Bob Lord

Bob Lord, a tax lawyer and former Congressional candidate, is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Bob previously served as an adjunct faculty member at the Arizona State University School of Law. Bob’s work focuses on the relationship of tax law to inequality. He contributes to both the Inequality.org website and to OtherWords, the Institute’s national syndicated editorial service. Bob also is a staff member at Blog For Arizona, the leading political blog in Arizona.

Latest

head-tax-public-option-medicare-for-all-obamacare

Health Care and the ‘Head Tax’: An Unhealthy Combination

Bob Lord | November 20, 2019

We need to fix the health care system that has Joe Six-Pack paying the same basic tax as Jeff Bezos.

Has America’s Concentrated Wealth Finally Reached a Tipping Point?

Bob Lord | March 20, 2019

The scary arithmetic of grand fortune is shrinking our household nest-eggs.

There’s Plenty of Wealth to Go Around — It Just Doesn’t

Bob Lord | March 20, 2019

We’ve “grown the pie” massively since the 1980s, but it hasn’t resulted in ordinary Americans getting a bigger slice.

Bernie Sanders’ 77 Percent Estate Tax for Billionaires is Not Enough

Bob Lord | February 17, 2019

The tax will raise revenues. But unless a glaring loophole is closed, the corrosive effects on our democracy will continue.

Black America’s Vanishing Wealth Is Bad For All Americans

Bob Lord | January 30, 2019

The racial wealth divide gives billionaires more power over all of us. The answer? Reparations.

Innovation Used to Benefit Workers. Can It Again?

Bob Lord | December 19, 2018

Machines can make jobs better, but a tiny class of bosses uses them to make jobs disappear. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Can the Next Congress Chase Down America’s Runaway Wealth?

Bob Lord | November 20, 2018

The last Congress ensured that America’s wealth will concentrate ever more rapidly at the very top — unless the next one does something about it.

Men: We’ve Heard About Assaults. Speak Up About Them.

Bob Lord | September 28, 2018

Women who report assault deserve to hear that we believe them, and that we can back them up — because we’ve heard the other side.

America 2018: Even More Gilded Than America 1918

Bob Lord | September 26, 2018

Wealth is more concentrated now than it was in John D. Rockefeller’s day.

The Arithmetic of the CEO-Worker Pay Divide

Bob Lord | August 27, 2018

Sometimes percentages alone don’t do justice to the injustice of corporate compensation.

About Those Low CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios

Bob Lord | August 10, 2018

This year’s historic new CEO-worker pay gap disclosures have revealed a handful of big companies with modest internal pay gaps. Should we be applauding?

How To Level The Playing Field For Workers — Even With Unions Hurting

Bob Lord | July 12, 2018

A federal jobs and income guarantee could protect workers the way unions once did.

Five Powerful Families

Bob Lord | July 12, 2018

We’ve reached the point where a handful of extraordinarily wealthy clans essentially have the power to suffocate our democracy.

Congress Made It Harder to Give Teachers Raises

Bob Lord | May 10, 2018

Under the new GOP tax law, states that pay teachers a living wage subsidize states that pay them poorly.

One-Time Bonuses, Full-Time Con: Trump’s Tax Cuts Deliver Worker Layoffs

Josh Hoxie, Bob Lord | March 8, 2018

Corporate public relations teams extol bonuses to pump up the Republican re-election effort, but many people will end up unemployed.

Just How Unequal Are America’s Major Corporations?

Bob Lord | March 7, 2018

Pay scales at major U.S. businesses are way out of whack — and that’s just at the ones we know about.

Trump’s Tax Plan Taunts the Dignity of Labor

Sam Pizzigati, Bob Lord | November 9, 2017

If it passes, this plan would have our national tax burden resting overwhelmingly on income from the labor of working people.

If The Trump-GOP Tax Plan Passes, Kiss Your Home’s Equity Goodbye!

Bob Lord | November 8, 2017

The Trump-GOP tax plan is a declaration of war on homeowners, homebuilders, realtors, and the mortgage industry.

If Trump Wanted to Help the Middle Class, He’d Focus on Employment Taxes

Bob Lord | November 1, 2017

If President Trump has such concern for middle income Americans, why is he so focused on the one area — federal income taxes — where they’re not getting absolutely clobbered?

This Year’s Real Halloween Horror

Bob Lord | October 26, 2017

The family that has made billions off trick-or-treat candy has gone generations without paying any appreciable tax on its enormous fortune.