Obama is in France trying to get Sarkozy re-elected.

[JDPriestly]

Obama is in France acting very supportive of Sarkozy who faces an election next year.

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2011/11/03/sarkozy-et-obama-s-afficheront-cote-a-cote-lors-d-une-interview-televisee_1598746_823448.html

This is a story we should watch. So far they are flattering each other in public.

Europe wants to impose a transaction tax on stock market trades. Obama and the US are resisting.

I support the idea of a transaction tax. It is a fair way to finance the risk to the government and the American people that the frenzied trading on Wall Street brings in its wake.

[moondust]

1. I thought Obama was for the t-tax.

Ron Suskind was on Rachel last night and they discussed this. I think Suskind said Obama was like "We're going to do this" but Larry Summers stopped it from happening.

[Angry Dragon]

2. Larry tells Obama what to do??

[TheWraith]

4. It's currently utterly irrelevant, since we can't actually pass it into law.

Unless people think the Reps are going to support such a major brake on Wall Street.

[KamaAina]

3. At least he's not trying to get conservatives elected here

yet.

I, too, support the transaction tax. If Wall Street wants to run itself like a casino, the house -- We the People -- needs to take its cut.

[Blue_Tires]

5. I'm surprised Sarkozy hasn't called on Bush

[Obamanaut]

6. Isn't there something 'presidential' here in the US he could be doing? nt

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. France and Germany want to impose a transaction tax

the UK is also in the EU and is completely against it (as 95% of the financial services industry of Europe is in Britain). see for instance here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8368f996-0569-11e1-a3d1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1cg6Hr0Gg

[JDPriestly]

8. I am wondering whether the UK will completely leave the European Union

over this and other issues. It would hurt the UK in the long run, but their conservative government is just that stupid.

The transaction tax will eventually be imposed. It's just a matter of time. All Wall Street and the British investors have to do is crash the economy again. They will crash it again. And then they will be toast. Because the mood in the world is that they should not be bailed out ever, ever, ever again without huge brakes on their trading excesses.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. It's not "British investors"

it's "British investment banks". And money managers, and hedge funds, and commodities traders. (London is the global financial capital, not New York.) And the US would leave any North American Union if the other countries tried to impose a tax like this as well, no? For that matter NYC would probably secede from the Union if the US government tried to do it.