Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, says he plans to introduce a bill that would put a fee on stock market trades. Braley says the bill is aimed at those who use automated trading.
Braley says the majority of stock trades are not being made by humans any more, they are made by robot computers that he says can sell thousands of different securities in the blink of an eye. He says the “Wall Street Speculation Fee Bill” would raise billions of dollars to help the economy.
“We know that this type of high-speed speculation has led to some of the important factors that brought us to this recession, and now while Iowa and the rest of the United states are suffering, they’re using these high-speed computers to bag huge profits and million-dollar bonuses,” Braley says.
He says these types of trades have gotten us into this financial mess and they should help to get us out. The fee would be charged on every stock trade, but Braley says it would be so small that one study shows an average family would only pay one dollar extra each year for its stock trades.
Braley says Iowa Democrat Senator Tom Harkin is sponsoring similar bill in the Senate.