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Articles by Bob Lord
$55 Billion in Stock Buyback Wealth for Google Oligarchs
To understand the impact of the SEC rule change, focus on the shareholders who don’t sell any shares in connection with a buyback. They’re the ones who reap the tax benefit. The selling shareholders were going to sell anyhow. We’re talking about publicly traded stock here. The decision to sell has nothing to do with the corporation’s decision to buy, and a selling shareholder has no idea who buys their publicly traded shares. The corporation doesn’t benefit either. It’s just shedding cash either way.
How Stock Buybacks Turbocharged the Wealth of Google's Billionaire Co-Founders
One of us previously wrote on the tax treatment of stock buybacks. Prior to a rule change by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1982, publicly traded corporations faced strict limits in the number of shares they could buy back.
$55 Billion In Stock Buyback Wealth For Google Oligarchs
Above photo: Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images. A 1982 SEC rule change has turbocharged America’s extreme wealth concentration. Adding $55 billion to the wealth piles of Larry Page and Sergey Brin alone. One of us previously wrote on the tax treatment of stock buybacks. Prior to a rule change by the SEC in 1982, publicly traded corporations faced strict limits in the number of shares they could buy back.
$55 Billion in Stock Buyback Wealth for Google Oligarchs
That leaves the ultra-rich—and especially the billionaires—as the main beneficiaries of stock buybacks. The benefits are enormous, and become ever larger as we move up the wealth scale. The situation of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin exemplifies the wealth concentrating impact of the SEC rule change. Alphabet, which became the publicly-traded parent of Google in a 2015 reorganization, has bought back a lot of shares over the past 11 years.
A Closer Look: No Tax on Everything—The Tax Mess Trump Has Left Us
My name is Bob Lord. I am the Senior Vice President for Tax Policy at Patriotic Millionaires and an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Before my time as a tax justice advocate, I practiced tax law for 35 years, with a short break to run for Congress in 2008. My ultimately unsuccessful congressional run was inspired by America’s metastasizing inequality and concentration of wealth.
Trump Has Clubbed Our Tax Code Back Into the Stone Age—Can Congress Fix It? | The Smirking Chimp
— from Bob Lord's Substack A tale of two couples: Barney and Betty are both 66. Betty works as a hostess at a local restaurant. She makes $15,000 in hourly pay, plus another $25,000 in tips. Barney owns an interest in his family’s business, organized as a Subchapter S corporation, from which his annual income is $50,000. Over the holidays, Barney works long hours at a local big box store. He makes $10,000, $2,500 of which is the premium for overtime.
Trump Has Clubbed Our Tax Code Back Into the Stone Age—Can Congress Fix It?
Barney and Betty are both 66. Betty works as a hostess at a local restaurant. She makes $15,000 in hourly pay, plus another $25,000 in tips. Barney owns an interest in his family’s business, organized as a Subchapter S corporation, from which his annual income is $50,000. Over the holidays, Barney works long hours at a local big box store. He makes $10,000, $2,500 of which is the premium for overtime. At tax time, Barney and Betty report $100,000 of adjusted gross income.
No Tax on Everything: The Tax Mess Trump Has Left Us
A tale of two couples: Barney and Betty are both 66. Betty works as a hostess at a local restaurant. She makes $15,000 in hourly pay, plus another $25,000 in tips. Barney owns an interest in his family’s business, organized as a Subchapter S corporation, from which his annual income is $50,000. Over the holidays, Barney works long hours at a local big box store. He makes $10,000, $2,500 of which is the premium for overtime. At tax time, Barney and Betty report $100,000 of adjusted gross income.
Opinion | Elon Musk’s fortune comes from not paying taxes
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By Stephen Land and Bob Lord The valuation trends up and down, but one thing’s for sure: Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire this summer. At the height of the SpaceX IPO, he was briefly worth around $1.45 trillion. Then SpaceX stock tanked, rallied, then tanked again.
