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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Austerity may build good character, on Wall Street.

Hat tip to Janet O'Connell, for sending along the email message:

Austerity extremists in Congress are calling for cuts to programs that help lower- and middle-income Americans.

Some progressive measures, such as allowing the tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush to expire for the wealthiest Americans and closing corporate tax loopholes, are on the table already.

Yet hardly anyone is talking about the financial speculation tax, which would curb some of Wall Street’s riskiest gambling while raising $350 billion.

Tell Congress and President Obama: Put taxing Wall Street’s financial speculation on the bargaining table.

The Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act (H.R. 3313, S. 1787), proposed by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), would raise the revenue over 10 years through a miniscule fee — 0.03 percent — on Wall Street transactions.

Because the fee is so small, it would target some of the most dangerous and volatile high-speed trading on Wall Street while having virtually no impact on the vast majority of Americans’ investment activities.

And it could especially reduce the sort of high-speed, automated trading that led to the May 2010 “flash crash,” when the Dow plunged nearly 1,000 points in just a few minutes.

If anything should be on the chopping block, it should be Wall Street’s recklessness.

[...] For more about the benefits [of] a financial transactions tax, check out the latest post on Public Citizen's blog.

Please take the time to follow the links, and to submit the petition, in your name and with your own personalized added commentary.

UPDATE: HufPo, here.