Economic turmoil brings new luster to some classic catchall solutions.

Activists took this idea and ran with it, eventually suggesting that all financial transactions (like stock trades and bond purchases) be subject to a Tobin Tax. It’s a leftist’s dream—get access to a continuous pipeline of huge batches of revenue for desirable social programs at the expense of speculators and financiers.

A basic problem with a Tobin Tax is that it puts one’s country at a disadvantage; countries without the tax will attract investors looking to escape it and could compete for the market exchanges themselves (and their high-paying financial sector jobs). But a surprising number of financial powers have stock- or bond-transaction taxes. Japan eliminated its own in 1999, but versions are still in place in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The United States had such a tax in place until 1966, and the SEC continues to charge a tiny fee on transactions to finance its own operations.

Politicians are loathe to suggest new taxes—Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright was the last politician with any clout to suggest a Tobin Tax, and that was in 1987. But there’s been a growing chorus of support in the past weeks, from editorialists and at least one mainstream economist, buttressed by previous remarks by Larry Summers (a former Treasury secretary) and Nobel Prize-winner Joe Stiglitz, both of whom support Barack Obama. Even currency playboy George Soros has endorsed a form of currency tax. None of the campaigns The Big Money called would go on the record, but the idea is out there.