Elon Musk’s Fortune Comes From Not Paying Taxes
The valuation trends up and down, but one thing’s for sure: Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire this summer. At the height of the SpaceX IPO he was briefly worth around $1.45 trillion. Then SpaceX stock tanked, rallied, then tanked again. But the most important thing about Musk’s wealth isn’t whether it stays above the 13-figure threshold — it’s that 94 percent of it comes from not having to pay taxes on unrealized gains.
Opinion: Elon Musk’s fortune comes from not paying taxes
The valuation trends up and down, but one thing’s for sure: Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire this summer. At the height of the SpaceX IPO, he was briefly worth around $1.45 trillion. Then SpaceX stock tanked, rallied, then tanked again. But the most important thing about Musk’s wealth isn’t whether it stays above the 13-figure threshold — it’s that 94% of it comes from not having to pay taxes on unrealized gains. That’s right: Musk’s fortune effectively comes from not paying taxes.
Opinion: Rolling back Colorado’s right-to-repair laws will weaken critical infrastructure safety
Earlier this month, the Colorado State Senate’s Committee on Business, Labor, and Technology voted to advance Senate Bill 90. The bill would create an exemption for “critical infrastructure” in the state’s existing right-to-repair law for digital electronic equipment. That might sound like a commonsense safeguard.
The American Experiment Has Been Infected by Oligarchs
There’s a virus in our tax system. A stealth virus, it was embedded in America’s economic DNA for a century, biding its time, waiting for the appropriate conditions to reveal itself. And then we created those conditions, unleashing it to infect our institutions of culture and democracy, replicate, and burst forth to infect anew. An oligarchy virus. To continue reading the rest of this piece on Mother Jones, click here.
The Oligarchy Virus
There’s a virus in our tax system. A stealth virus, it was embedded in America’s economic DNA for a century, biding its time, waiting for the appropriate conditions to reveal itself. And then we created those conditions, unleashing it to infect our institutions of culture and democracy, replicate, and burst forth to infect anew. An oligarchy virus. … Read the full article on Mother Jones. For press inquiries, contact IPS Deputy Communications Director Olivia Alperstein at olivia@ips-dc.org.
The Oligarchy Virus
Inequality.org → In Your Inbox Get the indispensable guide to the latest on our unequal world, in your inbox every Wednesday. You can unsubscribe any time. We do not sell or share your information with others. Click to close
The American Experiment Has Been Infected by Oligarchs
A stealth virus, it was embedded in America’s economic DNA for a century, biding its time, waiting for the appropriate conditions to reveal itself. And then we created those conditions, unleashing it to infect our institutions of culture and democracy, replicate, and burst forth to infect anew.
APPLE-SA-03-24-2026-2 iOS 18.7.7 and iPadOS 18.7.7
Full Disclosure mailing list archives From: Apple Product Security via Fulldisclosure <fulldisclosure () seclists org> Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2026 17:01:12 -0700 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 APPLE-SA-03-24-2026-2 iOS 18.7.7 and iPadOS 18.7.7 iOS 18.7.7 and iPadOS 18.7.7 addresses the following issues. Information about the security content is also available at https://support.apple.com/126793.
The Washington Post’s Owner Really Doesn’t Want You to Know His Effective Tax Rate
Photograph Source: Daniel Oberhaus – CC BY 2.0 The Washington Post has, over the past few months, run at least five editorials or opinion pieces railing against federal or state tax increases. Here’s what the folks at the Post are not telling you: If you’re an average American taxpayer, you’re paying federal income tax at a rate that dwarfs the rate the Post’s ultra-billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, is paying.
Jeff Bezos, Gutting the Washington Post, Really Doesn’t Want You to Know His Effective Tax Rate
— from Inequality.org The Washington Post has, over the past few months, run at least five editorials or opinion pieces railing against federal or state tax increases. Here’s what the folks at the Post are not telling you: If you’re an average American taxpayer, you’re paying federal income tax at a rate that dwarfs the rate the Post‘s ultra-billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, is paying.
Jeff Bezos, Gutting the Washington Post, Really Doesn't Want You to Know His Effective Tax Rate | Common Dreams
The Washington Post has, over the past few months, run at least five editorials or opinion pieces railing against federal or state tax increases. Here’s what the folks at the Post are not telling you: If you’re an average American taxpayer, you’re paying federal income tax at a rate that dwarfs the rate the Post’s ultra-billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, is paying. A typical single American taxpayer with an income of $75,000 will pay about 9.16 percent of that income in federal income tax.
