Ask your reps to support a STET tax.

[dhpgetsit]

Along with 22 other House members, Congressman Peter DeFazio today introduced a bill to tax stock trades and other Wall Street transactions.

“The American taxpayers bailed out Wall Street during a crisis brought on by reckless speculation in the financial markets,” the 4th District Democrat said in a statement. “This legislation will force Wall Street to do their part and put people displaced by that crisis back to work.”

The bill would assesses a securities transaction tax of one-fourth of 1 percent.

http://www.democratherald.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_bcabc5e0-e04e-11de-8d9e-001cc4c002e0.html

I think this tax is extremely modest and well targeted. It will help Wall Street move away from being a gambling casino and toward being a marketplace for long term investment in american companies. Naturally the Wall Street types will oppose this furiously, but I think we all know thay can easily afford it.

[rurallib]

1. Heard about this a while back. Seems reasonable to me.

Do you know if any other country is doing this?

[dhpgetsit]

3. We had a tax like this until the mid 60s.

UK and some other modern countries also have similar taxes.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. It'll be painted as taxing retirement plans.

As long as 401k's are one of the primary means for retirement savings, this will be a very tough sell. If they can figure out a way to somehow leave that out, it'll have a better shot, but it's probably too simplistic in its current form.

[dhpgetsit]

4. There is specific language in it exempting IRAs, 401Ks and such.

[jgraz]

5. It's totally the right thing to do

So, of course, Timmeh is against it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a2qbtpx46gIU&pos=3

[dhpgetsit]

6. I'm not surprised that he would think of his Wall Sreet buddies first.

And his future as a Wall Street CEO.

Screw him.