Sir, Göran Färm and Olle Ludvigsson (Letters, March 2) ignore our well-established arguments against a financial transactions tax by hoping that such a tax might end “purely speculative” financial practices.
Skype and Bluetooth are two fairly recent European innovations. To improve prosperity, Europe needs to be even more innovative. Investing in any new idea carries a high degree of risk; one might even call it speculative.
Specifically directing a new tax against high-risk investments is thus one way to make Europe less innovative and competitive. Is that what we want?
Gunnar Hökmark,
European People’s Party Group, European Parliament
Johnny Munkhammar,
Moderate Party, Swedish Parliament