Forum Post: Revive H.R. 1068 (Security trade tax)
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 12, 2011, 7:19 p.m. EST by Revdrdog
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HR 1068 was introduced in 2009 as a temporary measure for Wall Street to repay the government for TARP. It was voted down in the House 206-21. The law must be rewritten as a permanent federal tax on each trade, for all exchanges. The tax should be high enough to eliminate the viability of computer-based high frequency trading, the presence of which leads to excessive volatility in the market as well as interfering with normal price discovery mechanisms. At a typical volume of 50 billion shares per year, and a $1 tax per share traded, that reduces the deficit by $50 billion. (That’s just for the NYSE!)
More important, it will impede the high frequency algorithmic traders at the investment banks and hedge funds from ripping off honest investors through the market manipulation. The tax will hurt the manipulators from front-running and pumping-and-dumping investors. Remember proprietary trading accounts for 70% of Wall Street's profits. That's why high-frequency trading accounts for 70% of the exchange volume in our capital markets. It is this stream of illicit profits that Wall Street wants to protect at all costs. TARP bailouts were a sideshow compared to the returns made from high-speed trading for the big banks. Wall Street owns the SEC, where ex-Wall Street employees make believe they are regulating their ex-bosses. Besides, the SEC couldn't hit its ass with either hand with the lights on. Witness the Madoff embarrassment. In addition to the tax and way more important is to reinstate Glass-Steagall.