Comments on: Tax the Hell Out of Wall Street; Give it to Main Street

By: James

James — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:56:09 +0000

Alex, day traders are not “video game players.” Many are just people trying to make a living, no different from you or me. I know of stay-at-home moms who have learned to trade to try to earn extra money to support their family. It’s disgusting to see you refer to such people as “video game players” or as “unproductive.”
They are trying to make ends meet just like anyone else.

And traders DO provide a service to Americans. They provide liquidity to the markets. They are the ones that allow you to make money in your 401K. If you are a long term investor, the traders are the ones that give you the liquidity to give you a good price. Just because you can’t “see” the service or order it or something like that doesn’t mean they don’t provide a service. And on top of that, the money they make is then spent into the economy which is beneficial to everyone.

And, the fact is, there is practically NO difference between the investor and trader. The ONLY difference is their time horizon. Otherwise they’re doing the exact same thing. So you are wrong to differentiate the “video game playing day trader” from the “well meaning investor” when essentially they are the same…just one has a time horizons of minutes or hours while the other has a time horizon of months or years. But otherwise they are the same.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:20:16 +0000

Video Game playing day traders will stay in a stock for all of 2 minutes and some of the cheap tricks for scaring money from well meaning investors are just pathetic. The burden of social support should be put upon the unproductive whose activity doesn’t contribute a lick to Americans only themselves. Its really the problem at the core of all our troubles, that sociopath
in the individual who has nothing but disdain for society enlarge.
Their cynical trickle down, supply side beliefs are nothing but excuses to extract their livings from folks who have their guard down ..predatory. Some of them may even have to find …work. Admit it, thats why you got into it, you’d rather sit in front of your monitor all day and avoid work.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:47:24 +0000

On Friday, February 13, U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio, introduced H.R. 1068: “Let Wall Street Pay for Wall Street’s Bailout Act of 2009”, which aims to impose a 0.25% transaction tax on the “sale and purchase of financial instruments such as stock, options, and futures.”

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1068.IH:

By: Kelly Lefkowitz

Kelly Lefkowitz — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:52:38 +0000

Mark:

Unique idea to collect tax on each share traded. Seriously, I would pay a 10 cent a share tax since I don’t buy many shares. In addition, we could collect for auto liability insurance at the gas pump. I have a short commute and a gas efficient car. We could collect for health insurance at the sale of every pack of cigarettes, bag of pork rinds, and every Big Mac (or even a tax per gallon of high fructose corn syrup). I also don’t smoke or eat fast food and I don’t drink soda (excuse me… being from Pgh. “pop”)

Seriously, $52 billion would be good. Nice solution.

Kelly

By: Reality

Reality — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:21:25 +0000

You are an idiot.

By: Brandon D. Taylor

Brandon D. Taylor — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:00:00 +0000

Unreal, I am absolutely against this unbelievably naive opinion.

By: FLC

FLC — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:41:39 +0000

There is no need to tax in a fiat based economy, government can just print the money.

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:47:08 +0000

Every tax like this starts out as a “good idea.” No tax is ever repealed. The result is that the government(s) layer taxes upon taxes, increasing the overall tax burden for everyone.

By: Sachiko

Sachiko — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:21:38 +0000

I recently posted my own version of this idea – just click on my name to see it.

I believe it addresses the main criticisms of Mark’s proposal, and improves on it.

By: DonMac

DonMac — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:54:31 +0000

An excellent idea. This would slow down the people who churn stocks all day. If a stock os up at closing, they will sell tomorrow at opening, the re-buy during the day and re sell

I’d like to see a “sunset” on this. Make it 10c in the beginning, then reduce it ti 5c when Wall Street pays the US Treasury the $700 Billion.

Re-Enact laws that outlaw ‘Bucket Shops”. No more casino gambling on Wall Street with deritiatives and credit default swaps.