Mike Bellafiore, partner at SMB Capital, was interviewed today by Damien Hoffman from Wall St Cheat Sheet. In the interview Mike discusses the proposed “transaction tax” in Congress that would increase the cost of trading. Read the full interview here.
2 Comments on “The Transaction Tax Would Destroy Small Businesses”
Thanks for doing that interview, Mike. It’s important for everyone to understand what the effects of ideas like this will be, although I think you were basically preaching to the choir on that website. It’s the people with little financial experience who will fall prey to the arguments used by demagogues with ulterior motives.
For example, a point that many non-traders don’t seem to get is the long-term effects of reduced returns, particularly when the reduction is a seemingly small amount (such as 0.25% / transaction). They say “It’s only a tiny tax, it’s not big deal to me”. Well, it IS a big deal. I wrote a post about it here: save-us-from-world-improvers.blogspot.com/2009/12/misconception-1-long-term-investors.html. I find it scary that I have to write a post that educates people on compound interest but that’s the world we live in.
Thanks for doing that interview, Mike. It’s important for everyone to understand what the effects of ideas like this will be, although I think you were basically preaching to the choir on that website. It’s the people with little financial experience who will fall prey to the arguments used by demagogues with ulterior motives.
For example, a point that many non-traders don’t seem to get is the long-term effects of reduced returns, particularly when the reduction is a seemingly small amount (such as 0.25% / transaction). They say “It’s only a tiny tax, it’s not big deal to me”. Well, it IS a big deal. I wrote a post about it here: save-us-from-world-improvers.blogspot.com/2009/12/misconception-1-long-term-investors.html. I find it scary that I have to write a post that educates people on compound interest but that’s the world we live in.