socialmedian: Alistair Darling backs Brown's Tobin tax despite cold shoulder from US

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Alistair Darling backs Brown's Tobin tax despite cold shoulder from US

Source: guardian.co.uk Politics

Nov 08, 2009

Summary

Chancellor insists Obama administration's refusal to back a 'day-to-day financial transaction tax' does not mean an end to plans

Alistair Darling today pledged that the Government would step up its fight for a new international tax on banking despite an initially frosty response to the plan from Washington.

The chancellor said there was broad agreement among Britain's partners in the G20 group of rich and developing nations that it was worth exploring new curbs on global finance following the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.

After Gordon Brown's unexpected weekend backing for consideration of a so-called Tobin tax, Britain now plans to keep up the pressure ahead of an International Monetary Fund report on transaction taxes due out in April.

Darling said that remarks from Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, that the US would not back a "day-to-day financial transaction tax" did not mean the Obama administration was ruling out any form of global charge on the financial sector.

Meanwhile, Downing Street sources said the prime minister's opponents had f

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