Hillary vs Bernie

[Norgy]

How exactly would a global tax be distributed and who the hell would collect it, I wonder.

[The Minsky Moment]

How exactly would a global tax be distributed and who the hell would collect it, I wonder.

It would be administered at a national level.  Again, also in the original Tobin article.

[Norgy]

Well, I read it, and I think I understood most of it, but have to mull over it to really have an opinion this way or the other.
I am not the cleverest chap here.

[Capetan Mihali]

Except that hedge fund managers, however objectionable their mores may seem to you, are not really the public policy problem.

What is the public policy problem, and how do reinstituting Glass-Steagall and enacting a financial transaction tax solve this problem(s)?

The blahs were intended to connote my skepticism of the usefulness of those particular measures.

Any particular measures you're not skeptical of?  An honest question (it's sad we always have to say this). Because your "blahs" answer would did a good job of anticipating what I would've said.

Although my interest is more in financial regulation as one means of changing the way the national wealth is distributed, rather than in maintaining the integrity of American high finance system as an end in itself.

[Admiral Yi]

Although my interest is more in financial regulation as one means of changing the way the national wealth is distributed, rather than in maintaining the integrity of American high finance system as an end in itself.

Then why did you start this particular sequence of discussion by saying you objected to the revolving door between Wall Street and government? 

And why would you not favor a more direct approach to transferring wealth, such as a wealth tax?

[Norgy]

Property and wealth tax have worked quite well in Scanditopia.

The poor stay poor, though. How they can be drawn out of welfare and poverty, I don't know. We have a high mininum wage and free education.
I'm not advocating eugenics, but some families around here have been welfare recipients since the 50s and complain about immigrants taking the jobs they felt too proud to take anyway.

If there's anything I feel we should do, it's creating as an equal playing field as possible for our children and grandchildren. That would be be my political agenda. It's like believing in fairies.
The hows are more obscure.

[Capetan Mihali]

Because the revolving door is a big impediment to a more just wealth distribution because of the oversized role that the financial industry plays in the US economy.

I do favor more direct measures like a wealth tax primarily, not just regulating financial speculation to the extent necessary to avoid global economic meltdown.

[Admiral Yi]

Because the revolving door is a big impediment to a more just wealth distribution because of the oversized role that the financial industry plays in the US economy.

Which is again, at least one remove from the issue of people with finance experience working in government.

[Capetan Mihali]

Finance experience \= working at Goldman before and after your tenure in the Treasury.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm not familiar with that mathematical notation, having only had a week of formal logic slipped into a high school math class.

[LaCroix]

Property and wealth tax have worked quite well in Scanditopia.

The poor stay poor, though. How they can be drawn out of welfare and poverty, I don't know. We have a high mininum wage and free education.
I'm not advocating eugenics, but some families around here have been welfare recipients since the 50s and complain about immigrants taking the jobs they felt too proud to take anyway.

If there's anything I feel we should do, it's creating as an equal playing field as possible for our children and grandchildren. That would be be my political agenda. It's like believing in fairies.
The hows are more obscure.

I don't think it's plausible. we can provide tools to allow people to lift themselves from poor to middle class, but beyond that? a lot of people are simply unwilling to figure out how to do things for themselves, so they remain in a slump. some families rise to middle class after a generation or two, while others (malthus) fall to lower class

[Capetan Mihali]

I'm not familiar with that mathematical notation, having only had a week of formal logic slipped into a high school math class.

I can't tell if you're being facetious or not, but honestly I can't remember the order of the characters either; it is the computer-language rendition of a barred equals sign, and it is used on Languish quite a bit to mean "does not equal."

[CountDeMoney]

Although my interest is more in financial regulation as one means of changing the way the national wealth is distributed, rather than in maintaining the integrity of American high finance system as an end in itself.

I paid off my Jeep, and my credit score dropped 24 points two months later. 

No, smarmy cockfuck douchebags on Wall Street trading imaginary dollars are only one piece of the problem. The whole system needs to be rebuilt, preferably from rubble, and that's Bigger Than Bernie^tm. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Any particular measures you're not skeptical of?

Capital regulation.

If a more radical approach would be desired then require all financial companies to operate through partnerships, as was traditionally done.  That would help tame excessive risk-taking.

[Capetan Mihali]

Any particular measures you're not skeptical of?

Capital regulation.

If a more radical approach would be desired then require all financial companies to operate through partnerships, as was traditionally done.  That would help tame excessive risk-taking.

I'll read up.   But having to put putting the investors' personal assets on the line in a partnership would indeed tame excessive risk-taking, I'd tend to think.