Groups Tell US: 'Get on Board with Robinhood Tax'

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/29-0



WASHINGTON - On Friday, 62 civil-society organizations charged the U.S. State Department with spreading “misinformation” regarding the feasibility of levying a small tax on stock sales and other financial transactions, revenues from which could be used for national and international public goods.

Referring to a July meeting of the United Nations that discussed long-term financing options to help countries deal with the effects of climate change, a letter sent Friday to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accuses a member of the U.S. negotiating team of “misstatements”. The letter requests that the U.S. government “not discourage other countries from supporting this tax”.

Calls for such a levy, known as a financial transaction tax (FTT, also called a Robin Hood tax), have been gaining strength in the United States and abroad in recent months. Proponents suggest that such an approach could not only raise hundreds of billions of dollars for use in mass-scale efforts towards health, education or climate change, but could also cut down on the type of computerized high-speed trading that facilitates damaging commodities speculation.

The letter comes just ahead of a follow-up to the July meeting, which next week will again discuss potential ways to fund the estimated hundred-billion-dollar-a-year effort to mitigate and prepare for the effects of climate change. The talks are meant to lead to a report that will guide the U.N.’s thinking on the issue of climate finance.