유럽연합(EU) 금융거래세 도입은 왜 실패했는가? 금융의 구조적 권력과 금융규제의 정치경제

Tobin’s tax or financial transaction tax (FTT) can be a powerful means for financial reform as well as an effective tool for government revenue increase. Tax on financial transactions can prevent the emergence of financial bubbles and thus the outbreak of financial crises by effectively reducing the volume of financial transactions, especially that of financial derivatives in OTC markets. It will also help the governments to recover the public funds used up for the rescue of crisis-hit financial institutions. However, any movement for this direction will be faced with strong oppositions from the financial sector. Findings out of the political economic literature on financial regulation such as regulator’s dilemma, regulatory capture, international harmonization are all relevant to the analysis of the difficulties in adopting FTT. The structural power of finance, in particular, can be effectively utilized for the purpose of campaigning against the FTT and mobilizing various allies such as big industrial firms and central banks for the financial sector’s cause. We study the political rise and fall of the EU FTT as a case and show how the initial ambition of adopting a comprehensive and general FTT shattered in the midst of strong and various oppositions of the financial sector and its allies. The good opportunity for the adoption of Tobin’s tax/FTT which was accompanied by the global financial crisis is now almost lost. In order not to repeat the waste of opportunity in the next time we have to strengthen public awareness and political support for the cause of Tobin’s Tax and the general financial transaction tax.