, whose party had not won
the legislature since the 1930s, won in a landslide later that year,
eliminated the Tobin tax, and enjoyed re-election four years later in an
expanding economy. " Although that seems to be a different "Tobin tax".

> This Methodist organization also supports the UN
> financing scheme. Many American Protestants see the UN
> as the manifestation of Christ's Kingdom here on earth.
> Interestingly they also believe that the key solution
> to world poverty is to reduce populations of people of
> color through UN-financed abortions. (These Christian
> organizations never seem to support abortion for
> members of the Aryan race, only for people of color...)
>
> http://www.globalpolicy.org/finance/action/wfedmw.htm

This is indeed about UN financing, but nothing about tax on financial
speculation, international tax, forced abortions or the Hindu caste
system.

> And the World Council of Churches supports the
> international tax too -- no surprise there.
>
> --
>
> The Commission on Global Governance is all for the
> idea:
>
> http://www.cgg.ch/stories.htm#Tobin_Tax

Meaning they have "called for serious study of such a tax as one of
several options"

> OK, well there's thousands and thousands of more links
> to info about this interesting thing that I have never
> heard mentioned in the US media... that should get you
> started.

"Heard" mentioned? You don't watch television, do you?

Graham

Re: The Tobin Tax coming soon

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