So, we are now hearing the inevitable stories about how rich hedge fund type folks are fleeing the UK because they don’t like the plans to raise the marginal tax rate. (paid subscription required)

Seriously, let them go.

When all is said and done, when the people at the very top of the pyramid leave, and stop bidding up the prices of essential commodities, like shelter, you end up with a more livable city with a real middle class.

If you have concerns about the tax base, just implement a Tobin tax on financial transactions, and you get the money, with the bonus that you reduce speculative arbitrage.

The financial “masters of the world” do not create wealth, they extract it from the rest of us through fees on our 401(k)s and retirement funds.

The expansion of financial services in the past 30+ years have been parasitism, not improved productivity.