Financial Transaction Tax?

EU Parliament pushes for bank tax EurActiv: "The EU executive told EurActiv it was examining a Swedish scheme which was introduced as early as October 2008.
The Swedish Stability Fund has been collecting a 0.036% fee from banks and credit institutions, which, if all goes according to plan, should accrue 2.5% of GDP in 15 years."

It does not seem like Swedes are too foreign to the financial transaction tax concept since they in essence are doing it themselves. The question is if the world is ready for it since it is necessary to introduce it all over in order for compliance.

People write about this in the leftish The Guardian and wants the US aboard the project. They talk about a 0.25% tax that would render some $100bn per year. The US could rid themselves of their deficit over ten years in a similar fashion. The use for paying of deficits generated by the financial crisis defences was suggested by Jeffrey Sachs. He also suggested the use for a stable source for disaster payments and for food to the poor.

But is this really a leftish problem to generate a stable source of revenue for world wide good purposes or is it rather a powerful idea who's time has come? After the crises, Angela Merkel was suggesting the the typical economy of Germany might become the world standard. I guess everyone is curious about what standard China and Asia in general are going to chose. In any case, the enthusiasm seen in the European Parliament across the board for a financial transaction tax is not so far shared across the pond. At least not yet. It seems like the G20 meeting in June 2010 will discuss the matter.