This whole long-ass thread is a great read for two interesting (and not necessarily mutually exclusive) takes on what's wrong with U.S. production capacity across many industries. (I'd love to see the author add a climate externalities layer, too!)

Jeff Gordon@jeffgordon.bsky.social · 5d ago

I have a new working paper up on SSRN, Tax and the Law of Market Cycles. The core idea is: what if we applied everything we've learned about countercyclical macroprudential regulation to the boom-bust cycles of physical commodities and heavy industries? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I've heard that in addition to all that boring con law stuff there will also be a chapter about states using their tax authority to counter oligarchy. Could be a good time.

UC Berkeley Law@ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social · 2d ago

Upcoming Event: The Edley Center on Law & Democracy hosts the Thomas David and Judith Swope Clark Symposium on Constitutional Interpretation on August 28 to discuss ways states can fight back to counter authoritarianism. Register: https://bit.ly/4h7CuiR #BerkeleyLaw

www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

California Democratic Party endorses billionaire tax

The party’s executive board broke with several labor unions and Gavin Newsom on the measure.

politico.com

One of the problems with the NYC rollout of the pied-a-terre tax is that they assumed every home owned by a trust is a second home. This isn't usually true! Many, many primary residences are held in trust. If you are planning to tax rich ppl, pls feel free to email me to write your law for you.

Ok, this one is about the Moore case and tax reform in (probably) 2029 & after. Moore says we probably can only tax super-rich people when they sell stuff, not through a wealth tax or similar options. An alternative would be to tax their consumption. Is that a good plan? Spoiler: no. /1

Washington University Law Review@washulawreview.bsky.social · last wk.

The Washington University Law Review is pleased to publish Consumption Taxes and the Constitution by Brian Galle as part of Volume 103, Issue 6. The Article examines whether consumption taxes offer a viable response to inequality. Read: wustllawreview.org/2026/07/27/c...

The Washington University Law Review is pleased to publish Consumption Taxes and the Constitution by Brian Galle as part of Volume 103, Issue 6. The Article examines whether consumption taxes offer a viable response to inequality. Read: wustllawreview.org/2026/07/27/c...

As I was saying: fortune.com/2026/07/27/l... (PS there is no exodus, everyone who says they are chilling in Tahoe will be back as soon as their 2026 tax return is filed & litigated)

LeBron James joins California's billionaire exodus — but he may not escape the wealth tax | Fortune

As California billionaires flee to Florida or fund the fight against Prop 40, LeBron's decision adds a new wrinkle to the tax reckoning.

fortune.com

Brian Galle@bdgesq.bsky.social · last wk.

Lebron, a California billionaire, is taking his talents to South Street. Will he have Philadelphia Freedom from #Prop40, the billionaire tax? No, and it's a slam dunk. If it passes, Prop 40 will score billionaires as Californians if they resided in CA on January 1, 2026.

Lebron, a California billionaire, is taking his talents to South Street. Will he have Philadelphia Freedom from #Prop40, the billionaire tax? No, and it's a slam dunk. If it passes, Prop 40 will score billionaires as Californians if they resided in CA on January 1, 2026.

Friends, you have never seen such professionalism as the Harvard Sq Lizzies scooper who, ignoring the gasps of awed horror from a long line of customers, coolly served up the banana split with hot fudge, gummi bears, and sprinkles this chick just ordered.

OK, my hottest Odyssey discourse take is that bad translations have masked the fact that it is a deeply feminist story in which Penelope gets literal top co-billing: that key adjective in the first line is "knotted" and only Fagles's translation ("twists and turns") gets close to getting it right.

Most states seem to have no plan for how to avert this (and, as Chandler said, they don't even have a "pla"). But this is one of the federal funding streams that #prop40 -- the California Billionaire Tax -- would replace.

Lauren Bauer@laurenhlb.bsky.social · 4w ago

Millions of people are losing access to food benefits right now for literally no good reason and I wish more people were aware and talking about it. www.cbpp.org/research/foo... (As opposed to or at least in addition to the other stuff.)

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

The campaign against the tax shows you why we need the tax. They literally wanted to buy the mechanism for getting initiatives on the ballot. Do you need more metonymy here, people?

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 3w ago

Can Silicon Valley’s billionaires stop a California wealth tax? ft.trib.al/FkyYRJC

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

The opinion is a fun read but nothing in it forces IRS to audit potus or his family, no matter how much they might deserve it. If it stands it does help clear the decks for audits & other ensuing legal action under a subsequent administration.

Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 3w ago

BREAKING: Federal judge finds that Trump's IRS suit was improper because Trump controlled both sides of the litigation. Judge Kathleen Williams also sanctions Trump's lawyers, issues monetary sanctions, and harshly criticizes DOJ's "untenable" conduct. More to come at Law Dork: www.lawdork.com

Presumptive Gov. Becerra sounds supportive of a tax on employers to pay for Medicaid benefits of their workers. The likely result would be that the tax would passed through to workers as lower wages or fewer jobs. Yuck. Just tax billionaires instead, dude. #CBTA www.sacbee.com/news/politic...

