Mr. Gros added that taxing bank bonuses was a concrete step unlike discussion over the transaction levy.
Many argue that tax rebates, particularly in the transaction levy charged when a home changes hands, could give owners the necessary nudge.
Merkel criticised both Barack Obama and David Cameron for opposing EU proposals for a financial transaction levy, or Tobin tax, and demanding "big bang" solutions.
But Mr. Brown is now suggesting "an insurance fee to reflect systemic risk or a resolution fund or contingent capital arrangements or a global financial transaction levy".
It is no surprise that British Treasury officials suggest they will not sanction any transaction levy that is limited to the EU.The second objection is the ease of disguising transactions, for example as derivatives, to avoid any levy.
The chips tax, nominally about tackling obesity, was launched in 2011, a tax on text messaging and phone calls in 2012 and a financial transaction levy on paying bills and taking cash from an ATM last year.
Apart from novels, television series and Ridley Scott's imminent mega-budget epic, we have the Robin Hood tax, an aptly named plan to steal from the filthy rich (namely banks) without the help of blade or longbow: a 0.05% transaction levy promises £250bn for the poor – quasi-feudalised as they are by capitalism's excesses.
In a declaration issued after their meeting, the 27 nations of the European Union encouraged the International Monetary Fund to review "the full range of options including insurance fees, resolution funds, contingent capital arrangements and a global financial transaction levy," which Britain and France said should help finance efforts to combat climate change.
Instead of paying up to 5% of a transaction to Visa or MasterCard, merchants would pay only the 10 to 12 cents per transaction levied for checking account transfers by the banking-industry-ownedA utomated Clearing House network.
