Tobin tax

A Tobin tax is the suggested tax on all trade of currency across borders. This is supposed to put a penalty on short-term speculation in currencies. The proposed tax rate would be low, between 0.05 and 1.0 per cent.

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The name comes from the economist James Tobin. It was in 1972, soon after the Nixon administration pulled the United States out of the Bretton Woods system, that Tobin suggested a new system for international currency stability, and proposed that such a system include an international charge on foreign-exchange transactions. Professor Tobin later received a Bank of Sweden Prize in Economics in 1981, and his name will evermore be fixed to this idea.

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The idea lay dormant for more than 20 years. In 1997 Ignacio Ramonet, editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, renewed the debate around the Tobin tax with an editorial titled "Disarming the markets". Ramonet proposed to create an association for the introduction of this tax, which was named ATTAC (Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens). The tax has then become an issue of the antiglobalization movement and a matter of discussion not only behind academic institutions but even in the streets and in Parliaments of all the world.

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Tax: A tax is a compulsory charge or other levy imposed on an individual or a legal entity by a state or a functional equivalent of a state (e.g., tribes, secessionist movements or revolutionary movements). Taxes could also be imposed by a subnational entity....

Trade: Trade is the voluntary exchange of goods, services, or both. Trade is also called commerce. A mechanism that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and services. Modern traders instead generally negotiate through a medium of exchange, ...

Currency: :For current exchange rates, see Exchange links....

Tobin tax related Images and Photos (experimental)

The Tax Collector	Two Tax Gatherers c.1540	At the Tax Collector's	The Tax Collector 1543
Wat Tyler Attacks the Poll-Tax Collector	Suppliant Peasants in the Office of Two Tax Collectors	Provost of Merchants and Aldermen of Paris Scene of Tax Collection