- Ezra Klein – The new bank tax, and beyond – «The tax Obama is proposing will raise $90 billion over 10 years, and refund the direct losses taxpayers suffered in the bailout. But that wasn’t the only cost of the financial crisis. The recession — which has cost the federal budget far more — was also triggered by Wall Street. We’re not even here, not by a long shot»;
- Why the bank tax is necessary | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters – «The only thing I’m mildly worried about is that the fee is large enough to be passed on to consumers, but small enough that they won’t react by moving their money to a smaller bank»;
- Marginal Revolution: Geopolitical speculations about Haiti – «In what sense does Haiti still have a government? How bad will it have to get before the U.N. or U.S. moves in and simply governs the place? How long will this governance last? What will happen to Haiti as a route for the drug trade, the dominant development in the country’s economy over the last fifteen years? What does the new structure of interest groups look like, say five years from now?»;
- Thoughts on the Bank Tax « The Baseline Scenario – «Because it’s a flat tax with a cliff at $50 billion in assets, it isn’t going to provide an incentive for banks themselves to get smaller; Bank of America is not going to break itself into 45 pieces to avoid a 6 bp asset tax. If the tax had been graduated (bigger banks pay a higher percentage), then it might have had some small effect, although again the tax is probably way too small»;