Pinned Tweet
RELEASED.
#asia #globalsouth #development #economics #democracy #humanrights #asia #asean #southeastasia #heterodox #decolonization
#asia #globalsouth #development #economics #democracy #humanrights #asia #asean #southeastasia #heterodox #decolonization
1
0
6
1,085
John Healey presents his first Budget tomorrow, with an OBR forecast running to 2031/32 for the first time. The OBR's March forecast was finalised before the Middle East conflict pushed up prices and borrowing costs. Any headroom he finds by assuming faster productivity growth is a tax rise postponed, and households will pay it when the forecast misses.
researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-…
researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-…
0
0
0
79
Will Hutton wants "business-friendly socialism", then admits founders' first priority is capital and calls for higher taxes on personal wealth. Early start-up money comes mostly from private wealth, through founders' savings, family and angel investors. Taxing that wealth leaves founders with less of the one thing he says they need most.
They are first steps, but in the budget Burnham and Healey are going to try to signal their distinct direction of travel. A bold budget this week will deliver the business-friendly socialism Britain badly needs
observer.co.uk/news/national/…
0
0
0
79
Steve Hall calls Hayek a "midwit snake-oil salesman" who lets the rich monopolise markets and buy power. Hayek spent a chapter of The Road to Serfdom warning that monopoly "is frequently attained through collusive agreement and promoted by public policies". Reading the book first would have spared Hall the trouble of attacking Hayek with Hayek's own argument.
12
9
82
6,063
Bryan Cheang retweeted
California’s wealth tax and the French economist: Gabriel Zucman tries to rebut a Hoover study. A tax and behavior education ensues.
on.wsj.com/4BqyIbZ
on.wsj.com/4BqyIbZ
1
1
5
1,392
Bryan Cheang retweeted
Hoover economists @joshrauh and Benjamin Jaros answer criticisms of their analysis of California's Proposition 40, explaining why billionaires are leaving in response to a tax billed as one-time and why the income tax losses belong in the fiscal score: fiscalrealitycheck.substack.com/p/a-one-time-t…
The French economists who have ruined the French economy now want America to make the same tax and spending mistakes.
on.wsj.com/3VUPDmW
0
12
31
5,047
A true windfall tax leaves prices alone because oil and gas sell at world prices. The Energy Profits Levy only ends early if prices fall below their 20-year average, so it taxes ordinary profits too. That makes it a tax on North Sea investment, and the Treasury's own costing expects less of it.
gov.uk/hmrc-internal-…
gov.uk/hmrc-internal-…
Nope, that’s not how taxes and price works. The price is determined by demand and supply.
Companies charge the highest price they can given demand. A tax levied on *profits* does not affect a company’s cost ie supply.
Taxes on *windfall* profits (like oil and gas) are the most efficient kind of tax there is.Community noteCorporate profit taxes do not directly shift marginal costs but empirical studies show partial pass-through into higher consumer prices. Windfall taxes on oil and gas have deterred investment and production in practice despite theoretical efficiency on rents.
dadun.unav.edu/server/api/cor…
ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps…
taxfoundation.org/blog/big-oil-p…
scottishfinancialreview.com/2025/09/03/win…
0
0
0
69
Richard Murphy asks why shareholders get the rewards when workers create the wealth. Workers are paid first, every month, at a wage agreed in advance. Shareholders are paid last from whatever is left, and often that is nothing. Force firms to hand the leftover to staff too and fewer people will risk their savings on new businesses, leaving fewer firms to pay anyone a wage.
Why do shareholders get the rewards when workers create the wealth a company generates? Is it time to rethink just what companies are for and to require that the rewards be shared more fairly? youtu.be/15r28WaimP8?si…
0
0
8
236
Bryan Cheang retweeted
Near the marshes east of London, a £1 billion regeneration plan remains in limbo 17 years after it was first announced, an example of how rising UK building costs are adding to finance minister John Healey's growth challenge in this week's budget reut.rs/4zcUDC6
9
5
10
40,024
Seven billionaires, including Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Peter Thiel, publicly left California before the wealth tax's 1 January residency date, taking almost 30% of the tax base with them. Josh Rauh and Ben Jaros of Stanford's Hoover Institution estimate the state ends up worse off in most scenarios, because the income tax lost from those who leave outweighs the one-off take.
nber.org/books-and-chap…
nber.org/books-and-chap…
0
0
1
155
Luke Savage thinks billionaire wealth is a pile of cash waiting to fund public services. Most of it is shares in companies like Amazon and Nvidia, and seizing it means selling them to someone with the cash to buy. Socialism has always been good at spending other people's money.
There’s more than enough wealth to fund the healthcare, education, and quality public services necessary to ensure a good and just life for all. It just happens to be in the wrong hands.
