Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Robin Hood Tax

The Robin Hood Tax is a tax on banks, hedge funds, and other financial institutions to help fight both global poverty and climate change.

"It would tax the trade in financial assets such as stocks, bonds and foreign exchange, traded both physically and as derivatives (options, forwards, futures and swaps). It would cover both those bought and sold on Exchanges and those traded Over the Counter (OTC). While OTC trades are technically more difficult to capture the long-term goal is for all financial transactions to be taxed."

According to the campaign, a 0.05% tax would be applied to financial transactions, and depending on the number of countries that agree to the tax, the goal is to raise $400 billion. $200 billion spent internationally and the other $200 billion spent domestically.

- Jaya Kollu