not reflect any genuine human-reviewed fundamental risk or hedge analysis. She also vowed to "Impose a risk fee on the largest financial institutions. Big banks and financial companies would be required to pay a fee based on their size and their risk of contributing to another crisis." How much fees would be assessed, and whether they amounted to a tax, were an active topic of speculation in the financial community, which expected them to follow Basel III definitions with further refinements. Purpose Although every financial transaction tax (FTT) proposal has its own specific intended purpose, some general intended purposes are common to most of them. Below are some of those general commonalities. The intended purpose may or may not be achieved. Curbing volatility of financial markets In 1936, when Keynes first proposed a financial transaction tax, he wrote, "Speculators may not harm bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the situation is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation." Rescuing enterprise from becoming "the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation" was also an intended purpose of the 1972 Tobin tax and is a common theme in several other types of financial transaction taxes. For the specific type of volatility in specific areas, see each specific type of financial transaction taxes below. An exception to the purpose of "curbing of volatility" is likely the "bank transaction tax". Curbing speculation without discouraging hedging The role of large numbers of individual speculators willing to take both short and long positions without prejudice does play some role in preventing price bubbles and asset inflation. However, excess speculation is often deemed not only a source of volatility but a distraction of talent and a dangerous shift of focus for a developed economy. By contrast, hedging is necessary for the stability of enterprises. Tax schemes, in general, seek to tax speculation – seen as akin to gambling – while trying not to interfere with hedging (a form of insurance). The differences summarize that: hedging protects an existing investment against unforeseen price changes, while speculation takes on the additional risk the investor could have avoided hedging is a means to manage or limit price risk, while speculation actually relies on taking a risk for profit (and is in this respect similar to gambling) hedging protects against price changes and makes them less relevant to the overall price of outputs sold to the