Gordon Brown does the unthinkable – endorses a Tobin Tax

Gordon Brown has spoken the words that dare not be spoken ….

ST ANDREWS, Scotland (Reuters) – Britain urged world governments on Saturday to consider a levy on banks to fund future bailouts, departing from long-held opposition, though there was little sign of the consensus needed to make it fly.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown raised the idea at a weekend meeting of Group of 20 financial leaders in Scotland — ending London’s resistance to such moves on behalf of its huge financial sector. …

The United States, key to the success of any global initiative, rejected a tax on day-to-day transactions, though it left the door open to other ways to protect taxpayers from losses. Canada was also lukewarm.

… “A day-by-day financial transaction tax is not something we are prepared to support,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told reporters.

“This idea (of a bank transaction tax) has been around for a long time … I think frankly the experiences are mixed.”

If ever anything made sense in a world made insane by Milton Friedman’s rehashed laissez faire economic theories, it would be some type of “Tobin Tax” on the financial industry.

As of now, however, it’s probably little more than Brown pandering to improve his liberal standing. If such a plan did gain momentum, the sheer amount of money that would be spent by the financial sector to defeat it would be enough to give the entire planet free health care for a decade.

But at least it’s out there.

–WKW

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