There is an effort by several progressive unions and other organizations to put a 5% wealth tax for the state’s billionaires on California’s ballot this fall. It’s not clear they will succeed in getting it on the ballot or how the initiative will do (I’m in), but Donald Trump has already one-upped them. Thanks to his management of the economy and his decision to go to war in Iran, he has reduced the wealth of the country’s richest people by far more than the sponsors of this initiative could ever hope.

In 2026 to date, the S&P 500, a broad measure of the stock market, is down by almost 7.0%. The NASDAQ, which is where the tech companies controlled by folks like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg live, is down by almost 10%. That means Trump may have cost Musk $60 billion, and that’s in just three months. Who knows where he will be by the end of the year.

If anyone thinks I’m being perverse by celebrating a decline in the stock market, try thinking again, or just thinking for the first time. The stock market is not a measure of economic well-being. It is a measure of the wealth of people who own stock.

There are three basic reasons for the stock market to rise. The first is the expectation that the economy will grow more rapidly and that corporate profits will therefore rise more rapidly along........

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