-----  ACTION ALERT  MARCH 2001-----

World Social Forum - Porto Alegre - Jan 25-30, 2001

Robin Round
Policy Analyst
Halifax Initiative Coalition

We use money everyday. Money is a tool; a means to simplify transactions in an economy based on the exchange of goods and services. But the way most of us use money is old fashioned, out of date. Money is no longer a means of exchange but an end in itself. We live in the era of the commodification of money, an era where money has become divorced from the real economy it was originally designed to serve.

 
 
"Taxing Currency Transactions for Development"
January 2001
 

ABSTRACT

Currency transactions taxes such as the Tobin-type tax 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 urrency and bond markets, the world’s biggest banks and investment firms do. This tax will hit them.

Revised 1999

Here's a brief summary of events since our last update :

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT - MOTION? WHAT MOTION? 
The federal government has made no formal effort to act on the endorsement given to it by Canadians and is, in fact, actively downplaying the Tobin tax motion. Although Finance Minister Paul Martin assured Halifax Initiative representatives, at a meeting in Washington in April, that he had raised the Tobin tax informally with Finance Ministers, actions in Canada and abroad reveals a failure of commitment and a betrayal of the democratic process.

June 11, 1999

To the leaders of the Group of Seven nations,

At next week's Summit in Cologne, you will be discussing new directions for public policy governing global markets in order to help prevent or mitigate future financial crises. Measures currently under discussion, including strengthened financial sector supervision, surveillance and transparency, while commendable if adopted, are insufficient to prevent future crises. Similar measures endorsed at your Summit in Halifax in1995 in the wake of the Mexican peso crisis, although not fully adopted, were unable to prevent or even anticipate the South East Asian crash of 1997. Clearly, bolder measures are required.

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.

The world of international finance has become a global gambling casino, w

Congratulations to everyone who made the historic passage of the Tobin tax motion possible!