BRUSSELS -- How can we eradicate world poverty? This is a question all developed nations have a responsibility to consider. At the beginning of the new millennium, we may have found the answer -- a global tax on capital transfers.
While the "Tobin tax" is one of a host of solutions, it is being mooted, particularly in Europe, as the one that could work -- by raising a possible $250 billion from financial markets worldwide each year to help support developing economies.
So how could it work, and how would it affect Japan? The European Union -- under the presidency of France -- may well give the Tobin tax a boost. Laurent Fabius, French minister of finance, will raise the idea of an independent expert study of how such a tax might be introduced during the French presidency of the Council of Ministers during the second half of this year.