The opportunity of our time: Stiglitz on the FTT
The Robin Hood Tax is one of the great opportunities of our time, says American Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
“The benefits are twofold,” he says in an article in the London Evening Standard.
“In general, the tax philosophy should be to tax bad things rather than good – so pollution should be taxed more than work and savings.” And in Stiglitz’s eyes, much of what bankers get up to qualifies as pollution. “Very little social returns come from short-term trading. It results in extreme volatility and excessive trading. So anything that discourages short-termism is to be encouraged.”
At the same time, the money collected can be used to perform a socially useful function.
“Does anybody seriously believe that anything happens because of the sort of micro-second trading we’re now seeing? It’s a function of speed. No investments are being made as a result of it, no jobs are being created.
“Finance has a vital socially important role to fulfil, which is to raise capital, to run payment systems, to oil the wheels of everything society does. But the bankers fail to perform that socially useful function — and because of that, the world’s economy has suffered.”
To read the full article in the London Evening Standard, written by Chris Blackhurst, click here.
One Response to “The opportunity of our time: Stiglitz on the FTT”
Show comments >>