NBER Paper – “This paper studies tax evasion at the top of the U.S. income distribution using IRS micro-data from (i) random audits, (ii) targeted enforcement activities, and (iii) operational audits. Drawing on this unique combination of data, we demonstrate empirically that random audits underestimate tax evasion at the top of the income distribution. Specifically,… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Congress
Apportionment and Redistricting Following the 2020 Census
CRS Insight – Apportionment and Redistricting Following the 2020 Census, April 27, 2021: “…The Clerk of the House sends each governor a certificate indicating a state’s number of Representatives within 15 calendar days of receiving the President’s apportionment message. Each state receives the number of Representatives noted in the President’s statement, beginning at the start… Continue Reading
Qui Tam: The False Claims Act and Related Federal Statutes
CRS Report – Qui Tam: An Abridged Look at the FalseClaims Act and Related Federal Statutes, Updated April 26, 2021: “Qui tam statutes enlist the public to sue to recover civil penalties and forfeitures from those who have defrauded the government. Qui tam rewards those who sue in the government’s name (called relators) with a… Continue Reading
Why lawmakers are so interested in Apple’s and Google’s “rents”
Ars Technica: You can’t understand the app store debate without some grasp of antitrust jargon. [Note: Primary reference is Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, hearing held April 21, 2021] “In economics, the concept of rent refers to money that a business makes in excess of what it would get… Continue Reading
Investigation and prosecution of Capitol Attack will likely be one of the largest in American history
Case 1:21-cr-00303-ABJ Filed 04/22/21 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA vs MICHAEL JOSEPH RUSYN, Defendant “…The investigation and prosecution of the Capitol Attack will likely be one of the largest in American history, both in terms of the number of defendants prosecuted and the nature and volume of… Continue Reading
Climate Change Risk Disclosures and the Securities and Exchange Commission
CRS report – Climate Change Risk Disclosures and the Securities and Exchange Commission, April 20 2021: “Potential risks to the U.S. financial system from climate change have attracted growing attention in government, academia, and media, raising questions about the roles of financial regulators in addressing such risks. Scientific assessments have concluded that human activities—and particularly… Continue Reading
Amid a Series of Mass Shootings in the U.S., Gun Policy Remains Deeply Divisive
“In an era marked by deep divisions between Republicans and Democrats, few issues are as politically polarizing as gun policy. While a few specific policy proposals continue to garner bipartisan support, the partisan divisions on other proposals – and even on whether gun violence is a serious national problem – have grown wider over the… Continue Reading
King Cotton, the Munificent Slavery and (Under)development in the United States, 1789-1865
King Cotton, the Munificent Slavery and (Under)development in the United States, 1789-1865. Joseph A. Francis. Working Paper. April 2021. “Slavery made an important contribution to the development of the United States up to the Civil War. Slaves were were necessary for the country’s cotton boom because cotton was not sufficiently remunerative to attract yeoman farmers.… Continue Reading
Policing and ‘Bluelining’
Gruber, Aya, Policing and ‘Bluelining’ (December 11, 2020). Houston Law Review, Vol. 58, No. 2, 2021, U of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-1, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3746717 “In this essay written for the Frankel Lecture symposium on police killings of Black Americans, I explore the increasingly popular claim that racialized brutality is… Continue Reading
What the Constitution Means to Me
The New York Times: “Note the last two words in the title of Heidi Schreck’s hit show, “What the Constitution Means to Me”: This is a highly personal take, not a historical or legal lecture. Yet Schreck succeeds in widening her autobiographical play into a paean for basic fairness: The American Constitution, admired as it… Continue Reading
Domestic Terrorism Cases on the Rise in February Following January 6 Breach of Capitol
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – “In February 2021, according to federal internal case-by-case records on prosecutions obtained after successful court litigation by TRAC, there were 57 prosecutions of domestic terrorism filed in the federal district courts. The majority of these prosecutions—54—were filed in the District of Columbia following the storming of the Capitol on January… Continue Reading
Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community
Office of the Director of National Intelligence: “This annual report, April 2021 of worldwide threats to the national security of the United States responds to Section 617 of the FY21 Intelligence Authorization Act (P.L. 116-260). This report reflects the collective insights of the Intelligence Community (IC), which is committed every day to providing the nuanced,… Continue Reading
