September 30, 2026
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Michael's Daily Memo
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Yesterday on SiriusXM, I spoke with Gabriel Zucman, an economist at Berkeley and the Paris School of Economics. On November 3, Californians will vote on Proposition 40: a one-time tax of 5% of net worth on the state's roughly 200 billionaires. Backers say it would raise $100 billion, mostly for health care. Governor Newsom opposes it, as do the California Teachers Association and Planned Parenthood. And some of those it targets, including Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, reportedly left the state before the cutoff.
Zucman's longtime collaborator, Emmanuel Saez, helped write the measure, and Zucman's new book, "We Need to Tax Billionaires," makes the broader case. Zucman finds that most of what billionaires pay comes through the corporate taxes of the companies they own, while their personal income tax is small. Jeff Bezos took about $80,000 a year in salary while most of his fortune sat in Amazon stock, untaxed until sold. In Europe, billionaires often route dividends into personal holding companies. And when stock passes to heirs, the built-up gains are never taxed as income. By Zucman's count, the 400 richest Americans held wealth equal to 2% of the nation's economy in the early 1980s. Today it's more than 20%. He calls billionaire tax avoidance the linchpin of rising inequality and rising government debt. His fix is a floor: anyone worth more than $100 million would pay at least 2% of their wealth each year in personal taxes, with taxes already paid counting toward it.
The idea is provocative. One hesitation is practical. Income is a number on a tax return. Wealth is an estimate. What is a private company worth before anyone buys it? A ranch? A Picasso? And a founder whose fortune is tied up in the business he built may have to sell shares, and eventually control, to pay the bill.
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DAILY POLL
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Should the government tax the wealth of billionaires, or stick to taxing income?
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TOP STORY
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The Supreme Court will hear arguments in December on the Trump administration's practice of deporting immigrants to countries not named in their removal orders, while allowing the removals to continue in the meantime over dissents from Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson.
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TODAY'S YOUTUBE
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SPONSORED BY PARX CASINO
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IN OTHER NEWS
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul called for a transparent, independent review of Cornell's response to a former student's lawsuit alleging she was drugged and gang raped at the university's Chi Phi fraternity house in 2024.
During a Senate hearing, Sen. Eric Schmitt questioned former special counsel Jack Smith about an alleged 2024 trip to Atlanta in an attempt to link him to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, but the exchange appeared to hinge on a mix-up between the Atlanta Hawks and Iowa Hawkeyes.
President Donald Trump said major AI companies have agreed to a voluntary “self-policing” accord involving internal controls, independent audits and potential future regulation as concerns grow over the technology’s risks and rapid expansion.
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A MESSAGE FROM COMCAST
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The Trump administration tapped Department of Homeland Security money earmarked for border-security commemorations to finance at least $1.7 million in TV ads featuring President Trump, routing $20 million through a CBP account to a Maryland ad agency, according to sources and federal contract data.
At the first hearing since her triple-murder trial ended in a mistrial, Lindsay Clancy's attorney Kevin Reddington argued Massachusetts failed to prove she killed her three children, a claim prosecutors called "laughable," as a Plymouth judge deferred rulings until November 2.
A new Institute for Family Studies report finds that married couples who attend religious services at least twice a month are the only Americans who have avoided the country's "sex recession," and they also report higher sexual satisfaction than their secular peers.
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CARTOONS
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by Rob Rogers
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MORE NEWS
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Former special counsel Jack Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee his team developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump committed serious crimes, defending subpoenas for GOP lawmakers' phone records and blasting the Justice Department for firing his former colleagues.
WS Game’s effort to produce a U.S.-made Monopoly game revealed the steep costs and limited manufacturing capacity of domestic production, with cracked trays, specialized suppliers and Chinese-made dice pushing the $45 China-made game to an $80 price tag and delaying its launch by months.
A Staten Island judge ordered New York City to scrap its bungled rollout of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's new pied-à-terre tax after roughly 17,000 notices went out — including erroneous ones to more than 1,000 homeowners — as Steve Wynn and Wilbur Ross joined the legal fight.
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For the Left
Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will become CEO of PhRMA, a powerful pharmaceutical trade group, as the industry faces pressure over prescription drug prices, regulation and access.
For the Right
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has no plans to increase trade pressure on the United States as new import bans take effect and bilateral tensions continue ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
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