Regulation: post-Tobin tax

Hugo Dixon What is the right way to «tax» banks? The idea of a Tobin tax on financial transactions is fading. Gordon Brown’s attempt to give it a kiss of life at the G20 meeting over the weekend turned into a kiss of death. Attention is, instead, focussing on other ways of keeping banks from enjoying a free ride at taxpayers’ expense. One of the most promising approaches is to force banks pay insurance fees related to their riskiness. The insurance idea, which was mentioned by Brown, is being ...