One is something we have now heard clearly from many sources \u201d\u201c a plea endorsed by the Vickers Commission that routine banking business should be clearly separated from speculative transactions. The rolling-up of individual and small-scale savings into high-risk and high-return adventures in the virtual economy is one of the more obvious danger areas. Early government action in this area is needed. A second plea is to recapitalise banks with public money. Banks should be obliged in return to help reinvigorate the real economy.<\/p>\n
The third suggestion is probably the most far-reaching. The Vatican statement strongly backs the proposal of a Financial Transaction Tax \u201d\u201c a “Tobin Tax” or, popularly, a “Robin Hood Tax” in the form in which it has been talked about most recently. This means a comparatively small rate of tax (0.05 per cent) being levied on share, bond, and currency transactions and their derivatives, with the resulting funds being designated for investment in the “real” economy, domestically and internationally. The modest rate of taxation conceals the high levels of return that could be expected (some $410bn globally on one estimate)….<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>. [Please note that the FT subscriber only link is there<\/a>.]<\/p>\n Another note<\/b>: Alert blog readers may recall that Rowan Williams’ arguments here are not new<\/a> but they have been stated a number of times before<\/a>.<\/p>\n A further update<\/b>: I see Ralph Nader is in the Wall Street Journal making a similar argument for the Financial Transaction Tax<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One is something we have now heard clearly from many sources \u201d\u201c a plea endorsed by the Vickers Commission that routine banking business should be clearly separated from speculative transactions. The rolling-up of individual and small-scale savings into high-risk and…<\/span><\/p>\n