I knew that there were some proposals kicking around, but the idea has become mainstream enough that New York Stock Eexchange CEO Duncan Niederauer has gone public with his opposition.

It appears that Rep. Peter DeFasio’s (D-0R-4) proposal for a ¼% transaction tax on stocks and derivatives, in part to fund the bailout of the banking industry.

It’s a very good idea. ¼% is inconsequential to long term investors, but to speculator types, such as day traders, it makes their business model, and the problems that they bring, much less sustainable.

It exists in most of the rest of the world, and (IIRC) existed in the US until some point in the 1960s, so it’s not the end of the world that these folks forsee, though it might cut down a bit on their commissions from churning clients investments.