Very interesting observation... I haven't seen anyone else say it quite so
clearly...although it has been implied in some of the discussion around
the Long Term Credit fiasco.
I'm not sure whether that means that Soros thinks that financial
transactions of that kind (and by implication, in the end, of any kind)
can't be monitored/controlled if anyone is willing to expend a
reasonable amount of resources or simply that a Tobin tax type tally
(hmmmm....) is unworkable.
M
On Tue, 22 Dec 1998, Neva Goodwin wrote:
>A comment on the Tobin tax, which I have always thought was a
>great idea, and I hope it still is -- but I was recently at a
>talk by George Soros in which someone asked him about this.
>He replied that he had intended to push it in his new book, but
>that, after looking into it, he concluded that it was no longer
>workable, because there are many novel forms of currency
>trading and international transactions -- through new instruments
>that have just been invented in the last few years -- and many of
>these cannot be monitored or controlled by governments. A Tobin
>tax, he said, would just create a perverse tax-avoidence incentive
>for people to do their transacting through these instruments.
> I don't know enough about financial markets to be able to
>assess this conclusion (I don't even know the names of many of
>these new instruments!) -- I'd be interested in reactions from
>those who are more up on this. I fear that Soros opinion is one
>that has to be taken pretty seriously; he's had more experience
>in these areas than almost anyone, and, though he certainly has
>mixed motives (the desire for profits continues to burn strong
>in him), I believe that his wish to contribute to a world of
>sanity and freedom is also strong.
>
>Neva Goodwin, Co-director
>Global Development And Enviroment Institute
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> web address: http://www.tufts.edu/gdae
>street address:
>G-DAE, Cabot Center
>Tufts University
>Medford, MA 02155
>
>
>
Michael Gurstein, Ph.D.
ECBC/NSERC/SSHRC Associate Chair in the Management of Technological Change
Director: Centre for Community and Enterprise Networking (C\CEN)
University College of Cape Breton, POBox 5300, Sydney, NS, CANADA B1P 6L2
Tel. 902-563-1369 (o) 902-562-1055 (h) 902-562-0119 (fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Http://ccen.uccb.ns.ca ICQ: 7388855
