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Originally Posted by Chrysalis
are you suggesting no action should be taken on the cause of the current problems simply because it will damage the city of london? with or without europe I strongly support any action that curbs what the bankers are doing.
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No I am not suggesting that no action be taken, what I am suggesting is that a transactional tax applied to London for what is nearly 37% of all Globex trading in the world will see that $1.3trillion throughput per day go elsewhere and destroy the City of London and put in jeopardy 1.3million jobs and 11% of the treasury total tax take.
It is a certainty that the application of a Tobin tax would turn the City of London into a comparative ghost town and the European inner core would never see the 50billion Euros they theoretically thought it would raise for their benefit. It was a spoiling tactic with no winners and us as the biggest losers.
There is a public anger against the banks and rightly so but it has nothing to do with the operation of the major clearing of Globex trading in the City of London. That operation facilitates global trade and as a facilitating middle man makes a fortune for the UK.
The problems within the banking sector stem directly from the repeals of the Glass Steagall act which was brought in to separate retail and speculative banking arms of banks. In 1999 that was repealed and progressively banks valued themselves including retail holdings of private and business clients and traded massively in derivatives which risked not only their own worth but that of its client base deposits. Something that had kept the banking system safe from the 1930's was thrown away on I believe Clinton's watch and we followed suit. Greed overcame prudence and here we are again with the problems the act was designed to protect against.
The answer is the re-imposition of the measures that served the banking industry for so long which involves a reversion back to the total separation of retail and speculative banking.
For the public it is overly easy once a prejudice has been set for a reaction against anything and everything to do with a sector which invariably means that the good and bad get lumped into a convenient parcel. The public generally are led by one liners and few bother to unravel the details to understand what went wrong and how.
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so clegg finally grown some balls and got some morals back.
I wonder how many on this forum export any product or sell services to europe, I get the impression very little do as there is a clear anti eu vibe on here. The fact some are even suggesting the uk could just carry on without eu trade highliughts that.
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Clegg will never redeem a moral stance as he cannot even keep a signed pledge. He is just complaining because he was left out of the loop and is responding egotistically.
Looks like you may be concerned personally. Vested interests do not make for sound judgements whether it be millions or pennies. We, as a country, have been manipulated into a no win position and the way forward must be for the good of the country which means all of us.
There is a raft of bond sales due in Europe starting tomorrow. Germany's last bond sales in November was a failure and if the summit was deemed to be a failure to address the underlying problems, which it patently was, then the prospect of further escalating problems is fairly high.
Merkel will not\cannot commit Germany's financial might behind the problem and is seeking every solution bar the unpalatable ones to Germany. Therein lies the Achilles heel. Should the markets decide not to buy bonds from European countries, Germany may be isolated in the midst of desperate countries and be forced to act or Europe is lost.
These political\financial strategies are played out over decades and it may prove, in time, that we have lost a battle but avoided being the metaphoric losers of a war.