Meeting Transaction Tax 'What-Ifs' Demands Platform Flexibility

Italy’s recent passage of an FTT for equities and equity derivatives paints the picture nicely. Like the Tobin Tax, so named for Keynesian economist James Tobin who proposed policies decades ago to curb short-term currency arbitrage after collapse of Bretton Woods, taxing transactions is meant to achieve a public good, matching the popular—though far from universal—sentiment that high-speed trading is unfair, or even destabilizing.

But as Italy has found, especially after trading volumes