Bottom line, a financial transactions tax takes money from the private sector and gives it to the public sector.

In a Monetarily Sovereign nation, which has the unique ability to create unlimited amounts of its own sovereign currency, this financial movement is unnecessary and economically recessive.

Examples of Monetarily Sovereign nations are the U.S., Canada, Japan, UK, China, Australia.

A monetarily non-sovereign nation, like the euro nations, does not have the ability to create its sovereign currency (It has no sovereign currency), so must obtain money from its citizens and/or from Net Exports.

Here a transactions tax provides needed money to the government, while taking needed money from the private sector.

Whether this is less bad than any other kind of tax, can be debated endlessly. What cannot be debated however, is the absolute fact that the euro nations voluntarily surrendered their single most valuable assets -- their Monetary Sovereignty -- a surrender that has brought misery to their people -- in exchange for doubtful convenience.