As The New York Times reported last year, profits from high-frequency trading have started to fall, off 74% in 2012 from the peak in 2009.

FORBES: Your Investing Hunch Is Internet Roadkill

The burden would fall mostly on high frequency traders while having minimal impact on long-term investors such as pension funds.

FORBES: Tobin Tax Shows New Promise, or Threat

General McChrystal has already sharply reduced the frequency of air strikes even as Western military casualties are at their highest since the fall of the Taliban.

ECONOMIST: NATO is running out of time in Afghanistan