Ep. 41 Premium - Cornucopalypse [VIDEO]
Added 2026-02-02 21:45:03 +0000 UTCComments
When is the book club dropping
Guy Fernando
2026-02-03 04:31:11 +0000 UTCI mean... unrealized capital gains tax would incentivize cash positive businesses over the acquisition model generating competition among markets which is only good for consumers... I'm not against detonating the stock market and crashing it as everyone has to sell sell sell in order to pay taxes that would, similar to 2008, give younger people an opportunity to enter the market and build wealth for retirement
Vincent Alvesteffer
2026-02-03 04:15:06 +0000 UTCI have never heard someone more succinctly describe why billionaires need to be taxed then Aiden- "I want to tax you not because I want that money, but because the amount of money you have accumulated is affecting the game for everyone else" SO TRUE
Rj
2026-02-03 03:16:02 +0000 UTCI appreciate the upbeat and relaxed vibes in these turbulent times. Really uplifting.
Maxwell Dimensio
2026-02-03 03:14:56 +0000 UTCGreat episode in general but a small note. For the Modern MBA public transit, he misses a big point on why other countries can run it at a profit. In the US, we don't force drivers to pay the enviromental and infastructure costs of taking a more expensive mode of transit. If we had fuel tax and vechicle registraion costs that were similar to those in much of the EU and especially East Asia, that would push far more people to public transit in places where that is viable. Since the marginal cost of more riders is almost nothing once the infastructure is in place, this would make the systems far more profitable to run. In summary, we don't just need to build good systems for people to ride transit, but we need to force them out of their cars, either through increased costs or travel times.
butkusthebeast91
2026-02-03 03:05:21 +0000 UTCI'm may not be seeing the downfall of this... but isn't the solution to the unrealized gain loophole, that billionaires keep using, as simple as taxing anytime that unrealized gain is used in some way for monetary transactions, like as collateral? If I use $1 million worth of stock from my $100 million portfolio to get a $1million loan, I have to pay taxes (my income tax rate) on that $1million. Not my complete net worth, just the part I'm using for real monetary "gains", the loan in this case. Sure, I can then show that $1million loan as debt and save on taxes over that, but from what I know that already happens. This way at least the government gets an equivalent of what would be an income tax as if I sold that stock. This would close the borrowing against assets to circumvent taxes loophole, right? Also, maybe the US should start taking stocks as taxes as well. Let the US gov own stocks and hold it as a reserve (like Norway's wealth fund). This reserve is paid for by payment packages that have stock. If Musk pays himself X amount of Tesla shares, he has to give Y out of that X to this reserve as income tax (depending on his tax rate). He doesn't have to pay cash, just the stock itself. This way the argument that "what if the stock crashes, then I don't have that money" is invalid because they you also have paid less tax because both X and Y scale with the stock price. This reserve will also help the US benefit from the booming stock market. If someone complains that this will lead to the gov owning huge chunks of public company (oh no we are becoming China!), doesn't that already happen with our 401Ks, only Vanguard owning it instead of the gov? Or maybe the gov can then start a trump account like thing where all these incoming stocks can be distributed to people as appreciating assets? This would lower the strain on the social security as they can pay out with these stocks instead of cash. It might also stimulate move movement in the stock market where financially struggling people get their hands on some stock that they can sell. I am not financially literate enough to understand what the outcome of such selling would be, but I feel like it would make the market less bullish and reduce risks of bubbles forming. Curious what people think about this...
XCaliber
2026-02-03 01:34:57 +0000 UTCCan't a man have of billions of dollars of hoarded wealth without any responsibility to the people producing that wealth? I thought this was a free country.
ゴミの河童
2026-02-03 00:53:34 +0000 UTCIt was great seeing coverage of Mamdani. Despite it being about him facing a problem, it was a fundamentally positive topic to cover. Vs week after week of hearing about the latest depressing thing. It's a very nice palatte cleanser. And even the wealth tax one wasn't so negative. I'm very happy with this ep.
Green0Photon
2026-02-03 00:47:37 +0000 UTCI love how we essentially got an episode on the wealth tax. I'd love more episodes about it with you guys doing more research into it, maybe even book club. I feel like this episode captured the initial feelings that people would have about it. But the rabbit hole goes way deeper. I kinda thought the same way as Doug, and in some ways still do. Taxing unrealized gains feels kinda yucky. But after finding Gary's Economics on YouTube, who seems to repopularized the convo about it in Europe, it seems like it's the only possible way to fix the US's psychotically large debt. Considering how much we talk about the issue of the US's insane unpayable debt, it feels perfect for this podcast to go more into. If we were to have it, I don't think there should be any on wealth below 50MM. Maybe as low as 30MM? 10MM seems to close to retired rich but still close enough to a normal person to not be stupid, considering how expensive housing can be. All of this with inflation, of course. As successful as the Spain wealth tax is, I think it's stupid to tax the wealth of people with sufficiently low wealth. It's the billionaires and hundred millionaires that are actually taking significant amounts out of circulation. I have no clue about how reasonable the Cali or federal wealth taxes would be. Though Cali is already good at taxing people out of state anyway. I'm just glad the convo is starting, because damned the federal deficit is a deep hole.
Green0Photon
2026-02-03 00:45:22 +0000 UTCI too care little for the vibes of one Ezra Klein. However, 'Abundance' is a vacuous piece of pablum. There are too many regulations? You want to get rid of some? Sure, which ones? For a self-proclaimed "policy wonk", his book is entirely devoid of specific policy proscriptions. That's the issue, the devil is the details. The difference with Mamdani is that when he talks about de-regulation, he's coming to the table with a specific list of regulations to eliminate and why. Klein does not do this, so when he says 'we need to de-regulate', we assume, maybe unfairly maybe not, that he means what everyone else who uses that phrasing means.
Eddie H.
2026-02-03 00:42:49 +0000 UTC
