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  1. Havakasha is offline
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    11-03-2011, 02:04 PM #1

    Bill Gates Aims for Robin Hood Tax

    S&L do you read Politico? Its Conservative leaning.
    Remember Bill Gates? lol
    This article adds a little more substance to your attempt to pigeonhole Gates.

    Bill Gates aims for 'Robin Hood' tax


    Gates will encourage countries to raise their foreign spending to 0.7 percent of GDP. | AP Photo Close
    By TIM MAK | 11/3/11 11:49 AM EDT

    Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates will tell the G-20 Thursday that they could raise $48 billion to fight global poverty by levying a “Robin Hood” tax on the trading of bonds and shares.

    Gates will talk about the transaction tax - dubbed by some as a “Robin Hood” tax - when he speaks before the G-20 to deliver a report commissioned by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on international development, according to The Guardian.

    “It is very plausible that certain kinds of FTTs [financial transaction taxes] could work. I am lending some credibility to that. This money could be well spent and make a difference. An FTT is more possible now than it was a year ago, but it won’t be at rates that magically raise gigantic sums of money,” Gates told the British newspaper.

    Estimates are that the Robin Hood tax could bring in $50 billion a year.

    The Microsoft founder will talk about the financial transaction tax even as it would be a hard sell for the U.K. and the United States. Gates will also mention tobacco taxes and taxes on shipping and aviation fuel as other ways to raise money for global development, says the Guardian.

    In addition, Gates will encourage countries to raise their foreign spending to 0.7 percent of GDP, a United Nations target.

    On Wednesday, consumer advocate Ralph Nader wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal advocating for a transaction tax. “The passage of such a tax would be a great start for our representatives in Congress to show that they’ve heard the message” of the Occupy Wall Street movement, said Nader.

    Democratic members of Congress Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have introduced legislation that levies a 0.25 percent transaction tax on the value of stocks, bonds and derivatives transactions. It is unlikely to pass a Republican House which is dead set against raising taxes.



    Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories...#ixzz1cfNhxX9p

  2. Havakasha is offline
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    11-03-2011, 03:24 PM #2
    "Robin Hood tax" gaining support at G20

    (AP) CANNES, France - Activists are pressuring global leaders meeting for the Group of 20 summit to impose higher taxes on financial transactions in order to raise millions of dollars to fight poverty and deprivation around the world.
    Groups including Oxfam, the World Wildlife Foundation and others organized events Thursday around the chic resort town of Cannes on France's Cote d'Azur to draw attention to the so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions.

    Multibillionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates joined the call, traveling to Cannes to urge G-20 leaders to consider the tax and other innovative ways to help poor nations.

    British actor Bill Nighy led an Oxfam news conference promoting the so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Cannes.

    "I am here specifically to promote on behalf of Oxfam the Robin Hood tax," Nighy said. "A tiny tax, fifty pence, in English terms, on every 1,000 pounds (1,596 dollars) generated on the kind of casino-style sterile, nonproductive banking that takes place in cyber space."

    Other organizations staged an event at a casino — well away from where the world leaders were meeting at the Palais des Festivals, where Cannes' famous film festival is held.

    Activists dressed as nurses created an emergency room setting where they administered a phony saline drip, meant to represent the financial transaction tax, to a person painted in full body art to resemble the globe.

    In a separate protest, activists from the French health charity Doctors of the World were temporarily removed from the summit's media center after they tried to hang a banner calling on G-20 leaders to give more money to improve health and living conditions in the developing world.

  3. SiriuslyLong is offline
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    11-03-2011, 05:23 PM #3
    Sounds like a decent idea. A small transaction fee might be a good idea on traders, but I would like to understand the effect on the little guys like me who technically buys bonds and stocks through my 401k and IRA. I mean I don't want to pay more taxes when I buy more SIRI when I'm already paying a commission; know what I'm saying?

  4. Havakasha is offline
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    11-04-2011, 12:46 AM #4
    THU NOV 03, 2011 AT 08:00 PM PDT
    Tax the rich. Just don't call it a Robin Hood tax.
    byLaura Clawson
    Reposted from Daily Kos Labor by Laura Clawson

    A financial speculation tax (PDF) is a good policy. Imposing a tiny percentage tax on sales of stocks, futures, options and other financial transactions could raise tens of billions of dollars to create jobs and rebuild our infrastructure and safety net, while reducing the kind of short-term financial speculation that has so damaged our economy.
    "Robin Hood tax" is a terrible name for it.

    Don't get me wrong. I love Robin Hood. The Errol Flynn Robin Hood movie is one of my all-time favorites, a movie so beloved that my childhood dog was named after it. And in the legend, Robin Hood was a righter of wrongs, someone who fought for the 99 percent. But the shorthand for Robin Hood's signature activity is "steal from the rich and give to the poor." As much as I support Robin Hood's activities, that's not what we're talking about here, on two levels.

    First, instituting a tiny tax on financial transactions isn't theft. It's just not, on any level or by any reasonable definition. But if you start framing one kind of tax as theft, you legitimize the general frame that taxation = theft. Republicans would love for us to spread that idea.

    Second, what would be done with the money raised by a financial speculation tax would not be "giving" and it wouldn't be about "the poor." The government would be collecting a tax for the support of services and investments that benefit all of us. That's the function of government, for heaven's sake! Neither would the poor be the only ones to see the benefits in a strengthened economy and services. Some of the revenues would doubtless be spent on programs targeting poverty, and that's a good thing, but thinking about the money raised by such a tax as dedicated only to poor people would be lousy policy and even worse politics.

    So, please, pass the financial speculation tax bill being put forward by Rep. Peter DeFazio and Sen. Tom Harkin, which would institute a fee of just $0.03 per $100 financial trade. But come up with a better name for it than "Robin Hood tax."