Original Opinion Dissent of the Day: Bank Tax Won’t Work
January 31,2012 
A reader writes in response to my post on France's proposed transaction tax on banks:
Read you everyday.
How can this possibly work? You know as well as I do that any charge applied by the government to the banks will end up being paid for by the consumer. The cost of doing business regardless of business is always passed on to you and me.
Agreed – that is unless there is multilateral action against the cost being passed on to the consumer. I think it's brave that Sarkozy is attempting to start a chain reaction (although it's not going down well in the UK) as shaming others into action seems like the only way to be effective.
Of course, the proof will be in the pudding, and we'll have to see how the policy (if implemented) works.
A reader writes in response to my post on France's proposed transaction tax on banks:
Read you everyday.
How can this possibly work? You know as well as I do that any charge applied by the government to the banks will end up being paid for by the consumer. The cost of doing business regardless of business is always passed on to you and me.
Agreed – that is unless there is multilateral action against the cost being passed on to the consumer. I think it's brave that Sarkozy is attempting to start a chain reaction (although it's not going down well in the UK) as shaming others into action seems like the only way to be effective.
Of course, the proof will be in the pudding, and we'll have to see how the policy (if implemented) works.