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The idea to introduce a special tax on financial transactions is all but new. Also named “Tobin Tax” after James Tobin, the Nobel Laureate American economist, the financial transaction tax (FTT) was first suggested in 1972 shortly after the Bretton Woods system of monetary management ended in 1971. The initial idea behind the mechanism was to try to influence the behavior of actors on the financial markets in a more rational and non-speculative sense. Indeed, in the mind of James Tobin, such a tax was only designed to reduce speculation in the international currency markets, which he saw as dangerous and unproductive.
After 2008 and the starting of the financial crisis, the idea of the introduction of a FTT popped up again, but with a much wider scope than the tax...
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