Bastille Day is not, as far as I know, a gift-giving holiday (*:guillotines not included), but this week I received an unexpected present: A cool summary of "How to Tax the Ultrarich" by the social science journalists @scholarpeer.bsky.social . Read it here: scholarpeer.com/this-proposa...

This Proposal Doesn't Ban Tax Deferral for the Ultrarich. It Just Makes Waiting Worthless

The top 0.1 percent hold $1 of every $6 in US private wealth, much of it untaxed due to tax deferral. A proposal aims to change that.

scholarpeer.com

I’m hoping to post weekly going forward. If you don’t mind diving into the tax and economic policy weeds, check it out. Subscriptions are free. open.substack.com/pub/azbob2/p...

On Buy-Borrow-Die: Taxing Borrowing Is Not Progressive; It’s Stupid

Lawmakers should close the loopholes that enable buy-borrow-die. Punishing borrowers won’t work.

open.substack.com

In 2013, Bob Lord on our team wrote, "If the growth rate in America’ largest fortunes over the past 30 years continues unabated, we’ll see our first American trillionaire before 2040." Unfortunately for our democracy & economy, he was right. Read his 2013 piece here: inequality.org/article/tril...

Our First Trillionaire: Only a Matter of Time - Inequality.org

]If current trends continue, a trillionaire in the United States will be surfacing within not much more than a generation.

inequality.org

(Not so) Fun fact: if the country’s wealth were distributed as it was in 1982, the richest 1500 households would control 1.5% of total wealth. Today, just 10 households do. Time to tax them more?

You may have heard: “The top 1% pay 40% of income taxes” why raise taxes on the wealthy? The real issue isn't the 1%. It's the top 0.1% & 0.01%, where massive fortunes grow & tax rules are incredibly regressive. The result? A tiny slice of Americans control trillions in wealth.

My colleague @chuck77.bsky.social was fast out of the gates on this one. On top of everything else, Noem has a long history of lying to protect economic elites. inequality.org/article/adio...

Adios Kristi! Noem’s Long History of Lying to Protect the Powerful

Nearly a decade before she was the public face of DHS, Noem’s tall tales about the estate tax helped gut one of the few remaining checks on elite fortunes.

inequality.org

Enormous wealth allows our oligarchs to seize media outlets. They use these media outlets to influence public opinion — like convincing us not to tax enormous wealth. IPS fellow @azboblord.bsky.social in @inequality.org:

The Washington Post’s Owner Really Doesn’t Want You to Know His Effective Tax Rate

If you did, you wouldn’t be buying what the Post’s editorial board is selling.

inequality.org

Our VP of Tax Policy @azboblord.bsky.social breaks down how billionaires like Jeff Bezos pay far lower tax rates than ordinary Americans and what that means for our democracy.⬇️ inequality.org/article/the-...

The Washington Post’s Owner Really Doesn’t Want You to Know His Effective Tax Rate

If you did, you wouldn’t be buying what the Post’s editorial board is selling.

inequality.org

NEW: The richest 19 Americans now own over 2% of our country's wealth, but pay as little as 4% effective annual tax, while the average American might pay 20%. To defend our democracy, we must fix our tax code, says IPS fellow @azboblord.bsky.social. Listen:

The cost of not taxing the rich - WORT-FM 89.9

Bob Lord is a tax lawyer, an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Senior Vice President of Tax Policy Senior Fellow at Patriotic Millionaires. He discusses […]

wortfm.org

Literally half the country wants to abolish ICE and the Democrats are going to make them pinky swear not to deport U.S. citizens anymore

For far more than you really wanted to know about how zillionaires dodge tax on inter-generational transfers, see papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

My post from 12 years ago was dead on. Would have preferred to have been dead wrong. inequality.org/article/tril...

Trillionaire Cometh, Democracy Goeth

With the arrival of our first trillionaire fast approaching, America’s democracy is hanging by a thread.

inequality.org

The combined wealth of just two Americans now tops $1 TRILLION. Tax the damned billionaires yet?

1. Trump 1.0 was more corrupt than even Nixon. 2. Trump 2.0 is Trump 1.0, but to coin a phrase, ON STEROIDS. 3. Yet the challenge for Democrats is world weary cynicism that all politicians are the same. Unforced errors like this reinforce 3 & are really bad for the party!