The Washington Post’s Owner Really Doesn’t Want You to Know His Effective Tax Rate
Bezos has sold a good bit of his Amazon stock over the years, but he ended 2025 still holding some 880 million shares worth about $203 billion, shares he paid about $200,000 for back in 1994. If Bezos had sold these shares on the last day of 2025, he would have registered about $203 billion of gain. He would have faced standard federal income tax on that gain plus another tax known as the net investment income tax, a Medicare tax substitute for rich investors.
Trillionaire Cometh, Democracy Goeth
Musk alone spent about $277 million in 2024, a tiny one-thousandth of his net worth at the time, but nearly 2 percent of total political spending in a nation of 340 million people. At his current level of wealth, Musk could drop $1 billion by himself into the 2026 election without breaking much of a financial sweat. But those numbers only hint at the political power our richest now wield.
Trillionaire Cometh, Democracy Goeth
Elon Musk. Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons In one of the scariest moments in modern history, we're doing our best at ScheerPost to pierce the fog of lies that conceal it but we need some help to pay our writers and staff. Please consider a tax-deductible donation. By Bob Lord / Inequality.org Iwrote my first post for Inequality.org, Our First Trillionaire: Only a Matter of Time, over twelve years ago.
Trillionaires at the Gates | Common Dreams
I wrote my first post for Inequality.org, "Our First Trillionaire: Only a Matter of Time," over 12 years ago. I hoped, at the time, that the post would age poorly. After all, the presence of a trillionaire on American soil would certify that we had unquestionably reached an oligarchic concentration of our nation’s wealth. Unfortunately, that post has aged remarkably well. If anything, I now see my forecasting as too timid. Elon Musk’s personal wealth now sits at about $750 billion.
Trillionaire Cometh, Democracy Goeth
Over a decade ago, I told CNBC that America’s march to oligarchy would revolve around a considerable increase in the concentration of wealth within the billionaire class. Those 19 households in our top .00001 percent comprise 5 percent of America’s top .0002 percent (380 households, or roughly, the Forbes 400). Their share of the wealth of that larger group of billionaires now stands at about 50 percent today, a quadrupling since 1982.
Trillionaire cometh, democracy goeth
wrote my first post forInequality.org,Our First Trillionaire: Only a Matter of Time, over twelve years ago. I hoped, at the time, that the post would age poorly. After all, the presence of a trillionaire on American soil would certify that we had unquestionably reached an oligarchic concentration of our nations wealth. Unfortunately, that post has aged remarkably well. If anything, I now see my forecasting as too timid. Elon Musks personal wealth nowsitsat about $750 billion.
Trillionaire Cometh, Democracy Goeth
Over a decade ago, I told CNBC that America’s march to oligarchy would revolve around a considerable increase in the concentration of wealth within the billionaire class. Those 19 households in our top .00001 percent comprise 5 percent of America’s top .0002 percent (380 households, or roughly, the Forbes 400). Their share of the wealth of that larger group of billionaires now stands at about 50 percent today, a quadrupling since 1982.
Be Outraged: Your True Income Tax Rate May be Triple the Rate the Richest Billionaires Pay
A recent report from economists at the University of California-Berkeley sheds new light on this dynamic. In the years 2018 to 2020, according to this report, average American taxpayers ended up annually paying about 14.6 percent of their Haig-Simons income in individual income and payroll taxes. That total included federal, state, and local income taxes as well as withholding from wages for Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Be Outraged Already: Your True Income Tax Rate May Triple the Rate the Richest U.S. Billionaires Pay
If poor people knew how rich rich people are,” Chris Rock once quipped, “there would be riots in the streets.” So, I wonder, what would average taxpayers do if they knew they’re currently paying income tax at triple the rate our richest megabillionaires are paying? Few taxpayers understand this reality, largely because of how we’ve been conditioned to contemplate “income” and “income tax.” Every year we follow the same routine.
