Financial Transaction Tax and the Fiscal Curb

Any chance the democrats would throw this idea into the negotiating mix on the fiscal curb?

History of the concept



John Maynard Keynes (1946) envisioned the financial transaction tax in 1936
The year 1694 saw an early implementation of a financial transaction tax in the form of a stamp duty at the London Stock Exchange. The tax was payable by the buyer of shares for the official stamp on the legal document needed to formalize the purchase. As of 2011, it is the oldest tax still in existence in Great Britain.[8] In 1936, in the wake of the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes advocated the wider use of financial transaction taxes.[4][9] He proposed the levying of a small transaction tax on dealings on Wall Street, in the United States, where he argued excessive speculation by uninformed financial traders increased volatility (see Keynes financial transaction tax below). In 1972, the Bretton Woods system for stabilizing currencies effectively came to an end. In that context, James Tobin, influenced by the work of Keynes, suggested his more specific currency transaction tax for stabilizing currencies on a larger global scale.[10] In 1989, Edgar Feige generalized the ideas of Keynes and Tobin by proposing a small flat rate tax on all transactions. This automated payment transaction tax was subsequently presented to the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform in Washington, DC.[11]. In December 1994, the economic crisis in Mexico hurt its currency. In that context, Paul Bernd Spahn re-examined the Tobin tax, opposed its original form, and instead proposed his own version in 1995.[12][13] In the context of the financial crisis of 2007–2010, many economists, governments, and organizations around the world re-examined, or were asked to re-examine, the concept of a financial transaction tax, or its various forms. As a result, various new forms of financial transaction taxes were proposed, such as the EU financial transaction tax.
[edit]Purpose

Although every financial transaction tax (FTT) proposal has its own specific intended purpose, there are some general intended purposes which are common to most of them. Below are some of those general commonalities. The intended purpose may or may not be achieved.