The Chicago-based CME Group runs four of world’s largest financial markets, accounting for around one-quadrillion dollars (1000 trillion) worth of trades, from three-billion contracts per year.  Three of the 14 candidates in Chicago’s 2019 mayoral race, Amara Enyia, Garry McCarthy, and LaShawn Ford, propose a financial transaction tax, known colloquially as a “LaSalle Street Tax.” The fee would operate as a type of sales tax on every contract processed by companies like CME Group, and Cboe Global Markets. The three looked at financial powerhouse countries like Singapore, Japan, India and the UK on how they do it. To discuss how the financial trade tax works abroad, and the feasibility of bringing it to Chicago, we’re joined by Benedictine University economist Ron P. Baiman, a member of the Chicago Political Economy Group, and Steven M. Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He co-authored a report in the National Tax Journal titled “Financial transaction taxes in theory and practice.”