Future Battle Over Wealth Taxes

Tyler Cowen has a good column in the New York Times over the future prospect of wealth taxes and that the reality that some highly indebted countries are actually very wealthy, despite their current economic troubles.  This can explain why bond rates are so low on Japanese bonds.  It also talks about how Italy (in relation of debt to wealth) is wealthier than Germany - which has some implications about the future of eurozone "bailouts" and the demands of countries like Germany to demand wealth taxes to go along with bailouts.  However, as Cowen notes, this type of tax can have a big impact on future growth because it could discourage investment.