Agony of Defeat

Oh, what a burn. My tax debate with French economist Thomas Piketty was a dead heat, 50-50, for the past four days. Then just as the contest was closing, he pulled ahead to seize victory, 51-49.

The Economist editor described the tightly fought battle:

Chris Edwards got over a strong initial disadvantage to narrow what was originally a strong lead for Mr Piketty to a dead heat, but eventually Mr Piketty has prevailed: but only just—even hours before closing, the vote was split exactly down the middle. One could not have asked for a closer contest: this has been the most closely-fought of our 21 online debates, although it began with a fairly substantial lead for the proposition.

Certainly, the debate revealed high levels of interest in taxation and relative income levels. There were more than 1,100 reader comments posted, making it the "most commented" story on the Economist site for the last 10 days or so. My thanks to all the supportive voters and commenters.

Piketty won the website voting battle, but I don't think he'll win the war. Global tax competition has led to large cuts in top tax rates in recent decades, and will continue to exert downward pressure for years to come. However, these are dangerous times as governments press to end financial privacy, to create international tax cartels, and to substitute competition with multinational government power in various other ways.