Be Outraged Already: Your True Income Tax Rate May Triple the Rate the Richest U.S. Billionaires Pay
A recent report from economists at the University of California-Berkeley sheds new light on this dynamic. In the years 2018 to 2020, according to this report, average American taxpayers ended up annually paying about 14.6 percent of their Haig-Simons income in individual income and payroll taxes. That total included federal, state, and local income taxes as well as withholding from wages for Social Security and Medicare taxes.
The Washington Post Wants to Protect Its Owner From a Wealth Tax Original
Jeff Bezos speaks at the America Business Forum on Nov. 6, 2025, in Miami, Florida. Photo by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images. The Washington Post editorial board dedicated its Thanksgiving Sunday column to congratulating the people of Switzerland for voting against a proposed tax on inheritances and gifts in excess of 50 million Swiss francs, or about $62 million.
Economic Malignancy: The Swelling Wealth Share of Our Richest 0.00001 Percent
Six months ago, the Wall Street Journal shared this stunning graphic from University of California-Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman. In 2024, the Journal noted, the wealth of America’s top 0.00001 percent — our 19 richest billionaires — increased by $1 trillion, to about $2.6 trillion. Their share of the country’s wealth jumped from 1.2 percent in 2023 to 1.8 percent in 2024, the largest annual increase ever. Did 2024 rate as just a one-off? By all appearances, no.
Economic Malignancy: The Swelling Wealth Share of Our Richest 0.00001 Percent
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CVE at a crossroads: A blueprint for the next 25 years
Skip to content SPECIAL Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2025 | READ MORE → Powered by the McCrary Institute at Auburn University Get your cyber briefing Straight from our experts to your inbox
Adjusted Gross Income: The False Premise of Tax Apologists for the Ultrarich
This recent YouTube presentation by Steve Ballmer is a primer of sorts on taxation in the U.S. Ballmer, the 8th wealthiest American, whose wealth, depending on the day, is around $150 billion. He covers a lot of ground in the video, but focuses most on the federal income tax.
A Textbook Case of How Tax Policy Fuels Obscene Wealth Accumulation
Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair The recent wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez in Venice set off quite the furor over tax avoidance. An enormous banner in the Piazza San Marco put the matter plainly: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.” That banner prompted a commentary from Phoebe Liu at Forbes on how much tax Bezos does indeed pay.
How Billionaire Tax Avoidance Works: The Case of Jeff Bezos
— from Inequality.org The recent wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez in Venice set off quite the furor over tax avoidance. An enormous banner in the Piazza San Marco put the matter plainly: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.” That banner prompted a commentary from Phoebe Liu at Forbes on how much tax Bezos does indeed pay.
How Billionaire Tax Avoidance Works: The Case of Jeff Bezos | Common Dreams
The recent wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez in Venice set off quite the furor over tax avoidance. An enormous banner in the Piazza San Marco put the matter plainly: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.” That banner prompted a commentary from Phoebe Liu at Forbes on how much tax Bezos does indeed pay. For the year 2024, according to a Forbes estimate, Bezos paid about $2.7 billion in tax on the gain from his sale of $13.6 billion worth of Amazon stock.
A Textbook Case of How Tax Policy Fuels Obscene Wealth Accumulation
The recent wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez in Venice set off quite the furor over tax avoidance. An enormous banner in the Piazza San Marco put the matter plainly: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.” That banner prompted a commentary from Phoebe Liu at Forbes on how much tax Bezos does indeed pay. For the year 2024, according to a Forbes estimate, Bezos paid about $2.7 billion in tax on the gain from his sale of $13.6 billion worth of Amazon stock.
Yes, America Is an Oligarchy
As Bernie Sanders campaigns against “oligarchy,” the data shows wealth concentration is benefiting shockingly few families Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin has recently been fretting about the increasing use of the term “oligarchy” by her fellow Democrats. Slotkin apparently feels that “oligarchy” has no resonance beyond America’s coasts. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders has been drawing record crowds beyond those coasts to his anti-oligarchy rallies.
Is America an Oligarchy, As Bernie Sanders Says?
