Free The Return of Elliott Eastman by Ignatius Ryan

largest U.S. stock markets; the NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchanges. Recent computations suggest there are 928 million daily transactions in the U.S. with a buyer and seller for each side. The fee structure is $10 for trades over $1000, $100 for trades over $100,000 and $1000 for trades over $1,000,000. These fees will also apply for the futures and derivatives markets which amount to $703 trillion worldwide each year and are growing. This will generate almost 1.4 trillion dollars a year in additional revenue which will be applied first to the national debt and then to Social Security.”
    Ken Kenake, the Federal Reserve Chairman and former CEO of JP Morgan interrupted saying, “you must realize that almost every president since Ron Reagan has considered such a tax and shelved it.”
    “I’m aware of that. The World Futures Industry indicates there were 3.961 billion daily futures contracts executed in 2016, the last year for which figures are available. Of that, 42% were originated in the U.S., or 1, 653 billion contracts, each worth many millions of dollars. A $1000 transaction fee on each of them, an amount they wouldn’t even feel, would generate another one and a half trillion dollars annually. This is a vastly different world than the one Ron Reagan faced. There are five trillion dollars in dollar foreign exchange transactions daily. Commodities, another two trillion daily trades, derivatives, another fifteen trillion dollars in trades and mind you those are daily trades. Half the products we’re discussing didn’t even exist when Reagan was alive. JP Morgan alone holds 90 trillion in derivative contracts. Think about that gentlemen. That’s six times the entire Gross National Product of the U.S. It is a changed world. We are awash in capital and a lot of it, probably close to 60%, isn’t taxed at all.”
    There were murmurs around the table.
    Ken Kenake spoke up. “You do realize that Sweden tried the very thing you’re suggesting and they lost most of their derivative and bond trading to the London exchanges.”
    “I’m aware of that situation. That was in 1995, a few lifetimes ago when the total world and derivative volume was $17 trillion. Now it is $703 trillion. There must be great profit for that market to grow so huge in less than two decades. Sweden is a small country located quite close to London, one of the biggest financial centers in the world. If companies want to move out of the US because of a miniscule transaction fee so be it, but they will not be allowed access to our capitol markets. I think they’ll see the light and pay the fee. Now most of the world is in favor of a transaction fee. In 2011, before Greece, Spain and Portugal defaulted on their debt; the whole Euro zone was pushing for a transaction fee to solve their financial issues. US Treasury Secretary Tim Guttner shot it down. They needed the US to participate and we punted. The Euro zone almost went ahead on their own and imposed a transaction fee, but in the end couldn’t put it together. We all know how Europe suffered after that.”
    “Still, Sweden was a failed experiment,” Kenake insisted.
    “Ken, I understand there are going to be reservations, but most of those have been generated by the financial community. In 2010 350 economists, including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffery Sachs, from 35 countries signed a letter urging the G-20 to adopt a financial transaction fee. Angela Merkel of Germany, god rest her soul, Gordon Brown of England and Nicholas Sarkozy of France all came out in favor of the fee approach. Frankly, it’s only the US and their enormously influential financial sector that stands in the way of successfully implementing this plan.”
    Elliott concluded with a sharp glance at the Treasury Secretary.
    “Duly noted,” Kenake said.
    “Now, included in this proposal would be a sunset provision, probably about seven year’s duration or until the deficit is eliminated. Although, I will add, I