From: Neera Tanden <ntanden@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 1:56 AM
Subject: Some thoughts on economic issues
To: H <hdr29@hrcoffice.com>
Cc: Jake Sullivan <jsullivan@hillaryclinton.com>
Hillary,
Congratulations on the fantastic college plan rollout! I'm in London, but the headlines/stories I've seen are great. That was quite a labor of love.
I wanted to send along some thoughts on economic issues, the Democratic party's rising populism and policy grounds for a financial transaction tax. I've shared these thoughts with Jake and the team. A memo is attached.
The bottom line is that I'm wary of the growing economic populism on the center-left and I believe an FTT is the kind of bold proposal that both makes sense on policy grounds and achieves important political objectives.
Jake suggested I send these thoughts to you; I leave to him and the team to figure out if it makes sense to discuss them in some group at some point.
My best,
Neera
It should be noted that George Soros is behind the financial transactions tax and Center for American Progress funder.
-RW
I hope geneticists find the "wants to run other people's lives" gene soon.
ReplyDeleteThere may be an economic incentive for fat cat traders like Soros to champion the transaction tax. Establishment and book keeping costs for small traders are likely to be a higher proportion of overall revenue for small traders than the big boys. The incidence of the tax - despite apparent 'flat rate' fairness - is likely to disproportionately land on smaller fry. The net impact would be to reduce the overall competition. Fat cat big businessmen using 'progressive' legislation to further their monopolistic goals. Where have we heard this before? Oh, I remember. It was in "Railroads and Regulation" and "The Triumph of Conservatism" by one time progressive Marxist, but later a Rothbardian libertarian fellow traveller - Gabriel Kolko.
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