German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her weekly video podcast Saturday to urge the creation of a more "humane globalization," and weighed in behind International Monetary Fund (IMF) plans for taxes on financial institutions, according to dpa. Merkel said she would call for the adoption of taxes on banks in next week's meeting in Berlin with representatives of key global bodies, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization (WTO). "It is about creating a framework of rules that prevents a repeat of the current international finance and economic crisis," she said. Merkel backed the suggestion made in the past week by the IMF for two separate taxes - known as the Financial Stability Tax and the Financial Activities Tax - on financial institutions aimed at helping government to recoup funds spent on bailing out banks, and creating a pool for future financial rescues. "The purpose and direction of such a levy would be to create a buffer, so that in future crises the banks can be responsible for themselves, and that the taxpayer won't have to pay again for the ... excesses of the market." Merkel again targeted derivatives trading, which she blamed for exacerbating Greece's budget and debt woes, and said that her government had asked the European Commission to ban certain such instruments - but didn't specify which. -- SPA
