Updated January 22, 2006
Page révisée
le 22 janvier 2006
[ Go
to Canadian Social Research Links Home Page ]
In 1978, James Tobin, a Nobel prizewinning American economist, proposed a very small tax on foreign exchange transactions to deter short-term currency speculation. Such speculation wreaks havoc on national budgets, economic planning and allocation of resources. Events including the Mexican peso crisis in 1994 and recent currency devaluations in Thailand and Southeast Asia have led to calls by governments and citizens for measures to curb currency speculation.
"Global currency trade amounts to approximately $1.3 trillion per day (by comparison, on the US stock market - NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ combined - a "tiny" $10 billion per day is traded). Of this massive amount - cross-border purchases of goods and services which require foreign exchange account for only 2 percent ($5 trillion per year) of the total trading. Another $50 trillion per year (about 17 percent) of foreign exchange trading takes place with futures, options and derivatives to hedge against future exchange rate fluctuations. Exchange rate speculation - short or long term profit-seeking transactions - accounts for the remaining transactions, at least 80 percent. These speculative movements, which can take place rapidly and unpredictably, threaten to empty central banks' currency reserves. James Tobin, David Felix, Rodney Schmidt,
Paul Bernd Spahn and others have examined the possibility of levying a charge
on international monetary transactions as a means to reduce exchange rate volatility
and promote international economic stability. In addition, considering that annual
currency trading is 10 times the global GNP, the revenue generating potential
of a tax is tremendous. A modest 0.25 percent tax would generate over $300 billion
per year (the total UN annual budget is about $10 billion) for peace and sustainable
development." |
Global
Policy Forum
New York
"Global Policy Forum monitors policy
making at the United Nations, promotes accountability of global decisions, educates
and mobilizes for global citizen participation, and advocates on vital issues
of international peace and justice."
Tobin
Tax Network Position Paper on the International Finance Facility
Tobin
Tax Network
Fall 2003
Non-Aligned
Nations Must Lead Financial Reform – India
February 23, 2003
"Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has called for a Tobin tax to
protect the world’s developing economies. Vajpayee pointed out that a tax
on currency transactions would be easier to implement than the measures to monitor
terrorist financial channels introduced in two Security Council resolutions after
9/11. (Inter Press Service)"
Tobin
Tax, the Movement and the Identity Crisis of the Left
October
23, 2002
"This article argues that the Porto Alegre movement has focused
too much on the revenue aspect of the Tobin tax and too little on the original
purposes of the tax: to stablize markets and give states more control over economic
policy. (ATTAC)"
Currency
Transaction Taxes (from the Global Policy Forum site)
- incl. links
to over 60 featured proposals, analyses and articles about currency transaction
taxes, from 2004 right back to the original Proposal for Monetary Reform
by
James Tobin in 1978.
Stamp
out Poverty: Campaigning for a Stamp Duty on Currency Transactions
(PDF file - 749K, 12 pages)
April 7, 2005
The Tobin Tax Network has launched
a campaign pushing the UK government to introduce a small tax on sterling currency
transactions.
Stamp
Out Poverty
Stamp Out Poverty works to raise billions of pounds through
innovative sources of revenue to bridge the massive funding gap required to bring
the world’s poorest people out of poverty. We are a network of more than
50 UK organisations, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, UNISON and War on Want, who
have developed ideas such as taxing the banks on their trade in currencies, so
that those that most benefit from globalisation give something back to those unlikely
to see any of globalisation’s benefits. Working as part of MakePovertyHistory,
the campaign saw great progress in 2005 with an agreement by several countries
including the UK and France to set up an Air Ticket Levy to finance development
as early as February 2006.
Currency
Transaction Tax
Money has become a commodity rather than a means of
exchange, trading at a volume of over US$ 1.2 trillion dollars per day. This enormous
amount moves around the world without restriction, seeking maximum short-term
profit. When currency speculators “bet” against a currency and rapidly
withdraw billions from a country, they wreck havoc on its economy and people’s
lives. Leading economists, including the late James Tobin, Rodney Schmidt, Paul
Bernd Spahn and others have proposed that the international trade in currencies
be taxed in order to promote international economic stability and help prevent
financial crises. A global citizen’s movement has emerged in support of the
currency transactions tax, or “Tobin” tax as it is often called. The
tax is a means to reassert national economic sovereignty, help prevent financial
crises and generate billions of dollars for global social development and environmental
protection.
