jude folly

I took a look at the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges, specifically their trading stats for Jan. 2008. Combined for that month, they executed 442.6 million trades, which would add up to a huge heap of money extracted from the securities industry. A penny-per-trade tax strikes me as far more reasonable, but I suspect the captains of corporations at Wall Street would squeal like stuck hogs in objection, all the same. Anyway, I sent a note to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Finance & Urban Affairs to make the argument as follows:

Dear Committee Members:

Over the past week I’ve paid close attention to the news headlines depicting the financial crisis the United States faces. Of all the solutions bandied about, I’ve yet to hear anyone propose a penny-per-trade tax on the execution of any equity, mutual fund, option, futures, or credit default swap transaction.

If trading has been the very mechanism that distorted the value of our assets, shouldn’t it also be the process by which Wall Street lends a hand in resolving this crisis?

Respectfully yours,

Subject: $1-per-trade tax on securities (buying and selling) 

Dear Sen. Dodd,

I write to thank you for your efforts to hold Wall Street accountable over the current financial crisis this country faces. If I may be so bold as to suggest one phase of the solution to this potential economic cataclysm: a
$1-per-trade tax on buying and selling of securities (stock, bond, mutual fund, option, futures, credit default swaps, et. al.) that can go towards defraying the cost of the much-heralded $700 billion bailout.

If the investment banking and securities industries have had a part in bringing our economy to the edge of ruin, then perhaps it is a modest proposal to expect they participate in its salvaging.

Respectfully yours,

Jude Folly

In anticipation of the release of Indignation, the 29th book by Newark’s notorious son, Esquire has offered to its readers a ‘crash course’ guide to prepare readers for what I’ve seen with my own eyes is a standard, even whispy plot predictably taken from Roth’s biography.

Such Manhattanite pandering is only surpassed when Woody Allen releases a new film.

Pregnant and unwed are the least of her problems.  Anyway, I’m convinced that for almost every occasion there is a Smiths song that commemorates.