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Mix-Ansicht- Tobin: Zweifel an Tobin-Devisenumsatz-Steuer - André, 13.09.2001, 10:30
- Gleich noch ein Beitrag dazu - BossCube, 13.09.2001, 10:37
Tobin: Zweifel an Tobin-Devisenumsatz-Steuer
11:02 2001-09-13
TOBIN TAX DOES NOT CONVINCE…TOBIN
Tobin’s idea, hatched in 1971, which won him the Nobel Economics Prize ten years later, was to raise 0.5% on currency deals, which would in turn be paid to the World Bank. This organism would distribute the proceeds among eligible governments to finance Third World aid programmes. However, the measure was never put into effect. Twenty years on, EU finance ministers are about to debate his idea, but Tobin himself does not feel confident his idea will be adopted.
In an interview with the German publication, “Der Spiegel”, he stated that the EU discussion would probably be a “show”. He stated that yet another tax, his own, would aggravate the European economic sector even further and admitted that the Tobin tax was rejected by most of the world’s finance ministers.
Declaring himself vehemently against the anti-globalisation movements, and disassociating himself from these groups who use his idea as their own, he states that these people are taking his name in vain. “I am in favour of the IMF, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and all of this is contested by this (the anti-globalisation) movement”.
The Tobin tax is quite simply the levying of half a percent on currency deals. The original plan was to discourage speculation on the currency markets. Many investors were buying currency at extremely short-term rates. With currency being taken from the market, countries had to increase interest rates to make their moneys attractive. Since high interest rates do not normally go hand-in-hand with healthy economies, the Tobin tax was devised to take away the base cause of the cycle, namely speculation.
Tobin had intended for the tax to be handled by the IMF, since this body had experience with international exchange rate mechanisms. “I believe that the IMF should be increased and reinforced…the IMF and the World Bank are not part of a conspiracy called globalisation”.
James Tobin went further - he blamed many of the ills of Third World countries on themselves: “Poverty has many causes. The majority of these reside in the poor countries themselves. They cannot manage to impose the methods recommended by the adversaries of globalisation, for example, introducing international working criteria. Like this, they cease to be competitive whenever they try to export to richer markets”.
Another idea which is attractive in theory but impracticable in practice. The fact remains that the poorer countries remain poor because there is an unfair distribution of wealth, in the broad sense of the word. If the moneyed few at the top manage to control the economy, access to education and to work, they are the ones who control funds from aid schemes, bringing their people more and more heavily into debt. While nothing is done, nothing changes.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
LISBON PORTUGAL
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