The Tobin tax idea, developed during the 1970s as a tax on foreign-exchange transactions, has found its way back into the academic and policy debates, since the Copenhagen World Social Summit and the G7 Summit in early 1995 at the latest. At both events, proposals were put forward to impose a...

Every currency crisis of recent years has been accompanied by a migration of billions of short-term money. Both experts and laymen have again and again been amazed at the speed at which, at relatively short notice, these enormous sums could be mobilised.