“First cameras turn against you, then mirrors.”~ Whit Stillman (posted on Twitter, October 12, 2016)
HE WAS once one of the most powerful men in the NSW Government, holding senior ministerial positions and having vast amounts of influence over large swathes of the state Labor Party. But today former politician Eddie Obeids was sent to jail for a minimum of three years for misconduct. He has been denied bail with his jail term beginning immediately.
Premier Mike Baird savaged the former minister, saying his “crimes are the most serious instance of official corruption we have seen in our lifetimes”. Eddie Obeid sentenced to five years ; Kate McClymont (See also gated AFR story by Neil Chenoweth) Where there is a smoke there is Obeid or his sons, nephews, nieces or in-laws. ...
Exclusive: Top U.S. spy agency has not embraced CIA assessment on Russia hacking – sources ReutersGeorge Brandis appoints Stephen Donaghue QC as solicitor-general
Our problem isn't robots, it's the low-wage car-wash economy
The recent deal to keep some 800 workers employed at a Carrier plant in Indiana rather than see those jobs shipped to Mexico proved great news for the workers and a public relations bonanza for President-elect Donald J. Trump.
What it didn’t prove — even though the incoming president used the occasion to promote his proposal for a huge tax giveaway to corporations — is that cutting corporate taxes will save or create many American jobs. It won’t. ...
Beneficial Ownership and disclosure of trusts: challenging the privacy arguments
US Supreme Court’s ‘Salman v. US’ Decision Answers One Insider-Trading Question, Leaves Others Unresolved is now live on the WLF's Legal Pulse blog
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was one of the most influential Romantic poets. He was born in Cumbria and in 1799 he settled at Dove Cottage in Grasmere where he wrote his most famous poem ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ in 1804. Grasmere has been my UK home for over a decade, inspired by Wordsworth’s lines in his poem 'The Recluse': “On Nature’s invitation do I come,/By Reason sanctioned. Can the choice mislead,/That made the calmest, fairest spot on earth,/With all its unappropriated good,/My own.”We do not consider ourselves as NIMBYs, but rather LAYBYs. This stands for ‘Looking After Your Back Yard
Harvard Econ G4 Skit 2016 - "Rise Up" (A Hamilton Parody) fromEcon Skits on Vimeo.
Also another entry here.
- The Story Of Tonight: With Billion-Dollar Hamilton Poised To Sweep Tony Awards, Broadway Pushes For Tax Break Extension (June 12, 2016)
- What Hamilton Teaches Lawyers About Telling Our Story (Aug. 21, 2016)
- Lessons From Hamilton For The University Of Chicago Law School Class Of 2019 (Oct. 4, 2016)
- Law Profs At Chicago, Harvard And Michigan Turn To Hamilton As A Teaching Tool (Oct. 14, 2016)
- Greg Mankiw Happily Paid $2,500 For A Hamilton Ticket, But Asks: Why Should 80% Go To Resellers Rather Than Lin-Manuel Miranda? (Oct. 22, 2016)
- Law Profs Weigh In On The Hamilton/Pence/Trump Controversy (Nov. 21, 2016)
Corporate watchdog now on the sniff for Rodney Culleton too
An analysis of the Death Star as a war crime. [The Legal Geeks]
The age of outrage New Statesman. Edited version of Ian Hislop’s Orwell lecture: Why are we so quick to take offense?
HMRC: Spot the Ball operator hits £97m VAT jackpot
Stop calling everything fake news Slate We live in an informational hall of mirrors
Beneficial Ownership and disclosure of trusts: challenging the privacy arguments
For rich countries only: A global map of multinationals’ tax avoidance
Portland city council passes tax on CEOs who earn 100 times more than staff
Beneficial Ownership and disclosure of trusts: challenging the privacy arguments
For rich countries only: A global map of multinationals’ tax avoidance
Portland city council passes tax on CEOs who earn 100 times more than staff
Russian President Vladimir Putin once said that the fall of the USSR “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” But in fact, the Soviet Union was a “prison house of nations,” and its peaceful dissolution was a modern miracle
Peter had a card-counting team which came to be known as the Czechoslovakians, because of the nationality of most of the members.
He thought it would be a great idea to teach a woman to count cards, because no casino would suspect a female of doing such a thing.
Cat Hulbert: How I got rich beating men at their own game BBC
Jerri-Lynn Scofield, who has worked as a securities lawyer and a derivatives trader. She now spends most of her time in Asia researching a book about textile artisans. She also writes regularly about legal, political economy, and regulatory topics for various consulting clients and publications, as well as scribbles occasional travel pieces for The National.The Death Strip at the Turkish-Syrian Border Der SpiegelRefugees dying from hypothermia as deadly Mediterranean boat crossings continue into winter Independent
In a unanimous decision Tuesday in Salman v United States, the United States Supreme Court upheld the insider trading conviction of Bassam Salman. This was the Court’s first insider trading decision in more than two decades...