Murshed Zaheed@murshedz.bsky.social · 8mo ago

"House Democrats on Thursday voted to return Rep. Henry Cuellar to his leadership role on the House Appropriations Committee following his presidential pardon on federal corruption charges." JICYMI - Shameful, repulsive move by House Democrats and their leaders. Disgraceful.

Bold change often bubbles up from the states...

Sam Pizzigati@sgp.bsky.social · 10mo ago

A just proposed 2026 California ballot initiative would levy a 5% tax on the state’s #billionaires and direct 90% of the returns to Californians on Medicaid and the institutions that serve them, with the rest going to K-12 schools. prospect.org/2025/10/23/u...

Finally, as a Palestinian-American, I sincerely hope that this is the first step on the long road to liberty for my people. I have faith — no, I know — that one day, our two peoples will look back and say this was a dark chapter in our shared history, as one.

This is fucking appalling. It’s collective punishment, it’s incitement to genocide, and the US needs to stop funding it. I stand with the millions of Gazans under siege and the hundreds of thousands of Israelis protesting against the manmade horrors plaguing Gaza.

At least 70 people have already showed up to protest against ICE at the Broadview Detention Facility. This is what showing up for your community looks like. Stand for your neighbors. Abolish ICE.

I’ll bet most people don’t know who Thomas Peterffy is, but out of every $2500 of American wealth, his share is $1. If you’re an average American, your share of that $2500 would be less than one-thousandth of a penny. Tax the Damn Billionaires

For the wealthy, the tax code removes all the risk. That means billionaires can sit on massive gains for decades without paying a dime and keep borrowing against their wealth. Bob Lord breaks down why we need a tax code that rewards work, not wealth. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Tax. The. Billionaires. Now. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Even sky-high income tax rates won’t stop the relentless rise of the richest

Tackling America's wealth gap will require more powerful tactics.

motherjones.com

Social justice, most of us understand, demands a “poverty line” and efforts to keep our poorest above it. But that justice will remain elusive until we also set a “wealth line” and keep all our richest below it. @dhnnjyn.bsky.social @ingridrobeyns.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

If Trump achieved the result he wants, he’d in substance have done no more than reverse what he did in 2017 when he slashed Walmart’s corporate tax rate.

@azboblord.bsky.social · last yr.

What Trump proposes here gets awfully close to a corporate tax rate increase. www.commondreams.org/news/trump-e...

What Trump proposes here gets awfully close to a corporate tax rate increase. www.commondreams.org/news/trump-e...

Trump Tells Walmart to 'Eat' the Cost of His Tariffs | Common Dreams

U.S. President Trump criticizes Walmart for blaming tariffs for price hikes, vows to watch the company. Economists warn tariff costs will likely be passed on to consumers.

commondreams.org

NEW: Our current effective tax rate on capital gains shrinks as the gains grow in size and duration, inviting the tax dodge — Buy-Hold for Decades-Sell — that’s driving America’s wealth concentration. Our future depends on reforming the capital gains tax. @azboblord.bsky.social in @inequality.org:

America's Most Regressive Tax Levy: Our Tax on Capital Gains - Inequality.org

Our capital gains effective tax rate shrinks as the gains grow in size and duration, inviting the tax dodge that’s driving America’s wealth concentration.

inequality.org

In the latest installation of his ‘Buy-Hold for Decades-Sell’ series, IPS fellow @azboblord.bsky.social illustrates how low tax rates on investment gains can radically change retirement outcomes — through the tales of Bob Golfsalot and Morris Worksalot. inequality.org/article/the-...

The Harsh Unfairness of ‘Buy-Hold for Decades-Sell’

How this ongoing tax avoidance strategy is making an oligarchic concentration of America’s wealth ever more inevitable.

inequality.org

Trumpistas are doing everything imaginable to untax the rich & their corporate empires. But we can't stop exploring new ways to create a tax system that helps build a more equal future. Check this new @rooseveltinstitute.org study. @nikolusiani.bsky.social rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

Taxing Excessive Profits: Designing a Pro-Competition Corporate Tax System - Roosevelt Institute

In a new analysis, Niko Lusiani and Ira Regmi lay the groundwork for developing a pro-competition tax on excess corporate profits in America.

rooseveltinstitute.org

Charles Littlejohn has gotten a draconian sentence for leaking information that exposed our US Oligarchial class for the tax evaders they are. It was a public service, and he deserves a commutation. Sign a petition here. freecharleslittlejohn.com