Fander Falconi, part of our 2011 Spotlight G20 Series
At the October meeting of G-20 finance ministers the only interesting item of note was a return to the discussion of a tax on international financial transactions, or “Tobin tax”. In 1971, the American economist and Nobel laureate James Tobin, proposed this initiative to reduce speculative activity international. This initiative garnered international support, even by the organization Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Aid to Citizens (ATTAC), which has the backing of the European Union. The measure was not supported by the United States or China.
Everything else in that meeting was mutual recrimination about passivity in the face of a deepening economic crisis and the replay of an old script: neoliberal structural adjustment, reduced spending and public consumption. These policies have left a number of European countries, such as Greece, on the verge of bankruptcy.