The financial sector has caused the current historic crisis. The exponential growth of the financial sector with a focus on short-term speculative gain has created a ‘casino economy’. With the bursting of the most recent bubble, millions of men and women have lost their jobs. People all over the world have been plunged further into poverty and a hundred million more people are hungry today.
You have mobilised hundreds of billions of dollars to save the banks and the financial system. At the same time, neither the social nor the climate emergency is being addressed with the political urgency it deserves and with the necessary financial resources to back it. Financial services corporations benefited for decades from the absence of meaningful regulation and are largely responsible for the crisis. We believe it is time for them to pay their fair share of the costs of recovery. A Financial Transactions Tax would be the most effective instrument to secure this. It would:
– Generate funds to pay for the social costs of the crisis, to fight global poverty, to fund global public goods such as health care and to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
– Contribute to greater stability of the financial system by reducing speculation and excessive liquidity.
Business as usual is not an option. We urge you to decide at your next meeting inToronto, Canada (26-27 June 2010) to introduce a tax on financial transactions. Back your words with action.
Yours sincerely