The state could charge heftily for acting as lender of last resort—or, less desirable, impose a windfall tax on bank profits or a “Tobin tax” on transactions.
Coming on the back of huge profits at Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell, there are some calls in Britain and on the European continent to impose a windfall tax on energy companies.
The Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has given details of windfall taxes his government will impose under a new state of emergency being enforced because of the war in neighboring Ukraine.
He urged them to investigate whether energy companies are making excessive profits from selling gas, which he said earns higher margins than flogging electricity.
Instead, Gilead, which originally developed the drug for other treatments, has argued that the patent is not valid and continues to rake in billions annually.
They include mandatory consumption cuts, taxing the windfall profits of energy firms to provide rebates to consumers and capping the price of Russian gas.