socialmedian: Gordon Brown is right: rich western banks should pay for the developing world to go green

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Gordon Brown is right: rich western banks should pay for the developing world to go green

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Nov 09, 2009

Summary

A global tax on banking transactions would curb speculation and the proceeds could break the deadlock on Copenhagen climate talks

The response was predictable. No sooner had Gordon Brown expressed enthusiasm for a global transaction tax than the backlash began. Not something we like, said the Americans. We want lower not higher taxes, said the Canadians. Too hard to enforce, said the International Monetary Fund.

This is the last gasp of an ancien régime. The banks in 2009 are the Bourbons in 1789, the Romanovs in 1917. They existed in a bubble of privilege and took the public for a ride. They caused a financial crisis and triggered the biggest economic crash since the 1930s. They now expect the state to clear up the financial mess caused by this greed and stupidity through public spending cuts and higher taxes.

As the prime minister noted in St Andrews on Saturday, this is not on. "There must be a better economic and social contract between financial institutions and the public, based on trust and just distribution of risks and rewards," Brown said. Amen to that

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