2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Sanders supporters, do you still support him if he asks you to help pay for his policy platform? [View all]Kang Colby
(1,941 posts)1) This is well researched and there are a litany of academic and government sources regarding the impact of FTTs. Feel free to read about Sweden's experience. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax
This gentleman does a good job of summarizing the issues and citing additional sources. http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/07/22/bernie-sanders-doesnt-have-a-case-for-a-financial-transactions-tax-it-would-lose-money/
2) Bernie's proposal is a 50 basis point transaction tax. This would impact assets held within pension funds, the rebalancing required by index funds, the buying and selling of funds and would hurt market makers who provide liquidity and promote efficient price discovery. Even FTT supporters find Bernie's 50 basis point tax ridiculous: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/opinion/the-case-for-a-tax-on-financial-transactions.html
In summary: