BAKER EXPRESSES DOUBTS ABOUT U.S. STOCK TAX
Treasury Secretary James Baker
expressed doubts about a proposal to tax securities
transactions as a solution to the budget deficit and said it
could hurt financial markets.
    "If you start taxing markets, it could impair their
efficiency," Baker said after a speech to the National Newspaper
Association.
    "The problem is not that Americans are undertaxed. We as a
government are overspending," he told reporters.
    House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex) has proposed a transfer
tax to be paid by buyers and sellers of stocks.
 Reuter
