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Make Them Pay
I advocate a new trade tax. If we invest trillions in these complex Wall Street, banking, debt, schemes without knowing their present equity, or the eventual value of these financial instruments, how do we guarantee a return for our blind, taxpayer, investment? I suggest a new trade tax. Each and every future transaction should be assessed a percentage of the transaction to be paid the federal government by the buyer and seller. This tax should be immediately deposited into a special Treasury fund that can be easily tracked.
This is simple, transparent and more than fair. It's past time for the citizens on main street to get a return too.
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Comments (6)
I was suggesting that to my family yesterday, that there be a fee assessed against each transaction and that it be used to pay off the bailout. I also wonder if we shouldn't have the equivalent of a war bond at a decent and nontaxable rate so that we could help repair the process and get something out of it at the same time.
September 20, 2008 8:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's not the traders that did this. You'll only decrease liquidity when the market needs it the most. If you really want to get scared, try a volatile market with less liquidity.
The SEC increased the leverage for mortgage backed securities ten fold or so, which contributed to this mess.
September 20, 2008 8:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tradewinds, it's our tax money being used to bailout the market. How do propose returning the money to the treasury? Bye the way, the concept above is presently polling at 96% in favor on another active site.
September 20, 2008 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Justin,
Traders are not the market. You're punishing the wrong people. It won't work and won't accomplish anything, except a little payback.
I make a trade, I take the risk. I either win or lose based on the price auction. I had nothing to do with this mess.
Think of it this way; those that took out mortgages were engaging in a trade. A leveraged buy of a home. Would you like to now charge them a new tax as well?
Just because the republicans are fascists, doesn't mean we have to behave irrationally as well.
September 20, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
The trade tax concept has evolved since 5:39 this morning,so let's move on..
From the Bush plan: "mortgage-related assets" means residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages. This should be the target of taxation.
AS I understand this problem using the language of the bill the debt instruments are so complex that wading through to an actual asset like a house on the corner with a foreclosed or foreclosing mortgage may be impossible or take such resources to uncover that the pursuit is not worth the investment. A Resolution trust arrangement doesn't make sense in this scenario.
We need a taxing way to recoup our investment that avoids the mastery of corporate tax accountants who maneuver around capital gains taxation, ETC.
I'm saying leverage our investment with a tax.
Wall street needs our tax money for the bailout, we need to collect revenue from the fat cats.
I strongly advocate that we take advantage of the leverage congress will have in negotiating the bailout to apply taxation that comes from the fat cats pocketbooks in exchange for saving their asses.
If not, we have no guarantees on our investment and we will have missed an opportunity to tax the rich.
Thanks for your thoughts,jg
September 20, 2008 8:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Middle class can't bail out Wall Street
By SEN. BERNIE SANDERS | 9/21/08 12:15 PM EDT
For years, as a member of the House Banking Committee and now as a member of the Senate Budget Committee, I have heard the Bush administration tell us how “robust” our economy was and how strong the “fundamentals” were. That was until a few days ago. Now, we are being told that if Congress does not act immediately and approve the $700 billion Wall Street bailout proposal these “free marketers” have just written up, there will be an unprecedented economic meltdown in the United States and an unraveling of the global economy.
This proposal as presented is an unacceptable attempt to force middle-income families (and our children) to pick up the cost of fixing the horrendous economic mess that is the product of the Bush administration's deregulatory fever and Wall Street's insatiable greed. If the potential danger to our economy was not so dire, this blatant effort to essentially transfer $700 billion up the income ladder to those at the top would be laughable.
read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13697.html
September 21, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
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