A special Geneva session of the UN General Assembly has authorised a comprehensive study into the possibility of a so-called “Tobin Tax”, as a means of dampening volatility in foreign exchange markets. It would involve a 0.25% tax on the on-the-spot conversions of one currency into another.American economist and Nobel prize winner Professor James Tobin originally compared the tax to throwing some sand in the works to slow speculative hot capital flows.1 The need for such an initiative was co…
