Speaker · Updated
Owen Zidar: latest market views
Princeton University
Summary
Owen Zidar is a Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and an NBER Research Associate who studies inequality and tax policy, and co-authored 'The Everywhere Millionaire' with Eric Zwick.
Chorus has 8 views from Owen Zidar across 2 episodes on Bloomberg Surveillance and Prof G Markets since October 23, 2026.
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Private equity has grown strongly and is hungry for founder-owned businesses as owners retire.
Zidar says private equity has grown a lot and is very hungry for privately owned businesses. He ties this to the aging of the everywhere millionaires, many of whom are reaching retirement and want to sell, often to private equity rather than to their children. He also describes young MBA graduates increasingly buying businesses through search funds instead of joining Goldman Sachs or McKinsey, with seller financing that lets buyers pay out of future profits. The case rests on the demographic supply of owner-operated businesses meeting strong private equity demand.
“private equity has really grown since [Orissa] and it's they're just very hungry for these types of companies and the typical everywhere millionaire in this country... now they're seeing retirement”at 42:23
Bloomberg Surveillance: 'Ugly' Midterms, Increasing Your Nest Egg, Everywhere Millionaires ·
The 2025 pass-through deduction costs about $1 trillion with little effect on jobs or investment; it should be cut first.
The 2025 law gave qualifying pass-through owners a deduction that lets them pay under 30% instead of the 37% top rate. Zidar says it cost roughly $1 trillion. He argues this kind of provision is good at accelerating gains for owners but does little for employment and investment, so it is a poor use of revenue. He says it should be first on the chopping block in tax reform. He grounds the view in a results-based approach to fiscal policy, which asks what real activity a tax change produces.
“in 2025, there's about a trillion dollars of this large pass through deduction that basically said if you're a qualifying pass through owner, instead of paying the 37% top rate, you get to pay less than 30%. And that really has very little impact on employment and investment, and it was hugely expensive.”at 13:21
Prof G Markets: Meet The Millionaire Class That Really Runs America ·
Restaurants remain open to upstarts like Dave's Hot Chicken and Raising Cane's, unlike protected beverage distribution.
Zidar argues that barriers to entry are industry-specific. In food, the examples are Dave's Hot Chicken, which succeeded on the quality of its chicken sandwiches, and Raising Cane's, which started from a single chicken-finger idea funded through risky work. Food is intensely competitive, with healthier options and wealthy franchise owners. Beverage distribution is different: it was once easy to enter with a truck and ice, but by the 1970s thousands of applicants competed for one slot, and many states block access. Liquor licenses in some towns are scarce for the same reason. Entry is easy in some sectors and tightly restricted in others.
“So I don't think that it's dead. ... So Dave's Hot Chicken, for example, has been enormously successful because they can make fantastic chicken sandwiches.”at 23:34
Prof G Markets: Meet The Millionaire Class That Really Runs America ·
Rolling back the tax code to 1997 could raise trillions over ten years, mostly from high-earning private owners.
Zidar says the US has serious fiscal needs after major tax cuts. Rolling back the tax code to its 1997 state could raise trillions of dollars over a decade, mostly from the everywhere-millionaire group. That was a period of strong growth and a healthier fiscal picture. He also says it is fundamentally unfair that billionaires pay a lower effective tax rate than many of their employees, and that fixing this is reasonable. He argues that the focus must be broader than billionaires, because the owners of private businesses hold an order of magnitude more wealth. He also argues that taxes should fund science, education, infrastructure and care for the elderly and sick, and cannot do so by taxing a small handful of people.
“Even if you just do basic things like roll back the tax code to 1997, you could raise trillions of dollars over a ten year period, and it's largely from this group that we're talking about.”at 35:25
Prof G Markets: Meet The Millionaire Class That Really Runs America ·
The roughly 6% realtor commission on US home purchases is unusually high and cutting it would make buying cheaper.
He notes that in America realtors take about 6% when someone buys a house, while other countries get much less of that money. He argues that reducing this regulatory barrier to competition, along with state and local barriers, would make houses less expensive to buy and help more people move forward financially.
“trying to address the 6% that only in America do realtors get when you try to buy a house. In other countries, you don't really get as much of that money going to.”at 44:29
Prof G Markets: Meet The Millionaire Class That Really Runs America ·
Adding doctor and nurse supply, including AI-assisted nurses and immigrant doctors, would ease healthcare cost pressures.
He argues US healthcare costs are under pressure because of a shortage of doctors and medical professionals. His proposed fixes are letting nurses do more, potentially with AI, admitting qualified immigrant doctors, and training more doctors domestically. He believes these supply increases would help with the cost pressures.
“I think we need more supply of doctors and medical professionals. That means having nurses do more potentially with AI. That means having immigrant doctors who are qualified to to come here”at 45:02
Prof G Markets: Meet The Millionaire Class That Really Runs America ·
Harmonizing income and capital gains tax rates would reduce tax-motivated relabeling; a large 1986-style overhaul is feasible.
Because people reclassify income to get lower rates, a natural step is to bring rates closer together so the labels stop moving taxes so much. Some preferences, such as investment incentives that have broader growth spillovers, are worth keeping, so the approach should be judicious. He argues a large-scale overhaul is more feasible than piecemeal changes, because most people can come to think the result is better than before, and cites the 1986 tax reform as a precedent that cleaned up many loopholes.
“one natural step is to harmonize rates to be closer together so that these labels won't move your taxes as much.”at 48:55
Prof G Markets: Meet The Millionaire Class That Really Runs America ·
PE cost-cutting that degrades service quality creates entry opportunities for new competitors and young operators.
Private equity buyers often look for cost cuts that can make a product worse. His examples are a restaurant that substituted cheaper cheese and a pediatrician practice bought by PE where patients can see the doctor less. These quality declines can open room for entrants who offer more service and quality. He also sees an opportunity in retiring baby-boomer owners who would rather sell to a successor who has worked in the business than to PE, which has a stigma, so the PE exit route is a real choice but has gaps for new operators.
“if private equity comes in and, say, find some opportunities to cut costs and maybe make the quality of the product less less favorable... And so I think there are some entry opportunities if private equity isn't doing well.”at 54:57
Prof G Markets: Meet The Millionaire Class That Really Runs America ·
Shows
- Bloomberg Surveillance · 1 episode
- Prof G Markets · 1 episode
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