Trading Tax Loathed by Street, Poll Says

With 34% of the votes, survey takers said that a law that requires financial firms to maintain a higher level of capital was the best idea. Not far behind it, with 30% of the votes, survey takers believe creating an insurance pool that requires financial institutions to deposit an amount commensurate to their risk level was the best option.

Taken together, these two concepts garnering 64% of the votes indicates that if there are concessions to be made to call off the populist rage and the support for a tax on Street trading profits, the Street would prefer the focus to be placed on the balance sheet and overall risk management of financial firms, as opposed to siphoning off profits.

We did present survey takers with one final option: a guarantee that bailout funds never again be available to financial firms as a way to put to bed the idea of implementing a trading tax. Note to Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner: Approximately 21% of survey takers supported this idea as the best of the lot.

--Reported by Eric Rosenbaum in New York.

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