Analysis

Details: Created: 14 April 2011

Stephan Schulmeister

Austrian Institute of Economic Research

A General Financial Transactions Tax: Motives,

Effects and Implementation

Summary of a presentation at the Brussels Tax Forum 2011 on March 29, 2011

Arguments in favour of a General Financial Transactions Tax

The main propositions underlying the concept of a general financial transactions tax (FTT) can be summarized as follows:

Details: Written by The Guardian; Created: 10 April 2011

The crisis has shattered the economlic orthodoxy ...

Details: Created: 20 March 2011

Towards new paradigms for development and solidarity

On global public goods and global taxes

Francine Mestrum

Development and development cooperation cannot be seen as success stories. In the ‘third world’ the past half century can be divided in two sub-periods. From 1960 to 1985, growth and social indicators improved rapidly; from 1986 to 2000 growth stalled and social indicators improved much more slowly. The only explanation for this reversal is the introduction of neoliberal policies, imposed as ‘Washington Consensus’ in all countries needing funds from the IMF and the World Bank.

Details: Written by François Valérian/GFI; Created: 10 March 2011

Last July, the Dodd-Frank act provided in its section 1504 that all companies operating in the extractive industries that must report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would have to publish all payments they make to the U.S. government or any foreign government on a project basis. Since then, the French and British governments have supported similar EU legislation. Many international companies worldwide, and not only the U.S. companies, will be covered by the upcoming SEC regulations which implement section 1504.

Details: Written by The Guardian; Created: 28 February 2011

With the Northern African revolutions still going on, an interesting - though rhetoric - question is emerging. Could all the money of the African dictators help to solve the poverty problem in their continent?

Read the answer ...

Details: Written by Hilaire Avril; Created: 19 February 2011

(Source: IPS/Other News)

ad governance and the persistence of the tax avoidance industry allow billions of dollars of profit to be siphoned out of Africa, untaxed, every year.

For the past 25 years, tax revenues in most African countries have missed even the low target of 15 percent of gross domestic product, far less than rich countries' average of 35 percent, according to a recent report of the Tax Justice Network's Africa section.

Details: Written by Bretton Woods Project; Created: 19 February 2011

The World Bank and the IMF formally recognise tax avoidance and tax evasion as a critical problem for developing countries' domestic resource mobilisation. The Bank's public position on tax evasion and tax havens does not however identify concrete measures to stop investing in companies practicing tax avoidance. The IMF addresses tax policy under its surveillance mandate and in its technical assistance, but does not have an explicit framework or clear approach to deal with tax evasion.

Read more: The Financial Transaction Tax: A means to aid reform and universal social protection?

Details: Created: 30 January 2011

In this article, I want to analyze a number of recent proposals for social protection policies submitted by international organizations. The list of the analyzed documents can be found in the annex. What I want to find out is the way in which these new proposals break away from and go beyond the poverty reduction strategies of the recent past – MDGs and PRSPs – and if they can fundamentally change the current social paradigm.

Social Protection is back on the international agenda. In the past decades, poverty reduction became a priority for development policies and development cooperation. It should be reminded that the early development discourse of the 1950s and 1960s never was about ‘poverty’ but in the very first instance about economic development. As for social development, the UN Declaration on social progress of 1969 clearly shows that the ultimate goal of development thinkers was a kind of welfare state similar to the ones of rich countries[1].