France, Germany Still Think Their Transaction Tax Idea Is A Good One

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Updated:: Jan 14, 2019
Original:: Feb 19, 2014

Angela Merkel and François Hollande would like to know why no one else does.

Paris and Berlin have led efforts to set up the tax from the start, but it has struggled to get off the ground with only 11 European countries signed up for it and divisions over what products it should cover.
"On derivatives, we have the same approach," Hollande told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris, without elaborating.

Speaking at a news conference in Paris with French President Francois Hollande, Merkel said progress on the financial tax before the European parliamentary elections in late May "would be an important signal".

France, Derivatives see eye-to-eye on taxing derivatives - Hollande [Reuters]
Merkel: Progress on financial transactions tax by May important [Reuters]

Settle down Strauss Kahn, he said "sort of."

Germany's biggest rhetorical weakness remains its own recent history.

He's still going to throw the word "blackmail" down *and* lay it on thick about how the founding fathers of the EU would be extremely disappointed about the current situation.

By Lorie Shaull (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Flash boys are in the cross hairs, banks not so much.

Nobody steals from Angela Merkel and gets away with it.

What's wrong with you people?

For all their saber-rattling and bold talk about a final solution to the problem of global financial risk, the Germans haven't done a hell of lot to rein in their banks. There is, for instance, no Großdeutschesvolckerregierung. At least, not yet.