The Tobin Tax

Many years ago, there was much talk of Tobin taxes.  The idea - then - was that a tax would be imposed on every speculative financial transaction.  Trillions of dollars flow around the world each day just to make more money.  The revenue generated from the tax would then be invested in developing countries.

It was a Development Economist's dream.

Now talk of Tobin Taxes are back with President Sarkozy pushing for their re-introduction, but this time he  is looking for the revenue to fund the government bail-outs of banks.  Hmmm, less worthy.  More from the BBC here.

From an economics point of view taxes are meant as a disincentive.  That is why we tax cigarettes and alcohol.  Does this mean that we now see the pursuit of greed as bad?