Interesting article. I have difficult time grasping how the US government would every implement this with any real effect - even with their demanding reporting requirements. It looks like a colossal effort to gather that information and tax it appropriately. I don't see the IRS staffing up entire high specified units to go after and audit the super rich for wealth tax... the implementation of this would be painful and probably more money would go dark (my glass half full take).

Simple example that I use to wrap my head around: What are the implications on equities? If you hold a lot of stock in a hot market you have to pay taxs on that stock this year (?) What would happen if next year the stock went to half of that? Imagine there was a wealth tax during the dot com era. Maybe it would curb speculative markets?

I also think your point on first order and second order effects is also interesting. The ramifications of something like this, while appearing to be quite fair and simple is likely to be anything but once implemented.

Also - I don't disagree with fixing wealth inequality - but a wealth tax is a fundamental shift in how everyone thinks the government derives money from the population.