A financial transaction tax would impose a small (1/10-1/2 of 1 percent of total value) tax on all sales of financial instruments such as stocks and bonds. The Center for Economic and Policy Research estimates that such a tax could generate $100 billion annually, while the Chicago Political Economy Group estimates that this tax would have raised between $750 billion and $1.2 trillion each year from 2005 to 2009. The United Kingdom has had a similar tax in place since 1986 with no significant economic drawbacks, and similar regimes exist in Peru and Colombia. The US had a tax on stock transfers from 1914 to 1966.



