The Tobin Tax Lives Again

The official in question was Adair Turner, the head of the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority, the country's chief financial regulator. Turner, voicing his concerns about the size of the financial sector and its frequently obscene levels of compensation, said he thought a global tax on financial transactions might help curb both.

Such a statement would have been unthinkable in the years before the sub-prime mortgage meltdown. Now, however, it is an indication of how much things have changed.