JUST GOOD BUSINESS BUZZ : Tax on financial transactions?

Should rich first-world banks help pay for the developing world to reverse environmental degradation?
That’s the idea behind UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s proposal for tax on global financial transactions that would help curb speculation at the same time as it offers solution for financing the greening of poorer countries. The idea of such tax, first mooted by economist James Tobin and named after him, prompted an immediate backlash when Brown suggested it to G20 finance ministers last month. But recent big bailouts of financial institutions with public money have helped build support for the notion that banking should not just return to business as normal.
As Gordon Brown put it: “There must be better economic and social contract between financial institutions and the public, based on trust and just distribution of risks and rewards.”