Clunk
SUMMERS SAYS REGULATORY REFORMS MUST ELIMINATE REGULATORY ARBITRAGE
Clunk
WHITE HOUSE ADVISER SUMMERS SAYS MUST TACKLE MORAL HAZARD PROBLEMS IN EFFORT TO CREATE SAFER FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Clunk
‘TOBIN TAX’ ON GLOBAL FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS SEEN REFLECTED IN G20 COMMUNIQUE-G20 SOURCES
Mind yer eye.
In six days time – on September 23 – in Pittsburgh, the G20 group of nations will meet for the third time since the onset of the financial crisis to discuss regulation, stimulus plans, trade reform, and other stuff. Which means that right now policy wonks and assorted treasury flunkies are rushing round, trading drafts of the communique that will hopefully be published a week from now.
There’s a comprehensive interactive graphic available right here, and if you lack a life you can click through previous communiques here.
In the meantime, we are being treated to some standard managed newsflow to help with the build-up. So in Washington we are being told what senior Fed officials believe about risk-adjusted bonus scheme, for example; in London financial services secretary Paul Myners was kind enough to address the Financial Times Global Finance Forum.
Title:
Developing a new financial architecture: lessons learned from the crisis
We might wonder where Summers, Myners and the others get the energy, especially given the historically low incidence of a G20 proposal actually turning into something tangible.
But there is one intriguing aspect to this latest meeting — the repeated mention of a “Tobin Tax” proposal and the clear guidance that some formal mention of this new levy will be made next week in Pittsburgh.
For years now, the Tobin tax – named after Yale economist James Tobin – has been held up as a neat anti-capitalist solution to world poverty. A tax on globalisation that could be used to distribute resources to the developing world, dampening down speculation in the financial markets along the way.
The reason it has never had any traction is because it is unenforceable: it would require agreement and enforcement by every sovereign nation on the planet. Otherwise, trading in something as basic and transportable as money would simply migrate to the non-Tobin zone.
The idea is simply naive. It begs the question as to why our political elites are wasting time discussing it, no?
Related links:
Tobin tax can cut financial system down to size – FT letters
Forget Tobin tax: there is a better way to curb finance – Willem Buiter
Could ‘Tobin tax’ reshape financial sector DNA? – Gillian Tett / FT