The 0-0-0-0.x Plan : 50 minute presentation

So, for those of you who are feeling particularly courageous, here is a substantially longer version of my presentation.

I've uploaded it in five parts onto Youtube (because there is a 15 minute limit on the duration of a video).

Part one asks what an optimal tax system would look like, and looks at the history of idea that you could replace the existing tax system with a flat rate financial transaction tax. You can either click on the video directly on this page or click here to go directly to the Youtube site.

Part two looks at the numbers on the levels of financial transactions using numbers from the Bank for International Settlements, from the European Central Bank, and from my own research on the web. I look at the levels of FTT needed to replace taxes in different countries.

Part three looks at some of the details of implementing such a tax, and looks at one of the original features of my proposition - namely, the idea that the rate of the tax could be continuously varied so that government revenue is adjusted to match expenditure.

Part four looks at the advantages of the system, and looks at some of the potential criticisms that have been raised.

In the final part, I look at the question of who would lose out in such as system, as well as the question of whether the proposal is fundamentally left-wing or right-wing. Answer : Neither!

I hope you like them. I'm actually quite pleased with them, even though there are moments when my fluency leaves a little to be desired. I'm really pleased with the software that I used to combine the video with the Keynote presentation - It's called ScreenFlow in case you are interested.

 Do feel free to comment. And don't hesitate to let others know about these videos. My next step is to do another set of videos in French! Stay tuned...