Pressenza Pressenza International Press Agency London, 11/2/11 Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, states in a Financial Times article that many people see the protest “as the expression of a widespread and deep exasperation with the financial establishment” and that the City is regarded as being impervious to the mood of the population.
This is not the first time the Archbishop has come down on the side of good, but not necessarily establishment condoned, causes. As a young priest he was arrested for singing psalms as part of an anti-nuclear protest. He has been proactive in interfaith communications, gay rights and he endorsed the World March for Peace and Nonviolence in 2009-10. He has supported the Vatican proposal to increase taxation on banks as an ethical stance and in order to reduce the threat they pose to the world economy.
The Tobin or Robin Hood Tax or FTT (Financial Transaction Tax) was first proposed in 1936 by John Maynard Keynes as a tool to selectively discourage excessive speculation. In 1972 the Bretton Woods system for stabilizing currencies effectively came to an end (as Richard Nixon dropped the gold standard for the dollar). In that context Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin (influenced by the work of Keynes) suggested his more specific "currency transaction tax" for stabilizing currencies on a larger, global, scale.
The Robin Hood Tax has been a more colourful campaign on the same principles being developed in Britain and internationally. Many countries are now in favour (Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy have already agreed it for the Eurozone), but Wall Street remains strongly opposed to it. As the G20 meet again for another round of inside-a-fortress talks proponents of the tax are not very hopeful.
Meanwhile, at St Paul’s Cathedral doorsteps, the Occupiers celebrate decisions both by the Cathedral and the City of London Corporation not to initiate eviction proceedings and to open instead a dialogue. The unintended location of the first camp has fallen right between God and mammon, and it has opened the floodgates to a long overdue moral discussion about the direction of humanity.
