May 25, 2026 | How many billionaires are there in the world? How much has their wealth grown by? Why do lots of billionaires pay almost no income tax? How much of a problem are tax havens? Would a 2% global wealth tax (on people with over $100million) work in practice?
Robert and Steph talk to prominent economist Gabriel Zucman about his decades long research on wealth inequality and discuss the pros and cons of wealth taxation policies.
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Nov 12, 2021 • A Patron of Economic Update asks: "Now that Tesla is worth more than US $1 trillion, and Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, there is more discussion of increasing the tax on billionaires specifically. Right-wingers are defending billionaires from taxation, arguing that unsold shares can't be taxed, and that billionaires, in their total pool of wealth, cannot fund the government for very long. Can you explain how taxation could work to include more progressive taxation of the billionaire class and refute some of the arguments from the right? Thanks." This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.