War
on Want - United Kingdom
"War on Want fights poverty in developing
countries in partnership and solidarity with people affected by globalisation.
We campaign for workers' rights and against the root causes of global poverty,
inequality and injustice."
ATTAC
(Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens)
Links to groups in 16 countries advocating a Tobin Tax, including
Canada (in French only, immediately below)
- ATTAC-Québec
(Association pour la Taxation des Transactions pour l'Aide aux Citoyens)
National
Union of Public and General Employees Globalization Web Page
Globalization, and the corporate agenda it supports, have
resulted in a tremendous redistribution of power, away from government and people,
towards the market and corporations.
NUPGE
publications on globalization - download over a dozen reports (in PDF
format) on such topics as : currency speculators - NUPGE at the WTO in Seattle
- the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) - economic disarmament
- Canada’s place in the new world economy - the impact of the (GATS) on Provincial
Governments - and much more...
Tobin Tax time (May 1999 editorial, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - CCPA Monitor)
Tobin
Tax Motion Passes in Canada's Parliament
March
24, 1999
| Tobin
Taxes Update - February 2001 Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 From: Ruthanne Cecil <cecilr@humboldt1.com> (copied from the e-mail newsletter) - incl. -- Labor leaders support CTTs (including AFL-CIO, DGB, NUPGE) - Prime Minister of India in support of Tobin-style taxes - Country reports on CTT activism (Porto Alegre) - Letters to the editor - Definition of Tobin Taxes. | Winter
2001 Tobin Taxes Update (U.S) February 2001 - Editorial, activist news (Social Summit, Geneva, Montreal, World Social Forum, etc.), links, announcements... |
Tobin
Taxes Update
May 2001
The
Tobin Taxes Update is a monthly newsletter of the Tobin Tax Initiative USA. Tobin
Taxes are domestic taxes on cross-border currency transactions, for the purpose
of reining in market volume and volatility; restoring national sovereignty over
monetary policy; and raising substantial revenue for urgent global environmental
and human needs.
Source : The
Tobin Tax Initiative (U.S.)
The
Tobin Tax : Shifting the Tax Burden from Wages to Wagers
Short
description of the Tobin Tax initiative plus links to six papers
Source : The
Center for Economic and Policy Research (U.S.)
Tobin
Tax Initiative - U.K.
- sister organization in
in the United Kingdom.
Tobin
Tax Campaign and Policy Network
Links to groups
promoting the Tobin Tax around the world, including Canada
The
Tobin Tax in the US Congress
April 2000
The full text of the DeFazio-Wellstone Initiative on Tobin-style
Taxes
International Links
to Tobin Tax information - (excerpt from the above paper - all of these
links are active)
| Key organisations CIDSE,
Belgium (International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity Online Documents Seattle
opens way for Tobin Tax ATTAC. Newsletter (December 22, 1999). . http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/glotax/currtax/tobin.htm
The Tobin Tax and Exchange Rate Stability (Spahn, P.-B.,
1996).. Finance and Development, Vol. 33, June, pp 24 -27 http://csdngo.igc.org/finance/fin_tobin.htm |
GLOBAL
POLICY FORUM
New York
"Global
Policy Forum monitors policy making at the United Nations, promotes accountability
of global decisions, educates and mobilizes for global citizen participation,
and advocates on vital issues of international peace and justice."
Social
and Economic Policy
Human
Rights and Transnational Corporations
Bretton
Woods Institutions & the World Trade Organization
Alternative
Financing for the UN and Global Taxes and Charges
| BACK TO CANADIAN SOCIAL RESEARCH LINKS HOME PAGE | RETOUR À LA PAGE D'ACCUEIL - SITES DE RECHERCHE SOCIALE AU CANADA |
| TIP:
How to Search for a Word or Expression on a Single Web Page Open any web page in your browser, then hold down the Control ("Ctrl") key on your keyboard and type the letter F to open a "Find" window. Type or paste in a key word or expression and hit Enter - your browser will go directly to the first occurrence of that word (or those exact words, as the case may be). To continue searching using the same keyword(s) throughout the rest of the page, keep clicking on the FIND NEXT button. Try it. It's a great time-saver! |
Site
created and maintained by:
Gilles
Séguin (This link takes you to my personal page)
