Re: <nettime> Paul Krugman: Taxing the Speculators ( - aka 'Tobin Tax')

[Nicholas Ruiz III <editor@intertheory.org>]

btw - my thought never extolled the 'virtue' of the Code, that was never my
assessment of it, I simply point to its metaphysical reality.

thanks for your thoughts.

To offer a brief sketch - The new idea I suggest revolves around shares and
derivative contracts being issued to a Pubilc Trust, an active governmental
trading institution that would post all gains as income for the public, in
order to  contribute to the financing of public affairs (e.g. commodity
subsidies, education, healthcare, etc.) Record trading profits, year after
year, should not be exclusively available financial instutions without
public obligations.

There are a multiplicity of ways that the Public Trust would work to
support the holes created by elitist, sequestered speculation as it stands
today. Many employees do have pensions and 401K plans. But they do not
benefit from shorting activities associated with hedge funds, or derivative
trading. Hence they become buyers of interests that are sellers on
declines, and there is no balance where the public is always left holding
the bag. The public, via its government, should be able to benefit in
exactly the same way as the private speculator, and not simply be locked
into long trades (e.g. within 401K plans, etc.) in stocks, hoping for an
incline, when conditions are otherwise. It is not the case, at present,
that all people benefit from the opportunity of speculation, because of the
large capital requirements for successful trading. In fact, as a result,
most speculative activity benefits only a few major players, thus
furthering the income gap.

Foreclosures, gas prices at the pump (and green energy), a single payer
healthcare system - all of these are examples of things that could be paid
for and/or subsidized through the Public Trust.

nick

----- Original Message ----
from: Brian Holmes <brian.holmes@aliceadsl.fr>
to: nettime-l@kein.org
sent: Wed, December 9, 2009 5:55:13 PM
subject: Re: <nettime> Paul Krugman: Taxing the Speculators ( - aka 'Tobin Tax')

Nicholas Ruiz III wrote:

> why not simply harness the earning potential of the Market
> for the greater good?
> 
> In the US, we need to harness the power of the financial Market (i.e.
> Wall Street) for the Public - as in a 10% issuance of public shares
> of all publicly traded companies, and a 10% issuance of all tradable
> derivatives (e.g. crude oil, gold, etc.) for the financing of public
> interests (e.g. healthcare, education, social security, etc.).

A version of this argumentation has generally been trotted out during 
the financial bubbles, just before the crashes, advertising the 
potential of "popular investment" or the "shareholder's society."  The 
last time this argument was heard in the US was under Clinton before the 
dot-com bust in which many middle-class people lost their savings or 
their retirement. During Bush, no such argument was heard because the 
sting of the last major expropriation was too close. So instead people 
were encouraged to place their money in the most rock-solid investment 
of all, their own house, now reconfigured as a speculative investment 
vehicle. With the results that everyone has seen.
 <...>


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