Quick warning here at the top. Jordan Weisman and I are going to talk about tax policy,

and he tried to spice it up by dropping a few F-bombs.

This conversation is going to be about an economist. Yes, an economist.

Because right now, this guy's ideas are hot. Even sexy. Exactly the kind of guy

Slates Jordan Weisman loves to talk about. Is there such a thing as a sexy economist?

Well, is there? Let me think. There have been a few. I'm not going to name them.

This economist is French too. He's young. He's like an authority, is right?

He's 30. I think he's 32. He might be a year younger than me.

Well, he might be 33. We're roughly the same age. He's vastly more accomplished.

And this French economist, he's right at the center of the Democratic presidential campaign.

His name is Gabriel Zuckman. Tax on the richest Americans joining us now.

Gabriel Zuckman, he helped design Senator Warren's tax plan as a co-author.

Zuckman has spent a lot of his career talking about inequality.

What I'm saying is that the reality of American society is that poor cash-constrained people pay

a lot of taxes for the...

He also got really well-known for his work on tax evasion.

And tax avoidance by multinational corporations. And who was hiding money in the Bermuda's?

When he ended up getting on the cover of Business Week, actually this year for that.

Which for an economist is like landing on the front of Vogue.

I mean, that's like you're on the cover of Business Week. If the Business Week folks are putting

you as your cover model, you're good. So they call them the wealth detective.

But what makes Gabriel Zuckman so hot is what he wants to do with that wealth.

...