Australia should tax speculation. The Federal Government is determined to slash expenditure and introduce a deficit levy, which could hit economic growth, yet ignores a tax on speculation. Why? The tax would also help address Australia's so-called budget crisis. A mere 0.2% duty on all ASX transactions would raise $2 billion annually. Daily turnover on the ASX is regularly exceeds $3 billion, but no one seems to be able to explain what that turnover achieves, and it's clearly dominated by speculative activity which has little to do with long-term investment. A speculation tax would help address the damage caused by high-frequency trading (HFT). As noted in our The Climate Blog, Charlie Munger, vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, told CNBC this week HFT is the functional equivalent of letting rats into a granary and it does the rest of civilisation no good at all. Link to the post: (VIEW LINK)