How Braveheart and Star Wars explain Trump
Moves to scrap large denominated bills are unlikely to have an impact on black market activity, according to global money laundering expert Robert Mazur. A former special agent with US Customs and Enforcement who laundered more than $US50 million for Pablo Escobar during an undercover operation, Mr Mazur has spent the last 40 years on the financial frontlines of the fight against crime. The film, The Infiltrator, tells Mazur's story. "Phasing out larger denominated bills is not going to cripple the industry by any means. It just means the criminals are going to have to buy bigger houses for their cash hoards," Mr Mazur said. There's no end to the war on dirty money
Singapore named as
fifth worst tax haven in the world ahead of Hong Kong
Transparency is best tonic for multinational tax avoidance
Oxfam Report - TAX BATTLES: The dangerous global race to the bottom on corporate tax
Country-by-Country reporting: How Restricted Access Exacerbates Global Inequalities in Taxing Rights
Can current offshore wealth management centres survive?
Seriously. It is a pop culture version of the argument I've been making for months now
Law360, IRS Defends Test Used To Determine Nonprofit Status:
End of the line. The IRS is discontinuing one of my favorite statistical releases. Last week it issued its “The 400 Individual Income Tax Returns Reporting the Largest Adjusted Gross Incomes” for the last time, covering the 2014 tax year.
After months of sometimes violent protests by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided to turn down the permit necessary to grant an easement to build a segment of the Dakota Access pipeline under Lake Oahe, which could contaminate the water supply and damage sacred tribal lands. Will President-elect Trump reverse this decision after he is inaugurated? [Reuters]
Investigatory Powers Bill: Politicians exempt themselves from new wide-ranging spying laws Independent
This very recent data slice includes requests by the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, the Republican National Committee, the State of Kansas, employees of the Russian airline Aeroflot, Chelsea Manning – the former soldier convicted of illegally disclosing classified material to WikiLeaks – and numerous news and advocacy organizations. The FY 2016 filings covered a wide range of matters including private email accounts, national security, immigration, the environment and even Donald Trump, now the president-elect. Our examination of the same court data for the last 16 years also showed that the 3,416 such suits brought during the Obama Administration are fully a quarter higher than the 2,660 filed in the Bush years. While many factors may have contributed to this rise, including changes in the law and a growing willingness to challenge FOIA practices in court on the part of public interest and advocacy groups, the topics covered highlight the important role FOIA played in helping ensure a vibrant democracy. For further details, see our report just posted on FOIAproject.org: http://foiaproject.org/2016/12/09/foia-lawsuits-make-news-headlines-in-fy-2016“
How the Twinkie Made the Superrich Even Richer NYT. Private equity. “Pension funds that pay retirement benefits to public servants now depend on private equity to generate huge returns.” They may “depend” on private equity, but that doesn’t mean private equity delivers; see Yves here, or here, or here.
Law360, IRS Defends Test Used To Determine Nonprofit Status:
Federal attorneys defending the Internal Revenue Service against accusations it used an unconstitutional method to deny tax-exempt nonprofit status to a conservative group told a Texas federal judge Wednesday that the test in question “is neither unconstitutionally vague nor overly broad.” [Government's Motion; Government's Brief]
“There are no grounds for fear of the unknown: for often the things we most dreaded, before we experienced them, turn out to be better than those we desired.”
End of the line. The IRS is discontinuing one of my favorite statistical releases. Last week it issued its “The 400 Individual Income Tax Returns Reporting the Largest Adjusted Gross Incomes” for the last time, covering the 2014 tax year.
After months of sometimes violent protests by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided to turn down the permit necessary to grant an easement to build a segment of the Dakota Access pipeline under Lake Oahe, which could contaminate the water supply and damage sacred tribal lands. Will President-elect Trump reverse this decision after he is inaugurated? [Reuters]
Investigatory Powers Bill: Politicians exempt themselves from new wide-ranging spying laws Independent
This very recent data slice includes requests by the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, the Republican National Committee, the State of Kansas, employees of the Russian airline Aeroflot, Chelsea Manning – the former soldier convicted of illegally disclosing classified material to WikiLeaks – and numerous news and advocacy organizations. The FY 2016 filings covered a wide range of matters including private email accounts, national security, immigration, the environment and even Donald Trump, now the president-elect. Our examination of the same court data for the last 16 years also showed that the 3,416 such suits brought during the Obama Administration are fully a quarter higher than the 2,660 filed in the Bush years. While many factors may have contributed to this rise, including changes in the law and a growing willingness to challenge FOIA practices in court on the part of public interest and advocacy groups, the topics covered highlight the important role FOIA played in helping ensure a vibrant democracy. For further details, see our report just posted on FOIAproject.org: http://foiaproject.org/2016/12/09/foia-lawsuits-make-news-headlines-in-fy-2016“
How the Twinkie Made the Superrich Even Richer NYT. Private equity. “Pension funds that pay retirement benefits to public servants now depend on private equity to generate huge returns.” They may “depend” on private equity, but that doesn’t mean private equity delivers; see Yves here, or here, or here.