July 25, 2025 Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at the Fighting Oligarchy rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, on May 2, 2025. Nathan Morris/NurPhoto/Getty Images Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin has recently been fretting about the increasing use of the term “oligarchy” by her fellow Democrats. Slotkin apparently feels that “oligarchy” has no resonance beyond America’s coasts. Meanwhile, Sen.
Even Sky-High Income Tax Rates Won’t Stop the Relentless Rise of the Richest
Will Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” as critics contend, be a massive giveaway to the rich? Absolutely, when you tally it up. Yet the bill’s provisions, while devastating to the nation’s poorest, represent only modest gains for the majority of affluent families. Consider the merely rich—the top-earning 10 percent of households.
America’s Most Regressive Tax Levy: Our Tax on Capital Gains
In that sale situation, the tax-free compounding of gains over the five years causes a modest reduction in the effective annual tax rate, less than two percentage points. The 22.1-percent effective rate reduces the 5-percent pre-tax growth rate of the asset to a 3.9-percent rate after tax. Let’s now compare that situation to an investment that grows at an average annual rate of 25 percent before its sale 40 years later.
Unlimited Tax Avoidance By the Rich?
If you think tax avoidance by the ultra-rich is at obscene levels, you’re right. Unfortunately, though, the worst may be yet to come. Past tax giveaways to the rich signed into law by every President from Reagan to Trump were mostly just that – giveaways. Proposals currently under consideration for inclusion in Trump’s “big, beautiful tax bill,” are far worse. They have the potential to destroy the foundation of America’s federal tax system.
We Must Reform Our Regressive Capital Gains Tax for the Sake of Our Democracy
— from Inequality.org The top tax rate wealthy Americans pay on their investment gains today runs barely half the top rate the rest of us pay on our wages. But that only begins to tell the story of how lightly taxed our richest have become compared to the rest of us. On the surface, the nominal tax rate on long-term capital gains from investments seems somewhat progressive, even given the reality that this rate sits lower than the tax rate on ordinary income.
We Must Reform Our Regressive Capital Gains Tax for the Sake of Our Democracy | Common Dreams
The top tax rate wealthy Americans pay on their investment gains today runs barely half the top rate the rest of us pay on our wages. But that only begins to tell the story of how lightly taxed our richest have become compared to the rest of us. On the surface, the nominal tax rate on long-term capital gains from investments seems somewhat progressive, even given the reality that this rate sits lower than the tax rate on ordinary income.
America’s Most Regressive Tax Levy: Our Tax on Capital Gains
The top tax rate wealthy Americans pay on their investment gains today runs barely half the top rate the rest of us pay on our wages. But that only begins to tell the story of how lightly taxed our richest have become compared to the rest of us. On the surface, the nominal tax rate on long-term capital gains from investments seems somewhat progressive, even given the reality that this rate sits lower than the tax rate on ordinary income.
America's Most Regressive Tax Levy: Our Tax on Capital Gains
In that sale situation, the tax-free compounding of gains over the five years causes a modest reduction in the effective annual tax rate, less than two percentage points. The 22.1-percent effective rate reduces the 5-percent pre-tax growth rate of the asset to a 3.9-percent rate after tax. Let’s now compare that situation to an investment that grows at an average annual rate of 25 percent before its sale 40 years later.
‘Oppressive’ Taxation That Isn’t
What is the mission of the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation? Even a quick review of the Tax Foundation’s output makes it perfectly plain: to help make average Americans see the richest among us as terribly overtaxed. Hardly a Tax Foundation report goes by without one iteration or another of this overtaxed claim. Just last fall, the Tax Foundation produced a study that had billionaire Warren Buffett paying taxes at a rate of over 1,000 percent.
‘Oppressive’ Taxation That Isn’t
What is the mission of the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation? Even a quick review of the Tax Foundation’s output makes it perfectly plain: to help make average Americans see the richest among us as terribly overtaxed. Hardly a Tax Foundation report goes by without one iteration or another of this overtaxed claim. Just last fall, the Tax Foundation produced a study that had billionaire Warren Buffett paying taxes at a rate of over 1,000 percent.
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