The Financial Transaction TaxPart 4 of 6
The four markets
Currencies, bonds, shares and raw materials. Every day, huge sums change hands in these four markets.
Our existence on earth is currently controlled through these four markets by the wealthy
- Fixed income$7.4 trillion
- Currencies$7 trillion
- Stocks$1.4 trillion
- Commodities$0.2 trillion
Figures as published on the old site. We are checking each one against its first source.
Wholesale currency trading
Wholesale trading of global currencies (not retail bureau de change activities) is the largest of all. The wealthy trade and speculate nearly $7 trillion in currencies per day.
Fixed income trading
The fixed income market includes interest rate and debt instruments such as credit default swaps and bonds. The wealthy trade and speculate $7.4 trillion in the fixed income market each day
Stock trading
Stock markets include shares in multinational banks, fossil fuel and weapons corporations, exchange traded funds and index derivatives (e.g. Dow/FTSE). The wealthy trade and speculate $1.4 trillion in stock markets each day.
Commodities trading
Commodity markets include trades and speculation of oil, gas, farm crops, carbon, gold, silver, lithium, cobalt and every major resource exploited by corporations to make profits on. The wealthy trade and speculate over $200 billion in commodity markets each day.
The four markets combined are worth $16 trillion per day - this is what they steal from us everyday
The guardians of capitalism
The average DAILY value of all global trades in 2021, during the height of Covid-19 was $15.8 trillion dollars
Poverty, racism and climate change are the known consequences of political choices
Capitalism cannot effectively sustain life on earth. It can only function through oppression, terror, plunder and crisis.
The cost of living crisis, debt crisis, racist policing crisis, migrant deaths crisis, misogyny crisis, financial crisis, housing crisis, unemployment crisis, wages crisis, food price crisis, climate crisis, inflation crisis, renters crisis, ecological crisis, floods crisis, famine crisis, poverty crisis, mental health crisis, the constant war crisis are not accidents, they are features of capitalism.
Human rights abuses, inequality, poverty, racism, sexism, patriarchy, debt bondage, neo-colonialism, ecocide/climate change etc. are interwoven and inseparable from one another – it is logically impossible to solve for one, without solving for all.
There is no sustainable levelling up under capitalism.
This is why we need to write the rules.
This is why we need system change.