0
0
2
188
Josh Rauh and Ben Jaros of Stanford's Hoover Institution work out that a founder who pays California's wealth tax by selling shares must sell about $1.59 for every $1 owed, because the sale itself triggers roughly 37% capital gains tax. The bill grows the moment you try to pay it.
Zuckerberg's fortune is mostly Meta shares, not cash in the bank. California's proposed wealth tax would take 5% of it, about $12bn, so the only way he can pay is by selling shares, which would cost him control of his own company. Meta has had to invent a new kind of share just to get around that. That's the liquidity problem Zucman says doesn't exist.
2
14
156
5,799
Gary Stevenson wants people who blame immigrants for stagnant wages to blame billionaires instead. British pay has barely risen since 2008 because productivity hasn't, and envy won't fix that. Wages grow when firms invest, and every tax aimed at wealth creators only worsens the stagnation.
Why billionaires want you to blame immigrants
0
2
4
276
New York has made a cheap flat so rare that just mentioning one turns heads. Capping rents means tenants hold on for years, so fewer than 1 in 100 rent-stabilised flats came free in 2023 while everyone else pays near-record rents. Freezing those rents, as the city has just done, will make the trophy rarer still.
New York City has roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, accounting for about half of its rental housing stock. But scoring one is so coveted that even mentioning it can “turn heads in rooms.” on.wsj.com/47v3Ole
0
0
4
246
Britain's net public debt has passed £3 trillion, 94% of GDP. Interest alone cost £10.9bn in September, £2bn more than a year earlier, and borrowing is already £6bn over the OBR's forecast six months into the year. Britain now spends more on debt interest than on every school, college and university in the country, and twice what it spends on defence.
ons.gov.uk/economy/govern…
ons.gov.uk/economy/govern…
0
0
1
58
Plenty of replies say Zuckerberg can just sell shares, and he can, because Meta is listed. The owner of a private firm like In-N-Out has no market to sell into, so a wealth tax forces her to sell off parts of the business. Most family firms would face that same choice.
Zuckerberg's fortune is mostly Meta shares, not cash in the bank. California's proposed wealth tax would take 5% of it, about $12bn, so the only way he can pay is by selling shares, which would cost him control of his own company. Meta has had to invent a new kind of share just to get around that. That's the liquidity problem Zucman says doesn't exist.
3
0
1
235
Tax the rich who can move and they move, leaving everyone else to cover the bill. Michael Sherwood, ex-Goldman and on Revolut's board, has just gone to Jersey days before the Budget. Britain is fast becoming Jersey's most reliable recruitment agency.
Exclusive: The former Goldman Sachs executive Michael Sherwood - now a Revolut board member - has relocated to Jersey, making him the latest prominent financier to leave the UK before the Budget, amid growing tax rise concerns among the super-rich. news.sky.com/story/former-g…
0
1
1
249
Zuckerberg's fortune is mostly Meta shares, not cash in the bank. California's proposed wealth tax would take 5% of it, about $12bn, so the only way he can pay is by selling shares, which would cost him control of his own company. Meta has had to invent a new kind of share just to get around that. That's the liquidity problem Zucman says doesn't exist.
So let met get that straight: paying a wealth tax is impossible (“billionaires have no liquidity”, “it would be taxing unrealized gains”, “their wealth is virtual”) but paying half a billion to influence elections is possible. Did I understand well?
98
128
2,424
185,423
Britain's own entrepreneurship adviser says the Treasury treats scale-ups as "a bit of a sideshow" and thinks the real economy is "steel, cars and hard hats". Policy built on that view protects yesterday's industries and taxes tomorrow's. Founders will take the hint and build elsewhere.
BREAKING
The Treasury’s entrepreneurship adviser has announced she is quitting.
Alex Depledge tells my colleague @hannahprevett start-ups are treated as a “sideshow” and a “nice to have”.
“Entrepreneurship can’t be seen as a good news bonus on the margins of economic policy. That mentality is really dangerous for British business as a whole…”
Depledge due to leave her role on Thursday, the day after the Budget.
Read her full comments here👇
thetimes.com/article/b28ab8…
0
1
2
259
Bryan Cheang retweeted
A well-designed VAT is one of the less harmful forms of taxation. Giving people more freedom over how they spend their incomes would be very beneficial.
There is an Alternative Budget where you can read all about it: iea.org.uk/publications/t…
There is an Alternative Budget where you can read all about it: iea.org.uk/publications/t…
My personal view is giving someone who earns £300k
More of their own money, to spend in the economy.
Therefore paying more VAT, spending at small businesses or investing.
Is smarter for any economy than giving it to any government which ends up being a black hole.
For me that’s a smart economic decision.
They contribute enough.
I’d like to see closer to £200k take home.
£100k in tax.
0
1
8
258