In August of 2014, I wrote a post called Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. I penned it because, at the time, I was seeing a lot of situations in the media in which data was being used to push a political agenda on either the far right or the far left. I’m now seeing this same sort of deception in discussions about wealth inequality.
As many of you know, Elizabeth Warren has been getting a lot of press lately after proposing a wealth tax equal to 2.00% on fortunes above $50 million and 3.00% on fortunes above $1 billion. As an academic exercise, it’s useful to consider what that would mean for the United States.
In recent years, the United States Federal Government has found itself in the fortunate position of collecting more inflation-adjusted, real purchasing power tax revenue than it has during any other period of its 242 year history. For the government’s 2019 fiscal year, tax receipts at the Federal level are expected to balloon to an almost unfathomable $3.422 trillion.
As the top 20% and bottom 80% further divide, one of the things I’ve found interesting over the past few years is the difference in how both groups use something called the subjunctive mood in their speech and writing. The top 20% nearly always uses it correctly. I suspect it’s become a sort of subconscious signaling code without the people doing it even realizing what is happening.
I’ve been thinking about the next 25 to 50 years; mapping out plans for my personal life, my family, the firm, and, to some degree, certain societal changes that I think are important and worthy of significant political and financial investment. Part of this involves estate planning and how we think about leaving money to our future children.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday! This year, Aaron and I did something we haven’t done since college: we didn’t cook or bake for Christmas, instead catering it so we could focus on work.
Despite living in Southern California for several months, and being only a short distance from the beach, Aaron and I had not, yet, taken the time to go stand in the ocean because of our work relocating the global asset management firm to the West Coast. We made a point to go do that today.
After writing about the incredible Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, I thought it was only fair to point out that Aaron and I also enjoy a place called Armstrong’s Garden Center in Newport Beach. The business can trace its roots to 1889 and holds a storied place in the history of the global rose industry (and you know we love our roses!). A few months ago, we stopped in and spotted a Monarch Butterfly hanging out on some flowers. We took a video …
In Corona del Mar, California there is a place called Roger’s Gardens. It is one of the coolest businesses I’ve ever seen and within moments of walking through the entrance, Aaron and I knew it was going to be somewhere we spent a lot of time.
It is not an exaggeration to say that most of my life and career has been spent reading, writing, and thinking. In many cases, I turned around and taught others a synthesized version of what I absorbed, putting my own spin on it. My favorite place in the world during childhood was the public library and even now, I am typing this post surrounded by enormous bookcases overflowing with volumes on everything from trust fund structures to biographies of oil and banking titans. Reading allows me to satisfy a nearly insatiable curiosity about the world. More than any other behavior, it has been responsible for my success.