Conference Papers - Vancouver, October 4-6, 2001

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Between Oct 4 - 6, 2001, Halifax Initiative hosted a conference "Taxing Currency Transactions - From Feasibility to Implementation" which attracted sixty participants from eighteen countries including: Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. The progamme included an evening public forum on Oct 4th attended by over 110 people and the two-day conference.

Revised 1999

The Tobin-Type Tax - Debunking the Myths

(This article in Spanish is on this link)

Currency transactions taxes such as the Tobin-type tax 1 are often dismissed by critics before all the arguments have been heard. They view the tax as too difficult to adopt and too easy to avoid. Much criticism is ill-informed or designed to stifle debate. Here are the most common myths and our response to them:

A TOBIN-TYPE TAX WILL HIT THE POOR
The tax is a progressive one, designed to target only those profiting from destabilising currency speculation. The poor don't flip millions of dollars a day on currency and bond markets, the world's biggest banks and investment firms do. This tax will hit them.