I’ve just been reading Bows against the Barons, by Geoffrey Trease, which has a pre-socialist Robin Hood leads the Merry Men and the townsfolk of Nottingham into a revolt against the lords of Britain.
Now, I’ve finally gotten around to looking up this Robin Hood tax idea that is gaining traction in the UK. Basically, the idea is to have a minute tax (around 0.001% tax) on transactions that don’t include members of the public (bonds, derivatives, currency speculation, etc). Apparently it’s got the potential to raise over £100 billion.
Check out this amazing video with Bill Nighy as a squirming banker.
6 responses to “The Robin Hood Tax”
The Robin Hood Tax is coming to Australia. The campaign is launching today. Check it out http://www.robinhoodtax.org.au
Good stuff. I'll blog about this later this week.
"A Tobin tax says to National Australia Bank, who borrow money overseas in US dollars, bring it to Australia and lend it to Australian households to build and buy houses. If you want to hedge your foreign exchange risk, which they simply have to do, if you want to change your hedging position, you have to pay for that. So it actually has the potential to do a lot of damage. People think that most of what's going on in these transactions is really to do with wild speculation. But that's just not right."
Dr Sam Wylie, Senior Fellow, Melbourne Business School
Potential to do a lot of damage how? Banks already pay taxes, charges and tariffs on heaps of things. If it's a minor charge, and every other major bank in the world pays the same charge, then there's no change to competition.
Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz who came out in support of the Robin Hood Tax in the UK.
Is this really asking you to be part of the World's Greatest Bank Job (ha ha ha ha) or a conniving way to encourage you to be a part of the Worlds Biggest Con Job?
I just have to wonder how many folk actually have heard about the 'Robin Hood Tax' ? – (RHT) and more importantly have taken the time to find out what it is? where it comes from? what is actually involved? Let me tell you right now it involves BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, and of course, should it come to pass, just who will administer it?
https://just-me-in-t.blogspot.com/2010/04/men-in-t…