Inheritance, fairness, and the billionaire class

Asking the rich to pay more in taxes has long been broadly popular in the U.S., in the name of fairness. President Biden and a bombshell IRS leak kindle new debate over how to do it.

Morris Pearl isn’t a billionaire. But by the time he retired in his mid-50s in 2014 as managing director of Blackrock Inc., the world’s biggest asset management firm, he was a rich man.

“I’ve been fortunate. I have enough income from my investments so I don’t need to work anymore,” he says.

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