The monster keeps rising from the slab. No matter how many times the European Union financial transaction tax gets thumped over the head with a large club, it refuses to die.

The Italian government has announced that legislation on the FTT will be one of the priorities for its presidency of the European Council, which runs until the end of this year. On the fringes of the "informal" EU finance ministers' meeting in Milan this month, several ministers commented on the tax (it is one of many odd quirks of the EU that informal Council meetings tend to discuss much bigger issues than run-of-the-mill formal ones). Here we go again.