Quote from: labestiol on July 07, 2011, 05:57:03 PM

Quote from: tomcollins on July 07, 2011, 05:00:25 PM

Quote from: niemivh on July 07, 2011, 04:47:51 PM

Quote from: Atlas on July 04, 2011, 09:06:14 PM

Quote from: niemivh on July 04, 2011, 09:00:16 PM

Quote from: tsvekric on July 04, 2011, 08:20:40 PM

a 1% Tobin tax is extremely high. Most Tobin tax proposals have been a fraction of that amount and would still have significant distortionary effects according to any of the positive studies done.

I also do not see a problem with HFT or speculation on its own.

And why is this posted in Bitcoin Economics?

Most free-marketeers don't see are unable to see the incredible bias of all economists. They believe that free markets are the solution to all our woes and that all economists (at least on their side) have no stake in the fight.

Can I see some of those studies? It's likely that I've seen them before and that they are totally wrong, well not 'wrong' just biased in favor of those who produce nothing and suck of the real economy (not referring to speculation in general, just HFT). The resistance to a Tobin tax is not some benign triviality, it is through a lack of this tax that the system is largely gamed at present and there are people making an incredible pile of money in the process.

Let the people make a pile of money. Wealth is not limited unless you set it up that way from the start.

So it's ok for people to make money off of other people without their knowledge or benefit at all? And that somehow trading money back and forth with algorithms to exploit technicalities in an exchange system is creating "wealth"?

People make money "off" people without their knowledge all the time. Why is that wrong? For example, my mortgage was sold to another company. Someone else is making money off of me! Oh noes! The benefit is liquidity. No one is forcing people to sell at these prices, no one is given special access to make bids or asks.

Do you favor banning poker since some people might be better than others and "take money" from them?

In poker, people agree to play, and understand the risk. With HFT, everyone is paying the price, even if they don't want to play the game.

About speculation and price discovery, of course we need speculators, question is how much (how much accurate we want the price to be). And tobin tax is a very efficient way to set the limit.

And sorry about OP hopes, but Sarkozy don't really care about this. I guess he just said that during the election campain, or at some point when he needed a nice popularity poll.

Glad to see another person who gets it.

Wink

The Tobin Tax has a lot more support and traction in the EU than it does in the states. Sarkozy is a scumbag, the Tobin Tax idea has been around for decades and he's obviously trying to improve his approval rating from the 20% range.