Sarkozy plans bank transactions tax

PRESIDENT Sarkozy has called for a tiny tax on each financial transaction world-wide so bankers would pay back the money they received in bail-outs and also boost aid for Third World development.

Speaking at the World Economic Development Forum in Davos, he said world governments had agreed at Copenhagen to fund $120 billion of aid for developing countries by 2020, but all found themselves in financial difficulties because of the banking crash.

Calling for a global tax to crack down on financial speculation, he said an “infinitesimal” tax could repay bank aid and help the Third World.

He said speculators would not be allowed to bring down the euro and said it was a question not of money or economics but of identity, adding he would “never, you heard me, never let the euro crash”.

Mr Sarkozy said banks had fuelled the crash with a game of pass-the-parcel, where each bank made money on tradesm which were then passed on at a profit until there was no one to sell them on to. World governments had to step in to stop financial meltdown.

His plea for the so-called Robin Hood Tax has already been greeted by billionaire financier George Soros.