Health & Fitness
Misconceptions About Occupy Bayside Demonstration
Baysider David R. Yale clears up some misconceptions about Occupy Wall Street Comes to Bayside, and cites the sources for N.E. Queens MoveOn's claims about the proposed financial speculation tax.
I'd like to address some misunderstandings about the article, , in Bayside Patch.
I've lived in Bayside for 24 years. In all that time, I've only seen or heard about 3 times when demonstrators took to the street with signs and leaflets in political protest, all in 2011.
Once was when community activists . The second time was when Northeast Queens MoveOn Members , demanding the bank pay its fair share of taxes. And the third time, also a MoveOn activity, at the railroad station, was a public mourning of the death of the American Dream.
Find out what's happening in Bayside-Douglastonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
So it's understandable that some people are a little uneasy about demonstrations, since they are very new to Bayside.
I've heard through the grapevine that people are worried that MoveOn will block entry to trains on Thursday, and prevent them from getting to work. . We are members of the community, too, and we would not do that to our neighbors and friends.
Find out what's happening in Bayside-Douglastonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Our intent is to start a discussion with fellow Baysiders about . We will give our neighbors leaflets with information about a couple of bills pending in Congress. If you agree with them, we ask that you call your elected representatives.
One commenter on this article questions our facts. Fair enough. I am pleased to provide the documentation for each of our claims. Click the links to view sources:
1. A financial speculation tax is used in 40 countries.
2. Speculators use superfast computers to illegally manipulate prices, purposely mislead other investors, and gain unfair advantages over slower individual investors -- and even pension funds. Often they issue thousands of trades and then immediately cancel them.
[NY Times]
3. One trader using a complex computer algorithm crashed the Dow by 1000 points in minutes on May 6, 2011. Superfast trading accounts for 70% of trades in some markets.
4. A Financial Speculation Tax would make speculation less profitable and encourage Wall Street to make real investments that create jobs and real (not paper) economic activity.
[CEPR.net]
5. Dangerous, market-crashing derivatives, because they involve many transactions, would be taxed many times over. This could help stabilize the markets.
[CEPR.net]
6. If there had been a Financial Speculation Tax on AIG's shenanigans, it would have yielded enough to pay 20,000 elementary school teachers for a year.
7. A tiny 0.25% tax on securities would have yielded $7 million a minute during the May 6, 2011 flash crash.
8. Polls show 80% of Americans favor a U.S. Financial Speculation Tax. [CEPR.net]
Furthermore, the world's second-largest bourse, the London Stock Exchange, already has a transfer tax that is double the size of the levy proposed in the DeFazio and Harkin bills. [CEPR.net]
In addition, I question the commenter's claim that the speculation tax proposed in the DeFazio and Harkin bills would cut the value of IRAs by 50% during their lifetimes. The tax proposed in these bills is imposed on speculators, the big banks and brokerages like the former AIG, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and their ilk. Every investment that 99% of individual investors use for IRAs would be exempt.
Finally, Germany and France may have abolished their transfer taxes in the past, as Carol claims. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have made the implementation of an international tax on speculations their tip priorities, as has European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.
[NY Times]
If the commenter, Carol, has indeed researched this issue for 3 years, she should be willing and able to cite her sources. Carol, the ball's in your court!