My Letter to the Wall Street Journal re: Tax on Speculators

From: patrickbarron@msn.com
To: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Subject: Re: Tax on Speculators
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 08:03:10 -0400



Re: Time for a Tax on Speculation by Ralph Nader

Dear Sirs:
Since Mr. Nader fails to understand the source of our current economic woes, of course he will recommend a cure that will do nothing to fix the problem and most assuredly will make it worse. Generally, Mr. Nader blames "corporations" and trots out green-eyed envy of
Wall Street salaries as his evidence. Oh, and he says that Merkel and Sarkozy want a financial transactions tax in Europe and, since the Europeans have shown such foresight in handling their financial affairs, we here in America shoud emulate them. Well, Mr. Nader, take off your class consciousness glasses and take a look at the real problem--government control of money and banking. The government uses the Fed to fund its welfare state and endless overseas wars with massive amounts of new, fiat money. Here's a startling fact--more money does not produce anything. More money causes higher prices, a redistribution of wealth from the people to government's favorite insiders, and fosters the capital destroying boom/bust business cycle. Speculators are nothing more than government's favorite whipping boy, designed to shield our gaze from the real problem. The capitalists who oppose your ideas are right--a tax on speculators, really just a tax on capital--will harm ordinary Americans while doing nothing to cure the real problem.

Patrick Barron