Dampening the repo market could be economically useful, because this funding has proven to be unstable: Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers used repo heavily in ways that made them unable to withstand investment reversals elsewhere in their business. The same was true of MF Holdings last fall.
抑制回购市场是划算的，因为这种融资手段已被证明是不稳定的：贝尔斯登和雷曼兄弟都极度依赖回购协议，以至于它们无法接受其他业务上的投资被撤销的冲击。去年秋天，曼氏金融也重蹈了这一覆辙。更健康、更长期的融资或许可以让这些公司免于倒闭。如果托宾税能促使金融机构更多地用长期债务、更少地用隔夜回购来为自己融资，那么可以起到重要的稳定作用。