A new CCPA (National) report by Marc Lee and myself argues that Canada’s tax system needs a fairness overhaul and presents a framework for progressive tax reform. Those of you who have been following our tax work so far will find this study a great complement to the BC Tax Options Paper. Tax policy is an important lever for governments […]
Read moreAn international poll commissioned by the International Trade Union Confederation found very strong support in many countries, including Canada, for the introduction of Financial Transactions Taxes (FTTs), such as the Robin Hood Tax.  Trade unions provided results of this poll in their meetings with world leaders at the G20 meetings in Los Cabos, Mexico. Despite initially low recognition of FTTs in […]
Read moreThanks mostly to the superb campaigning by international development, poverty and environmental activists, there’s been remarkable progress in getting Europe to introduce financial transactions taxes, aka the Robin Hood Tax. Â Â Last month, the European Commission presented a proposal for a broad-based financial transactions tax in all 27 members states of the European Union. At a rate of 0.1 percent […]
Read moreThis is not the stuff of usual protests. Over the past month, a little idea from a Vancouver outfit has mushroomed into a cross-continent movement. Occupy Wall Street, kicked off by Adbusters in July and coming to Toronto this weekend, has already spread to 70 American cities and is going global as protestors challenge society to rethink how the economy […]
Read moreA thousand economists, including a fair number of PEF members, have signed the following letter in support of a financial transactions tax. The Guardian has published a story about the letter and posted the list of economists. UPDATE (April 15): This PDF version of the economists’ list is slightly updated and much easier to navigate. Dear G20 Finance Ministers and […]
Read moreHere is the trade union statement to the World Economic Forum, which begins today: A New Reality for Workers? Statement of Labour Leaders to the World Economic Forum Davos, Switzerland, 26 – 30 January 2011
Read moreThis morning Oxfam launched their “Robin Hood” (financial transactions) tax campaign in Canada with a press conference in Ottawa and the launch of their website.  Together with Oxfam officials, I spoke in favour of the tax from an economics perspective and Dale Marshall from the David Suzuki Foundation talked about how revenue raised from it should be used to help […]
Read moreHere is the link to a very good paper by Pierre Habbard of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD. http://www.tuac.org/en/public/e-docs/00/00/06/7C/document_doc.phtml The IMF appears to be consulting quite widely and with some sympathy to proponents of an FTT , so we may yet get a positive report to the G20, opening up a realistic possibility of agreement if Obama […]
Read moreI highly recommend a very convincing argument for the FTT by Stephan Schulmeister of the Austrian Institute for Economic Research. His paper  effectively counters the “rational markets” view that high volumes of speculative trading move stock, currency and commodity prices towards equilibrium values based on fundamentals. Instead, such trading moves prices away from fundamentals for extended periods, with significant result […]
Read moreOxfam are seeking endorsements of this letter by professional economists. If you want to sign on, please notify Sophie Freeman: SFreeman@Oxfam.org.uk Dear G20 As economists from across the world, we call on you to implement a financial transaction tax (FTT). This tax is an idea that has come of age. The financial crisis has shown us the dangers of unregulated […]
Read moreThe case for a Financial Transactions Tax or FTT has crept in from the margins remarkably quickly. One year ago, the proposal for an internationally co-ordinated “Tobin Tax†on foreign exchange transactions was a dim memory from the early part of the decade. Today, the idea of broadening such a tax to include a far wider range of transactions such […]
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