Rep. Peter DeFazio to Introduce Financial Transaction Tax to Curb Speculative Wall Street Trading
July 11, 2016
Rep. Peter DeFazio to Introduce Financial Transaction Tax to Curb Speculative Wall Street Trading
Rep. DeFazio to be joined by AFL-CIO, Americans for Financial Reform, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Communications Workers of America and Public Citizen
WHAT: Joined by representatives from the AFL-CIO, Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the Communications Workers of America and Public Citizen, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) will introduce legislation at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday to curb speculative Wall Street trading.
Although much of the excessive risk on Wall Street is derived from high-volume, short-term speculative trading, which helped cause the 2008 Wall Street collapse and the trillion-dollar 2010 “flash crash,” these practices still flourish on today’s trading floors. DeFazio’s legislation will levy a .03 percent tax on most financial trades.
This tax, which will cost 3 cents for every hundred dollars spent, will discourage risky trading behaviors that put everyday Americans’ investments on the line and is expected to collect more than $417 billion in revenue in the next decade.
WHO: U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.)
Christopher Shelton, president, Communications Workers of America
Lisa Gilbert, director, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division
Dean Baker, co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Damon Silvers, director of policy, AFL-CIO
Lisa Donner, executive director, Americans for Financial Reform
WHERE: House Triangle (the grassy area on the south side of the U.S. Capitol, just north of Independence Avenue SE)
WHEN: 1:15 p.m. ET, Wednesday, July 13
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