The Untaxed Americans: The Speculators, Hustlers, and Freeloaders of Wall Street

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https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/17-1



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1. The Top Four "Freest Economies" All Have FTTs

As of March 2014, Hong Kong and Singapore and Australia and Switzerland were the top four countries on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom, and they ALL have FTTs (Table 2-9). Critics might argue that other non-FTT taxes are lower in Singapore and Hong Kong. But the World Bank dataset shows the U.S. with lower tax revenues as a percentage of GDP, and the CIA World Factbook shows little difference in the same measure. Economic freedom is not restricted by reasonable taxes on financial transactions. Economies may, in fact, be made freer by encouraging small-business investment over high-frequency trading.

2. The Top "Sin Tax" Candidate is Not Taxed At All

Cigarettes and beer are understandably taxed a lot, and then taxed some more. But the most dangerous product out there -- derivatives -- has a ZERO sales tax on it. The trading of high-frequency securities and derivatives and commodities is a quadrillion dollar industry without a sales tax. A quadrillion dollars. That's a billion times a million. It represents the notional value of trading, which is like a trip to Strawberry Fields, where nothing is real. With regard to derivatives it's the sum total of the transitory high-frequency trading that gets so convoluted that no one knows who owns anything anymore. It's the high-risk type of financial chicanery that nearly brought down the entire economy. But purchases are not taxed.

While average Americans pay up to a 10% sales tax on necessities, millionaire investors pay just a .00002% SEC fee (2 cents for every thousand dollars) for a financial instrument. And some Wall Streeters claim, inexplicably after the disastrous trading frenzy in 2008, that an FTT would increase volatility.

3. Quadrillion-Dollar Trader CME Has the Highest Profit Margin in the Corporate World

The annual trading volume for the Chicago Mercantile Group (CME), made up of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, is over $1 quadrillion. From 2008 to 2010 the company had a profit margin higher than any of the top 100 companies in the nation, and its profit margin has reached new heights since then. The most lucrative buyer-seller arrangement in the nation is not subject to a sales tax.

CME traders use publicly-funded infrastructure, technology, systems of law, and security to process the billions of financial transactions that generate their profits. Yet CME demanded and received an $85 million tax break from the State of Illinois.

4. The Wall Street 'Liquidity' Argument is Bull Roar

Investopedia defines 'liquidity' as "The degree to which an asset or security can be bought or sold in the market without affecting the asset's price. Liquidity is characterized by a high level of trading activity." As the New York Times reports, "The 'liquidity' high-frequency trading provides is long past the point of being helpful. When high-speed trading was new, trading costs for all investors seemed to dip, but that trend has stopped, suggesting a point of diminished returns."