Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

‘Wall Street tax’ would hurt us

When most people picture an investor, they probably think of a man in a suit and tie, heading to his job on the trading floor at Wall Street. He’s a millionaire, maybe even a multimillionaire. But it’s not entirely accurate.

I’m a professor of at UNLV and Truckee Meadows Community College. I don’t wear a tie every day, but I have investments, including a pension. In fact, thousands of people across Nevada, just like me, have IRA retirement or savings accounts that are invested in the stock market, and we don’t live like the people working on Wall Street.

A financial transaction tax is being considered in Congress to rein in Wall Street by taxing every stock market trade made. Many investment banks and hedge funds use computers to analyze the market and identify emerging trends, allowing the buying and selling of stocks at extremely high speeds. It gives an advantage to large firms over small investors like me.

I doubt a financial transaction tax would disincentivize high-frequency trading among big players on Wall Street. However, it would have this effect on the money of everyday investors.

Studies find that even a one-cent financial transaction tax would rob a typical state public pension plan of up to $100 million annually. That is years of retirement for a college professor. And for those saving for an education, the average state 529 plan could owe up to $19 million annually, or full tuition for 1,900 students at UNLV.

I want to level the playing field between myself and those working on Wall Street. But a financial transaction tax is not the way to do that.