James Tobin
Supportive of World Federalism
Nobel-laureate economist James Tobin proposed a tax on international currency transactions at a small fraction of one percent in order to make exchange rates more stable. His proposal came to be known as the ‘Tobin tax’, leading to many variations over the following years in the form of currency transaction taxes, financial transaction taxes, and financial activity taxes. In addition to the benefit of reducing the economic effects of incidents like the global financial crisis of 2008 by disincentivizing hyper-speculative trading, the proceeds of the tax are estimated to amount to at least 20 times the current UN budget. Interested mainly in the stability benefits of a Tobin tax, when asked how its proceeds could be directed, the economist simply replied: “Give it to the UN”.