The Robin Hood Tax: A Powerful Antidote to Austerity

By Katrina vanden Heuvel
The Nation
June 25, 2012

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/katrina-vanden-heuvel

Last week, nurses rallied, bank staff marched, conservatives
coalesced and finance professionals petitioned- all in support
of a global tax on Wall Street speculation. You wouldn’t know
it from the headlines (Financial Times:  'Push for EU-wide
‘Robin Hood Tax’ ends '), but by week’s end, that elusive goal
was closer than ever.

We don’t just advocate for people when they’re ill, and we
don’t just advocate for them when they’re in the hospital,"
says Jean Ross, a registered nurse and co-president of
National Nurses United, the country’s largest nursing union.
"We have to have a society where they can get well and stay
well."

As I’ve written before, the financial transaction tax (FTT)
is a good idea whose time has come. By assessing a modest fee
on transactions, we can raise revenue from those who can
afford it while discouraging the unproductive speculation
that puts our economy at risk. And frankly, Wall Street owes
us. The tax offers an antidote to austerity and a rallying
cry that hard-core occupiers, Democratic senators, and
reality-based conservatives can all get behind.

Consider the coalition of European Union countries backing
the tax, led by new French Socialist President Francois
Hollande and German conservative Angela Merkel. "We are
behind where the state of the debate is in Europe," says
Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the
Institute for Policy Studies. Though European conservatives
peddle austerity, says Anderson, they have "more of a clear
understanding that governments need to raise revenue, and
that this is a practical way to do it right now, when there’s
such a crushing need." While media reports have focused on
the majority of EU countries that didn’t get behind the FTT
at last week’s European Commission meeting, Anderson says
proponents’ immediate goal was always to pull together enough
countries for what the EU calls "enhanced cooperation." They
needed at least nine nations; they now have ten.  Anderson
expects successful implementation and new revenue in those
countries will shift the debate for the holdouts, including
the UK and the USA.

To read more, go to
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/katrina-vanden-heuvel

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