Robin Hood to the rescue 11 February 2010
Posted by cooperatoby in Uncategorized.Tags: banks, ethics, finance, Tobin Tax
add a comment
In a stroke of genius, Richard ’4 Weddings’ Curtis has rechristened the Tobin Tax the “Robin Hood Tax ” and made a 2-minute film starring Bill Nighy to launch it. I heard about it on last night’s PM. It’s such a simple and overdue idea it can’t fail – particularly as Gordon Brown has come out in favour too. The campaign calculates that a 50p per £1,000 levy on all transactions that don’t involve actual consumers – i.e. not only currency exchange but bond speculation – would raise £250bn per year. Brilliant. It will as he says give banks the opportunity to become part of the solution!
There seem to be two main arguments against, and both are paper-thin:
(1) you have to have the whole world on board or else you will scare the “financial services” industry and it will emigrate and take 25% of the UK’s corporation tax revenue with it. Well quite apart from being tempted to say “good riddance” as we all revise down our expectations of a comfortable retirtement, the same argument is used in New York where they say they will come to London! Where are they going to go? We can get an OECD consensus, police our offshore dependencies and if anyone else sticks out – just unplug them from the networks.
(2) it is economically “inefficient”. Well as far as I can see having unemployment and empty property are inefficient too. Capital is just one factor of production like labour, fuel and land. To live in a civilised society you have to raise taxes. The point is to have a fair, workable and robust taxation system that raises reasonable amounts from lots of different sources. There is no special reason to make an exception for financial transactions – indeed on grounds of equity one would first lower taxes on labour (and put them up on carbon).
Co-ops are an idea whose time has come back 6 December 2009
Posted by cooperatoby in cooperative, EU, social economy.Tags: co-operative, energy, EU, finance
1 comment so far
Michael Stephenson at the EP on 1 Dec 09
He pointed to a renaissance of co-operativism in Britain; in the last decade NHS foundation trusts, co-operative trust schools and football supporter’s trusts have all brought consumer co-operation into new fields. Even the village shop in Ambridge is organising a community share issue! Two areas where a start has been made but much remains to be done are housing and energy.
The financial crisis has shown the strength of mutualism in housing finance – they tend not to freeze credit, they charge lower interest rates, and their structure is intrinsically more stable. Yet, incredibly, the city establishment seems locked in to its unsustainable greed-based model. Till now, the public seems to have naively retained its faith in the esoteric knowledge that financiers claim to have. But at last polls are showing that the RBS directors’ attempt at blackmail to preserve bonuses may be the straw that has broken the camel’s back. It may mark the downfall of the Tory claims to be the party of the poor.
In energy, a cluster of co-operative wind farms like Westmill shows that ethical investors are keen to do their bit against climate change, and the movment is running a well-thought-out campaign on climate change, ACT!.
The meeting chimed well with an initiative of Co-operatives Europe to launch a Network of Co-operative MEPs, whose first meeting takes place in Strasbourg on 14th December, part of a campaign to raise the co-operative movement’s profile in European politics. Two coming opportunities are the EU2020 consultation and the inaugural hearings of the new Commissioners.
Co-operatives have a unique political offer. They are in the lead on a number of issues with which the public engages, such as fair trade and climate change, but they haven’t got the best out of the system. The movement’s job is to put together the narrative and the evidence to create the impact they deserve to have. Right now the Labour Party is receptive to new ideas – so there is a real chance that co-operative solutions will be taken up.
