Shadowtraders

Full story here from Zero Hedge. Apparently it’s not enough to have your hedge fund taxed at 15% (rather than up to 39% for average schmucks), but any transaction tax or fee on nine- and ten-digit incomes is too much to bear. Oh well, a million dollar greasing of the palms of crooked pols will be cheaper in the end.

“A new page in the fight between HFTs and everyone else was turned recently, after Adair Turner, Chairman of Britain’s Financial Services Authority, said that he would consider the implementation of a “Tobin tax” on banking transactions. As a reminder, James Tobin introduced the idea of the Tobin tax in 1971, as a tax on cross-border currency trade, which at its core was meant to moderate short-term speculation in currency trading. Its latest incarnation, however, would strike at the heart of the speculative bubble that has gripped global markets. (more…)