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US campaigners launch Robin Hood tax plan to outlaw Wall Street excess
2012-06-19 00:00:00
<p>Actor Mark Ruffalo and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello<br />
have launched a new US campaign for a "Robin Hood tax", a<br />
small levy on Wall Street transactions that organisers say<br />
could generate hundred of billions of dollars a year.</p>
<p>The campaign, backed by National Nurses United, the largest<br />
nursing union in the US, has already launched in 14<br />
countries, including the UK, France and Germany.</p>
<p>Organisers of the campaign, which also features Coldplay<br />
singer Chris Martin, are calling for a tax of "less than<br />
half of 1%" on Wall Street transactions, which they say<br />
would not affect most Americans' financial activity.</p>
<p>Adopting the 99% language of the Occupy movement, the<br />
campaign said the tax would "easy to enforce and tough to<br />
evade".</p>
<p>"This is a tax on Wall Street, which created the greatest<br />
economic crisis in our nation and globally since the Great<br />
Depression," a statement said on the movement's website.</p>
<p>"The same people who have returned to record profits and<br />
bonuses while ordinary Americans, the 99%, continue to pay<br />
the price of their crisis."</p>
<p>Supporters are encouraged to take a $1 bill and draw a Robin<br />
Hood-style hat on George Washington's head</p>
<p>A video released to coincide with the launch encourages<br />
supporters to take a $1 bill and draw a Robin Hood- style hat<br />
on George Washington's head along with a mask over his eyes<br />
"because the government is robbing our people at this<br />
particular point".</p>
<p>In a blogpost on the campaign's website, Ruffalo said that<br />
the "tragic irony" of the financial crisis was that "while<br />
ordinary Americans are still picking up the pieces today,<br />
those most responsible - Wall Street - have returned to their<br />
stranger-than-fiction reality".</p>
<p>"A Robin Hood Tax would raise revenue from Wall Street while<br />
reining in their worst excesses - helping to rebalance the<br />
American economy," Ruffalo said.</p>
<p>"For all these big ambitions, the tax is surprisingly small:<br />
less than half of 1%, or about 50¢ on every $100 of trades.<br />
It would apply not to ordinary Americans (the rate is set so<br />
low precisely to avoid impacting ordinary people and<br />
businesses) but to Wall Street's sprawling, churning<br />
predatory casino-style trading that helped drive the<br />
financial crisis. We're talking high- frequency trades<br />
carried out by computer algorithms, billion-dollar bets on<br />
currency fluctuations, credit default swaps and other<br />
derivatives.</p>
<p>"Because these financial markets have grown so large, the tax<br />
is capable of raising hundreds of billions of dollars a<br />
year. Money that could stop foreclosures, fund new jobs and<br />
help repair the social safety net in the US."</p>
<p>Since the first Robin Hood Tax campaign launched in the UK in<br />
2010 it has been supported by economists, charities and<br />
various celebrities. Bill Gates gave his backing to the tax<br />
last year, presenting a report - Innovation with Impact -<br />
commissioned by Nicolas Sarkozy to the G20 meeting in<br />
Cannes.</p>
<p>The US campaign launch comes after hundreds of registered<br />
nurses travelled to Chicago in May, demonstrating with Rage<br />
Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello for the Robin Hood<br />
Tax ahead of the Nato summit.</p>
<p>On Tuesday supporters were expected to rally at JP Morgan<br />
Chase's offices in New York, the demonstration coinciding<br />
with JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon appearing in front<br />
of Congress. Dimon will be quizzed by the house financial<br />
services committee over his bank losing $2bn on high-risk<br />
derivative trading.</p>
<p>[photo - andertoons - http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=10313100&searchId=57a0c808b146307f45efe32333c8747b&npos=10</p>
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