obviously some trades will go offshore, but we can look at the example of the UK where the government still collects the equivalent of $30 billion a year (relative to the size of its economy), just by taxing stock trades. So, even if we lose some business to foreign markets, we should still be able to raise a ton of money through a comprehensive tax on trades of stock, futures, options, credit default swaps and the rest.

Also, last I looked, the U.S. is not entirely powerless in the world. Although the boys and girls running policy like to say that the u.S. is absolutely helpless in confronting bullies like the Cayman Islands and Lichtenstein, if we ever had an administration that cared more about enforcing the tax codes than serving Wall Street, these tax havens would be put out of business quickly.

you should be fair to libertarians. A true libertarian would be opposed to patent protection (a government granted monopoly), so CT scans would be cheap in their world.

It is only when you have corporate lackeys claiming to be free-market libertarian types that you get these ridiculous prices.