Category Archives: taxes

Billionaires’ low taxes a problem for economy

by Robert Huntington | Leave a comment

From the Wall Street Journal: “The risk is that the U.S. economy becomes increasingly dependent on a narrow group of very rich households, whose spending is tied to the performance of the stock market. This could mean the entire economy pays a steep price in the next market correction. …

“Data from the Federal Reserve shows that only the richest 1% of households have grown their share of overall U.S. wealth since 1990. Their share hit a record 32% in the third quarter of 2025, equivalent to $54.8 trillion.

“Gains made by the billionaire class, the very top 0.1% of households and a subset of the 1%, have eclipsed the merely extremely rich. This group’s share of U.S. net wealth has risen nearly 6 percentage points to 14.4% since 1990.”

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Where dirty money goes to hide

by Robert Huntington | Leave a comment

From the NYT: “The revelations [in the Pandora Papers] are global in scope. But if there is one country at the system’s heart, it is Britain. Taken together with its partly controlled territories overseas, Britain is instrumental in the worldwide concealment of cash and assets. …

“But it’s the world that suffers the most. For shady businesspeople and long-serving political leaders, the offshore ecosystem provides impunity, cloaking capital and shielding wealth. Unaccountable and often untraceable, the system ensures that prosperity remains the preserve of the few. To overturn inequality and injustice, exposed so starkly by the pandemic, we must take on the havens — and the vested interests in London that protect them.”

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