Telegraph Editorial–EU financial tax would be a disaster for the City

The commission’s own research shows that such a tax would have a negative impact on growth: Algirdas Semeta, the European commissioner for taxation, said this week that it would cut GDP across the EU by about 0.5 per cent. At a time when Europe is struggling to grow at all ”“ and when growth is essential to dragging its economies out of the mire ”“ this would be a crippling reverse.

One would have thought that this assessment would be enough to kill the idea stone dead ”“ especially since the Government has made it clear that Britain will veto the plan, since such a tax would only make sense if it were introduced globally, to avoid a mass exodus of financial institutions from the area affected. Mr Barroso, however, has other ideas….

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Posted in * Economics, Politics, * International News & Commentary, Credit Markets, Currency Markets, Economy, England / UK, Euro, Europe, European Central Bank, Stock Market, Taxes, The Banking System/Sector, The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007--