Eliot Spitzer: Tax the Traders! It Would Solve Economic Crisis and Stop Reckless Activity

[99th_Monkey]

22. Fortunately, your opening assertion about Spitzer being "ill-informed"

saved me the trouble of reading the rest of your post. But since
you responded ...

The US is not the UK, and we live in a different time than when
this "stamp duty" was tried in the UK. Also you make an assertion
that "Goldman Sachs won't pay the tax - they ... will be exempt"
from the fees on trading that Spitzer's is proposing.

I'd be very interested in how Spitzer himself would answer how his
proposal is going to exempt Goldman Sachs from his proposed
transaction fees.

For starters, here's what Wiki says:

"Stamp duty was first introduced in England in 1694, during the reign of William and Mary under "An act for granting to Their Majesties several duties on Vellum, Parchment and Paper for 4 years, towards carrying on the war against France". Similar duties had been levied in the Netherlands. Stamp duty was so successful that it continues to this day through a series of Stamp Acts.

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, stamp duties were extended to cover newspapers, pamphlets, lottery tickets, apprentices' indentures, advertisements, playing cards, dice, hats, gloves, patent medicines, perfumes, insurance policies, gold and silver plate, hair powder and armorial bearings.

The attempted enforcement of the Stamp Act 1765 in the English colonies in America led to the outcry of no taxation without representation. The argument over stamp duty was a contributing factor to the outbreak of the American War of Independence.

"The scope of stamp duty has been reduced dramatically in recent years. Apart from transfers of shares and securities, the issue of bearer instruments and certain transactions involving partnerships, stamp duty was largely abolished in the UK from 1 December 2003. "Stamp duty land tax" (SDLT), a new transfer tax derived from stamp duty, was introduced for land transactions from 1 December 2003. 'Stamp duty reserve tax' (SDRT) was introduced on agreements to transfer uncertificated shares and other securities in 1986, and with the growth of paperless transactions SDRT rather than stamp duty now applies to most transfers of shares and securities."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_duty_in_the_United_Kingdom

You are making unsupported assertions about the specifics of Spitzer's proposal; i.e. that it is
identical to the UK's Stamp Duty. Also, do you support a Federal Real Estate Transfer Tax,
instead of Spitzer's plan?