Robin Hood is getting greedy

The Robin Hood Tax (Oxfam campaign) started off last year asking for 5 basis points (0.05%) per transaction and hoped to raise £20 billion a year in the UK alone, maybe some E210 billion Europe-wide and $400 billion worldwide.

The EU's proposal over the summer asks for 10 basis points (0.1%) and hopes to raise £50 billion. They don’t mention quite so loudly that £40 billion or 80% would come out of the UK in theory.

The activists behind Occupy Wall Street, adbusters.org, are this month asking for 1% and trying to make today a big day for the Occupy campaigns. Expect some facile coverage of this facile event on the news this evening.

Oxfam's Robin Hood campaign is so fluffy and lovely you could almost be seduced into doing something stupid. Then along comes the EU seeing an opportunity to aggrandise itself and raise lots of lovely money and you start to smell a rat. Finally, the Occupy bully boys go for a totally unrealistic mugging.

Prof Philip Booth explains why Robin Hood Tax would be terrible for UK

If you want to understand why a Tobin tax would be very expensive and stupid for the UK take a look at this video by Professor Philip Booth of the Cass Business School in London.