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The Tax Rule That Built Too Many Malls-and Broke Them
A tax rule made malls like the local shopping center boom - was the retail collapse inevitable?
The Tax Rule That Built Too Many Malls-and Broke Them
In this episode, we follow the arc from a 1954 tax change to the hollowed-out mall aisles of the 2010s, tracing policy, construction, and demographic shifts that reshaped American retail. How did a tax code designed to accelerate depreciation help create an overbuilt mall ecosystem that later failed?
Person: Malcolm Gladwell
Date: 1954
Event: Accelerated depreciation rules added to the U.S. tax code
Period: 1970-2015 mall construction growth…
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