Democratic nominee hopeful Bernie Sanders wants to raid Wall Street to pay off $1.6 trillion worth of student loan debts, and analysts and economists alike say such a tax would make the markets more volatile and the costs would hurt the average, middle class investors and investment houses.
Sanders’ plan includes a 0.5% tax on stock trades, or 50 cents for every $100 worth of stock traded, a 0.1% levy on bonds and 0.005% fee on derivatives. The taxes would go to canceling the student debt of 45 million Americans the moment the legislation is signed into law.
Of course, politicians looking to stoke fury among the working class often take aim at Wall Street and the billions upon billions of dollars in profits traded weekly. The European Commission has debated a financial-transactions tax for years, and now Sanders, trailing in the polls heading into this week’s Democratic debates, is fueling the idea that threatens to disrupt everyone from high-frequency traders to pensions managers to anyone investing in a 401(k).
Sanders’ logic is that since Wall Street was bailed out during the Great Recession, it should now return the favor and bail out Americans who willingly took the debt on in the first place.
“In a generation hard hit by the Wall Street crash of 2008, it forgives all student debt and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation to a lifetime of debt for the ‘crime’ of getting a college education,” Sanders said at a Monday news conference.
Analysts and industry groups say the cost of this tax would mainly be shouldered not by Wall Street tycoons, but by Main Street investors as trading houses pass along higher costs and fees, and indirectly through lower returns on mutual funds and pension accounts.
It’s not the first time Wall Street has made such claims, but outside experts agree. The International Monetary Fund said in 2011 that transaction taxes cost the finance industry, but those higher costs are then passed down to the average consumer — much in the same way the coast of tariffs are passed down to consumers.
About 52% of American households have a retirement account, according to the Federal Reserve, which is more than double the 22% of households with student debt.
In effect, Sanders‘ plan will tax retirement accounts to forgive debt held by about a quarter of the country.
Larry Tab, the founder of the research firm Tabb Group, laid out the case for why this is a terrible idea on Twitter.
Bernie Sanders to Propose Taxing Wall Street to Pay Off Student Debts
Here we go again.
Can someone tell this guy @BernieSanders that these taxes are paid by mom and pop investors, mutual fund investors, folks with pensions and 401Ks. https://t.co/LVYmzTVZbb
— Larry Tabb (@ltabb) June 24, 2019
What?!!
The majority of investors are hardworking joes like you & I. At least I work hard. Yes there are some folks with mansions like that but most are union workers, teachers, & hard working folks trying to squirrel away a few bucks in their pension, retirement & MF accounts
— Larry Tabb (@ltabb) June 24, 2019
I would venture to say most American retirees depend on their retirement / pension funds / investments. Maybe not to live but they are dependent on those funds.
How would cutting their social security benefits play?
how is that different?
— Larry Tabb (@ltabb) June 25, 2019
it hurts anyone that trades or invests in mutual funds, pension funds, or directly in the market. Wider spreads means investors pay more and receive less when they re-balance / trade. For MF / pensioners it adds up. Even if you don't own a share of stock
— Larry Tabb (@ltabb) June 25, 2019
According to the Congressional Budget Office, more than $1 trillion in stocks and bonds are traded each day, with trillions more in derivatives also changing hands.
Sanders’ proposal says the tax would raise about $2.4 trillion total to pay the $2.2 trillion cost of eliminating all student debt and undergraduate tuition and fees at public colleges, but the figures are debatable. The ECB released a study in 2017 that found a tax on equity trading in France decreased trading volume by a whopping 10%, and it fell short of generating the revenue expected because of it.
Student loan debt has tripled since 2007, surpassing car loans and credit card debt as American’s second-biggest source of household debt behind home mortgages.
About one in nine borrowers is at least 90 days behind on payments, the highest delinquency rate of any household debt, according to the New York Fed.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell and and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon have said that the student debt crisis also is hurting the housing market because people can’t buy a home due to the large student loan debt they carry. The housing market is where many middle class Americans build their wealth, so that in effect creates an even greater wealth disparity between the haves and have-nots.
However, Wall Street does not think Sanders’ plan will work the way he hopes, and in effect will hurt many of the same people he’s trying to help — working class people saving for retirement.
Despite my natural cynicism, the stupidity of people continues to amaze me. EVERY time a significant transaction tax has been tried, it has either been gutted or eliminated due to its failure to collect anything close to projected revenue & its impact on capital markets.
— David Weisberger (@daveweisberger) June 24, 2019