The American financial leviathan hinders reindustrialization 3: MAC is not alone

The proposal to introduce MAC has historical analogies. Of course, this is the well-known Tobin tax, proposed in 1978 by Nobel laureate in economics James Tobin—a tax on foreign exchange operations aimed at controlling speculation and reducing currency market volatility by imposing a small fee on spot transactions (instant deals). The idea was to slow down rapid capital flows, make speculative operations less profitable, and use the collected funds for global needs such as development or poverty reduction.

Initially, Tobin believed the tax rate could be around 1%, but later reduced it to 0.1–0.25%. Tobin envisioned that taxing currency operations would yield two results. First, stabilize currency exchange rate fluctuations caused by short-term speculation. Second, tax revenues could become a new source of income for funding economic development.

Dani Rodrik, a respected Harvard University professor famous as a prophet and critic of globalization during its heyday, is a supporter of the Tobin tax. He believes that "the beauty of the Tobin tax is that it discourages short-term speculation without having a significant negative impact on long-term decisions in international investment. Take, for example, a 0.25% tax on all international financial transactions. Such a tax would instantly destroy day trades aimed at profits smaller than the tax itself, as well as longer-term operations designed to profit from minor differences in various market indicators. Economic activity of this kind has dubious social value, yet it consumes real resources—namely, human talent and computing power—and generates debts. So we should not mourn the demise of such business activity. Meanwhile, long-term investors seeking substantial profits will not suffer from this tax at all. Thus, in the long run, capital will continue to flow in the right direction."

The world has long accumulated practical experience in applying taxes on financial transactions. The London Stock Exchange has collected stamp duty on stock trading for over two hundred years. This tax is collected electronically and amounts to 0.5% of the purchase value. Annually, the stamp duty collections amount to nearly $7 billion, which does not prevent this platform from remaining one of the most liquid in the world.

In the European Union, stock exchange transaction taxes are levied in Austria, Ireland, Greece, France, and Finland. Some elements of taxing financial transactions exist in India, Colombia, China, South Korea, Ecuador, Hong Kong, and Australia. Even in the US, there is a special exchange fee that funds the Securities and Exchange Commission. Collections similar to the Tobin tax were introduced in Brazil in 2009.

The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) in the European Union (EU) was approved at a meeting of EU finance ministers on January 22, 2013, in Brussels, with the possibility of introduction from January 2014.

A broad alliance of trade unions and civil society, which had long called on national governments to introduce a financial transaction tax, viewed this important event as a major victory. The FTT, dubbed the Robin Hood tax or "Tobin Hood" tax, was seen as a barrier to the high risks of casino capitalism that led to the global economic crisis.

According to the 2013 decision, 11 Eurozone countries were allowed to introduce the tax. These include Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia, and Slovenia. These 11 countries account for about 90 percent of the Eurozone's GDP and 4 of the 5 largest EU economies, excluding the UK.

The tax rate was planned as follows: stock and bond transactions would be taxed at a minimum of 0.1 percent, and financial derivatives at 0.01 percent. According to estimates from a German institute, the financial transaction tax in the EU would generate 37 billion euros per year and serve as a serious lever for a campaign to introduce FTT in all countries of the world.

However, over the past 12 years, the approved tax has not been adopted. At present, there is no unified financial transaction tax (FTT) at the European Union level, and the project for its implementation is in the cancellation stage. In October 2025, the European Commission presented a work program for 2026, which provides for the official withdrawal of the financial transaction tax proposal. The main reason is that negotiations between countries (initially within the framework of "enhanced cooperation" of 10-11 states, including France and Germany) have reached a deadlock after more than 10 years of discussions.

Instead, the EU plans to focus on simplifying tax legislation (the "tax omnibus" initiative) in the second quarter of 2026 to reduce administrative burdens.

Instead of FTT, the European Union is shifting focus to other revenue sources:

Cryptocurrencies: By 2026, a tax "amnesty" for crypto investors is planned to be completed, along with enhanced transaction transparency.

Digital services (DST): France and several other countries plan to increase taxes on large tech companies from 2026. Additionally, European countries are earning huge sums under the "digital sovereignty" policy through fines on American tech companies. We have already written that the scale of financial flows received by European countries from legalized fines for the monopolism of American digital giants—Apple, Google, and others—aligns with the revenue function historically associated with tariffs. In fact, fines imposed on large American tech companies amounted to 2.03 billion dollars in 2023, which is nearly 6% of the EU's tariff revenue base of 34.2 billion dollars for the year. By 2024, the amount of registered fines had grown significantly to nearly 6.7 billion dollars, or almost 20% of tariff revenues.

Cross-border carbon tax (CBAM): The mechanism will fully operate in 2026, taxing imports of goods with a high carbon footprint.

However, although there is no pan-European Tobin tax, some countries have introduced their own analogs:

France has a tax on purchases of large company stocks (0.3%). Italy has a fee on transactions with stocks and derivatives (0.1–0.2% depending on the platform). Spain also applies a national tax on stock purchases.

Similar attempts have been made in the US as well. On July 31, 2019, Senator Tammy Baldwin (Democrat from Wisconsin) and Senator Josh Hawley (Republican from Missouri), who today support MAC, introduced the "Competitive Dollar for Jobs and Prosperity Act." This bill directed the Federal Reserve to achieve and maintain a balance in the dollar's current account over five years by introducing a "market access fee." But since the bill competed for attention with the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, it did not pass in committee and did not receive a vote.

Finally, in the vein of MAC, reasons and acts the main economic favorite of Trump—young man Steven Mnuchin, who, besides the post of chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, was recently catapulted to the vacant position of member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. More on the extraordinary views of S. Miran in the next article.