Clinton Aims Party’s ‘Wall Street’ Tax at Flash Boys, Not Banks
- Presumptive Democratic nominee wants tax on canceled orders
- Party platform expresses support for financial-transaction tax
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves on July 12, 2016, in New York City.
Photographer: Yana Paskova/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The Democratic Party’s proposed 2016 platform supports “a financial transaction tax on Wall Street” -- but presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton is focused on a narrower approach that isn’t likely to target big banks.
Clinton and her advisers propose taxing some high-frequency traders who spam markets with thousands of orders they later cancel. That levy would affect a comparatively small number of firms -- none of them household names -- and Clinton isn’t likely to expand it into a tax on all trades of stocks, bonds and derivatives, according to senior policy analysts familiar with her campaign.