Wealth Taxes and Microfinance Collide Across Global Markets
August 20, 2026
New York City's pied-à-terre tax and proposed billionaire levies in California and the United Kingdom signal a rising legislative push to extract revenue from elite asset holders. Meanwhile, the structural failures of microfinance across Bangladesh, India, and Southeast Asia expose the limits of financialized poverty alleviation in the face of persistent economic asymmetry.
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Super-rich complain but experts welcome Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax
New York mayor’s policy set to generate revenue and address housing crisis despite outcry in some quarters New York City’s introduction of a pied-à-terre tax has provided fodder for Zohran Mamdani’s critics, who accuse the democratic socialist mayor of attacking the rich – even as others welcome it…
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Calls to tax billionaires are growing. Is there a better way to tax the rich?
Don Arnold/Getty Images Should billionaires pay more tax? Californians will vote for whether to introduce a billionaire tax in November. In the United Kingdom, economists recently called for a net wealth tax on assets over £10 million (about A$19 million). Australia may seem absent from the debate,…
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Why a vote on taxing California’s billionaires is being watched around the world
US independent senator Bernie Sanders at the launch of the campaign for the California Billionaire Tax Act. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images In November, California will vote on a proposal to levy a one-off 5% tax on the wealth of all billionaires in the state. Google co-founder and billionair…
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Microfinance was supposed to save Asia’s poor. Why has it failed to live up to its promise?
Rob Elliott/AFP via Getty Image Microfinance was once celebrated as Asia’s tool to lift people out of poverty. From Bangladesh to India, Cambodia and the Philippines, the promise was simple: provide small loans to low-income households, help them start businesses, increase income and escape poverty.…
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