Now that a financial transactions tax is almost certain to be introduced at some level in Europe, the chorus of opposition from within the finance industry is becoming more shrill and more frequent. Lavish research reports spell out the doom that will follow implementation of an FTT. But this is nothing more than special pleading by those who work in the transactions industry.
Its not just the impact an FTT would have on their bonus income theyre worried about, though. As the increased focus of attention shone on the practices of the hedge fund industry by Mitt Romneys stumbling campaign for the US Republican presidential nomination demonstrates, hedge fund managers have been making a mint out of management fees as well as the growth in the funds they manage: and its that management fee income that they are desperate to protect from a Robin Hood Tax.
This explains much of what hedge fund and pension fund managers have been saying about the impact of a Robin Hood Tax on pensions.