Citi Banker Sees Nations Targeting Rich to Pay Virus Costs
- More taxes, even expropriation possible, Luigi Pigorini says
- He says rich clients worried about worsening social tensions
Source: Citigroup Inc.
From the Black Monday market crash to the bursting of the dot-com bubble to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Citigroup Inc.’s Luigi Pigorini has lived through plenty of economic crises.
Still, he hasn’t seen a downturn as rapid as the one spawned by the novel coronavirus. And as nations seek to recoup the cost of the pandemic, the result will likely be that some of the world’s biggest fortunes end up in the crosshairs, he said.
“Wealth will become much more significant to any country’s economic and policy solutions,” said Pigorini, the London-based region head for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Citigroup’s private bank. “It could be by taxation. It could be by coordination with the people who have the wealth. And it could be by expropriation.”