6 Nobel Economists vs. Ripple's Chairman: Who Wins California's Billionaire Tax Fight?

Six Nobel Prize-winning economists endorsed California’s Proposition 40 on September 19. This measure would place a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of the state’s billionaires.

The measure reaches the November 3 ballot with about $100 billion at stake, and Ripple Labs executive chair Chris Larsen has already spent more than $10 million to defeat it.

A $2.3 Trillion Case for the California Billionaire Tax The letter came from Daron Acemoglu, Abhijit Banerjee, Peter Diamond, Esther Duflo, Paul Krugman, and Joseph Stiglitz. All six hold the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

They wrote that California’s wealthiest 0.001% held a combined $700 billion ten years ago. That same sliver of the population now holds $2.3 trillion, which matches the annual income of roughly 20 million California taxpayers.