Tobin Tax

The world of international finance has become a global gambling casino - money has become a commodity rather than a means of exchange. Speculators are not investing in the ‘real economy’, which generates jobs and produces goods and services but the ‘casino economy’ of currencies, bonds and complex financial “instruments”. While banks profit handsomely, an enormous human toll is extracted from citizens in countries including Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, Argentina and Brazil when currencies collapse and economic and social chaos ensues.

In the interest of economic and social stability, new measures designed to regulate unstable global financial markets have emerged, including a proposed tax on financial speculators.

Our goal is to institute a currency transactions tax (commonly known as a Tobin or Tobin-type tax) in countries around the world. Our campaign has focused on:

• helping pass the world’s first Parliamentary motion in support of the Tobin tax;
• critiquing the policies and practices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which sets the stage for financial crisis though its control over national economic decision-making and its insistence on widespread financial sector deregulation.
• developing a comprehensive website on the Tobin tax;
• hosting an international conference on the Tobin tax;
• raising the quality of global debate on the Tobin tax through research and education.