The Millionaires Hiding in Plain Sight

About this episode

Over a decade ago, Eric Zwick got assigned an unusual project at the U.S. Treasury: Find out how much tax businesses were paying. But the data was a mess, so Eric and two friends helped comb through it and, in doing so, got to build a topographic map of business activity and profitability in America. And it suddenly revealed a class of people who had been hard to see before: the “everywhere millionaires,” or the “stealthy wealthy.” People who built an amazing amount of wealth selling things like cars, $5 electric toothbrushes, and seamless gutters. He tells us about these everywhere millionaires, the policies that helped them get so rich, and how this revelation helped reshape his understanding of the U.S. Further Reading/Listening Owen Zidar & Eric Zwick - The Everywhere Millionaire Planet Money - My Favorite Tax Loophole Subscribe to the show! YouTube Instagram TikTok Website