Newsom cheers Fair Share from Big Corporations Act after previous skepticism

After months of silence over the proposal, Newsom cheered its passage Wednesday. But his administration has not said if it plans to begin drafting proposals before his term ends.

sacbee.com

I was sad not to have been parodied in this column (I am assuming, ofc, I cannot be one of the people described as not fun at parties). Also reporters please stop repeating the bullshit claims of billionaires' lawyers that they have "moved" (into their 5th vacation home?) as fact. See? I'm fun.

Soumaya Keynes@soumayakeynes.ft.com · 4w ago

Who wants to tax a billionaire? My attempt to anger *everyone* in a fraught debate www.ft.com/content/bf18...

@BerkeleyLaw is hiring a tenured professor in AI, Law and Society, as part of an interdisciplinary campus-wide cluster. Please spread the word, and consider applying! Deadline is September 4. Happy to field questions. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05397

Professor - Artificial Intelligence, Inequality, and Society - School of Law

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

As always a fun conversation with wealth-tax skeptic tax mavens Jeff Hoopes & Scott Dyreng, this time about "How to Tax the Ultrarich." Not sure I convinced 'em but a good time was had by all. Slightly less creepy outro voice from Jeff this time, thankfully. www.buzzsprout.com/1878989/epis...

Tax the Ultrarich Without Throwing Out Realization: A conversation with Brian Galle - Tax Chats

Jeff and Scott chat with Brian Galle about his new paper, How to Tax the Ultrarich.  Most proposals that seek to tax the very wealthy differently eliminate the principle of realization, such as w...

buzzsprout.com

How do you tax extreme wealth? It's no picnic—esp at the federal level—for constitutional reasons & political ones. (The public wants it, but the oligarchs hold the cards.) Even unrealized gains appear untouchable, but good ideas are afoot. cc: @bdgesq.bsky.social, @gabrielzucman.bsky.social

How to tax a billionaire

America's oligarchs guard their hoards jealously—but there may be a way in.

motherjones.com

One old trick in politics is to oppose something possible while calling for something impossible. Example: Here's Gavin Newsom leading the charge for a "national billionaires tax" while he and his paid goons work to kill a state billionaire tax. This allows him to be on both sides for 2028.

Gov. Newsom comes out for a "national billionaires tax." Look, we know from a CA perspective this is just the oil companies arguing for a carbon tax bc they know it will not happen. But also, this is now the moderate position in the D presidential primary. gavinnewsom.substack.com/p/its-time-f...

It's time for a national billionaires’ tax and a new social compact

We must democratize the American economy to save democracy.

gavinnewsom.substack.com

Also Ro: "If you look at the cross-tabs [in the polling,] among Democrats it is 90-10 in favor, 85-15 at worst. It makes no sense that any Democratic elected official would be opposed to the billionaire tax."

SEIU-UHW holding a press conf now to announce that the #BillionaireTax will be on the November ballot. @rokhanna.bsky.social: "At my town halls, I ask who supports a 5% billionaire tax. 95% of hands for yes, 5% of hands for no to the tax. When I ask the nos why, they say, 'Why isn't it a 10% tax?'"

Since we're apparently back to the 00's in Spending Clause jurisprudence, I am putting on The Strokes and posting a link to this piece (written by a clerk in the DNJ readers of this feed may recognize) on why contract analogies in SC interpretation are stupid: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Steve Vladeck@stevevladeck.bsky.social · last mo.

25 years ago, a Michigan district court embraced a bizarre theory about the limits on Congress's power under the Spending Clause—one that was quickly repudiated. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court's six Republican appointees quietly revived it while making it harder to enforce an array of federal rights:

Professor Brian Galle, author of 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘢𝘹 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘭𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩, joined "The Call" on @kalwradio.bsky.social to discuss a proposed California Billionaire Tax. Listen now: https://bit.ly/4uViHX9 @bdgesq.bsky.social #BerkeleyLaw

Tech execs spend over $100M to oppose CA Billionaire Tax

The SEIU-UHW backed ballot measure, which has qualified to be on the November ballot, is facing extreme pushback from Governor Gavin Newsom and tech billionaires.

kalw.org

This is a fantastic scientific achievement but it shouldn't be overlooked that it is also an achievement of payment system design. These treatments cost several million $ and it was the federal Medicaid agency's work with state govs that made delivering them feasible.

WAFB@wafb.com · last mo.

New Orleans man becomes first in Louisiana functionally cured of sickle cell disease: https://www.wafb.com/2026/06/23/new-orleans-man-becomes-first-louisiana-functionally-cured-sickle-cell-disease/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky_

I'm very excited to be part of this awesome virtual symposium on the future of the U.S. tax system, hosted at Democracy Journal. democracyjournal.org/category/mag... So many smart, thoughtful, and especially readable takes on what's next. My own bit is here: democracyjournal.org/magazine/81/...

81

A Journal of Ideas

democracyjournal.org

Just FYI to billionaires, and as we told the WSJ's reporters, these "strategies" are some mix of mostly worthless (buying real estate saves you a nickel for every dollar you spend) to totally ineffective (e.g., donating money in 2026 does not reduce net worth). www.wsj.com/personal-fin...

Rich Californians Are Finding Creative Ways to Get Ahead of the Billionaire Tax

Tax-planning strategies include buying dream vacation homes and increasing philanthropy.

wsj.com