CTT Campaigns

Sections

Personal tools

You are here: Home » FTT in America. Obama's "Financial Stability Fee"

FTT in America. Obama's "Financial Stability Fee"

Last week the coalition Americans for Financial Reform discussed the Financial Transactions Tax (FTT). Sarah Anderson from Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC, comments on the issue.

- I'm very excited to see this statement from European allies, since some of us in the United States are hoping to making the FTT a higher priority in this country, writes Sarah Anderson in response to the "Make them pay for their crisis"-statement posted here earlier today.

- I also want to point out that Obama expressed his support for a tax on U.S. financial transactions when he was on the campaign trail. This is from a speech he gave in La Crosse, Wisconsin on October 1, 2008: "I've proposed a Financial Stability Fee on the financial services industry so Wall Street foots the bill -- not the American taxpayer. And as I modernize the financial system to create new rules of the road to prevent another crisis, we will continue this fee to build up a reserve so that if this happens again, it will be the money contributed by banks that's put at risk."

Since then, however, President Obama has not pushed the idea. We're hoping to build more momentum around this now, and international solidarity could really help.

Sarah Anderson points to the position paper on FTT from the coalition Americans for Financial Reform. Their position paper is found there.

Last modified 2009-09-28 07:13 PM