Tax the Speculators: A Fair Plan to Pay for Economic Recovery

[depakid]

With the specter of financial Armageddon raised in headlines everywhere, two questions keep occurring to me. Where will the government find the $85 billon to bail out AIG and other Wall Street giants? And how will we pay for the proposed Main Street recovery, including federal aid to states, relief to homeowners, and public works projects for the unemployed?

The Bush administration plans to add to the $400 billion projected deficit and our $9 trillion national debt. But it's irresponsible to shift the bill entirely to the next generation. The corporations that rigged the casino economy and the wealthy CEOs and investors that profited at everyone else's expense should bear the recovery costs, not our kids and grandchildren.

We can't recover the money from the companies now. They have extracted the profits and their CEOs have cashed they gilded paychecks. The speculators bought mansions, private jets, and small islands. Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy on Monday and 25,000 workers are on the brink of unemployment. But Lehman CEO Richard Fuld is sitting pretty, with his $354 million compensation from the last five years and a mega-mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut.

When a CEO or employee improperly takes money from a company and is forced to pay it back, it is colorfully referred to as "disgorgement." In 1999, managers of Compaq Computer cooked the books and gorged on bonuses based on misrepresented profits. The government forced them to pay it back.

But what happens when a whole sector of the economy has been cooked and billions of dollars have already been stashed in offshore bank accounts? How are the crooks held accountable for robbing our entire economy?

Here are six actions that will fairly generate over $400 billion a year to pay for a broad-based economic recovery and reduce the extreme inequalities that fueled speculation at the outset.

Institute a Financial Transactions Tax. Congress should levy a tax on financial transactions such as sale and purchase of stock and more exotic transactions such as credit default swaps, options, and futures. The UK has a modest financial transaction tax of 0.25 percent, a penny on every $4 invested. This is negligible for a long-term investor, but imposes a cost on the fast-buck flippers. Estimated annual revenue: $100 billion.

More: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/19-3

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. To the extent of their bonuses, "golden handcuffs", "golden handshakes", etc.

[zeemike]

2. Sounds like a plan to me.

Or we could just go back to the tax structure that was in place before Reagan.
But I predict that this solution no mater how good it is will never be even discussed beyond the blogger.
To many well entrenched special interest to pull it off.

[aquart]

3. Graduated capital gains.

The longer you held a stock, the less tax you had to pay upon selling it. Discouraged speculation. But speculation is the lifeblood of this vampire market, and I no longer hear of graduated capital gains.

[yowzayowzayowza]

4. Thatz an interesting idea!!! n/t