A fast-paced, behind-closed-doors account of the Federal Reserve's decision making during the 2008 financial crisis, showing how Fed policymakers overcame their own assumptions to contain the disaster. The financial crisis of 2008 led to the collapse of several major banks and thrust the US economy into the deepest recession since the Great Depression. The Federal Reserve was the agency most responsible for maintaining the nation's economic stability. And the Fed's Open Market Committee was a twelve-member body at the epicenter, making sense of the unfolding crisis and fashioning a response. This is the story of how they failed, learned, and staved off catastrophe. Drawing on verbatim transcripts of the committee's closed-door meetings, Mitchel Abolafia puts readers in the room with the Federal Reserve's senior policymaking group. Abolafia uncovers what the Fed's policymakers knew before, during, and after the collapse. He explores how their biases and intellectual commitments both helped and hindered as they made sense of the emergency. In an original contribution to the sociology of finance, Stewards of the Market examines the social and cultural factors that shaped the Fed's response, one marked by missed cues and analytic failures but also by successful improvisations and innovations. Ideas, traditions, and power all played their roles in the Fed's handling of the crisis. In particular, Abolafia demonstrates that the Fed's adherence to conflicting theories of self-correcting markets contributed to the committee's doubts and decisions. A vivid portrait of the world's most powerful central bank in a moment of high stakes, Stewards of the Market is rich with insights for the next financial downturn.

Rowman & Littlefield is proud to publish the 17th edition of what is now considered to be the most useful reference book available on the federal budget. In The Guide to the Federal Budget, Fiscal 1998, Stanley E. Collender, among a handful of people who have worked for both the House and Senate budget committees, analyzes the extensive debates surrounding the fiscal 1997 budget and explains in detail such 1998 budget challenges as the line item veto, entitlement spending, and the persistent politics of divided government. An indispensable guide for policy analysts, The Guide to the Federal Government, Fiscal 1998 is written at a level accessible to general readers and includes illuminating appendices, a revised and updated glossary of key terms, and a thorough index. With a concluding chapter entitled 'How to Read and Use the Federal Budget, ' and a new chapter on the line item veto, this book will be particularly useful for courses in Budget Politics and Analysis and Public Policy.

Existing corporate taxes distort many aspects of firm behavior. To the extent that the corporate tax rate is lower than personal tax rates, taxes favor corporate activity, and favor retaining earnings rather than paying earnings out to employees and investors. Multinationals can even avoid these taxes by shifting income into tax havens. Given the ease with which multinationals can evade tax, the existing income tax structure faces major pressures, as reflected in average statutory corporate tax rates halving in recent decades. The Element speculates on alternative tax structures that will avoid these problems.

Thanks to a series of recent US Supreme Court decisions, corporations can now spend unlimited sums to influence elections, Super PACs and dark money groups are flourishing, and wealthy individuals and special interests increasingly dominate American politics. Despite the overwhelming support of Americans to fix this broken system, serious efforts at reform have languished. Campaign finance is a highly intricate and complex area of the law, and the current system favors the incumbent politicians who oversee it. This illuminating book takes these hard realities as a starting point and offers realistic solutions to reform campaign finance. With contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars of election law, it should be read by anyone interested in reclaiming the promise of American democracy.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented in India in July 2017, after four decades of protracted deliberations amid critical socio-economic and political challenges. GST is a comprehensive multistage value added tax (VAT) on goods and services where both central and state governments share the same tax base. Finding a suitable design for GST that encompasses taxes from both the centre and the state tax brackets makes the Indian GST unique among GST implemented in other federal countries. This book is a study of the evolution of GST in India since the Report of the Indirect Taxation Enquiry Committee of 1977. It studies the following issues on GST: a) inclusion and exclusion of taxes, b) finding a suitable mechanism to handle inter-state transactions, c) finding revenue neutrality of the tax reform, d) providing compensation to states for any possible loss of revenue due to its adoption, and e) possible scope for coordination in GST administration.

Still in the early stages of development, conflict theory presents a growing interest in understanding the economic costs and benefits of conflicts. In this book, Mehrdad Vahabi analyses one type of conflict in particular: manhunting, or predation, in which a dominant power hunts down its prey and the goal of the prey is to escape and thus survive. This contrasts with traditional warfare, in which two (or more) powers enter into a conflict and the goal is to fight to win domination. The economics of escape casts light on costs and benefits of predatory activities, and explores the impact of violence as an impediment to developing countries with respect to assets structure. This book is unprecedented in its research and thought, and develops a new theory of predation in economics that makes a significant contribution to the field.

Throughout much of the twentieth century, economists paid little heed to the role of financial intermediaries in procuring a beneficial allocation of capital. By the end of the century, however, some financial historians had begun to turn the tide, and the phrase 'finance-growth nexus' became part of the lexicon of modern economics. Recent experience has added another dimension in that countries with broader, deeper and more active financial systems might be prone to financial crises, particularly if regulatory structures are inadequate. In this book, Peter L. Rousseau and Paul Wachtel have gathered together some of today's most distinguished financial historians to examine this finance-growth nexus from both historical and modern perspectives. Some essays examine the nexus in a particular historical or cross-country context. Others, in the light of recent experience, explore the expanded nexus of finance, growth, crises, and regulation.

The "Theory of Macrojustice", introduced by S.-C. Kolm, is a stimulating contribution to the debate on the macroeconomic income distribution. The solution called "Equal Labour Income Equalisation" (ELIE) is the result of a three stages construction: collective agreement on the scheme of labour income redistribution, collective agreement on the degree of equalisation to be chosen in that framework, individual freedom to exploit his--her personal productive capicities (the source of labour income and the sole basis for taxation). This book is organised as a discussion around four complementary themes: philosophical aspects of macrojustice, economic analysis of macrojustice, combination of ELIE with other targeted tranfers, econometric evaluations of ELIE.

From the 1980s onward, income inequality increased in many advanced countries. It is very difficult to account for the rise in income inequality using the standard labour supply/demand explanation. Fiscal redistribution has become less effective in compensating increasing inequalities since the 1990s. Some of the basic features of redistribution can be explained through the optimal tax framework developed by J. A. Mirrlees in 1971. This Element surveys some of the earlier results in linear and nonlinear taxation and produces some new numerical results. Given the key role of capital income in the overall income inequality, it also considers the optimal taxation of capital income. It examines empirically the relationship between the extent of redistribution and the components of the Mirrlees framework. The redistributive role of factors such as publicly provided private goods, public employment, endogenous wages in the overlapping generations model and income uncertainty are analysed.

Why Democracy Needs Public Goods presents a new theoretical perspective on public goods based on a framework of political philosophy. Angela Kallhoff responds to negative narratives on public goods that point out their role in causing market failures, their cost on public finance and in regulation, and their irregular and sometimes negative effects on social interaction. She instead provides a normative approach arguing for their role in supporting democracies at critical points by providing the basis for a public forum through public space and infrastructure, improving social inclusion through public healthcare and education, and fostering a sense of national identity. This book also features a comprehensive description of other arguments and theoretical approaches to public goods, as well as assessing the classical economic approach of collective action theory and counter arguments from the so-called libertarian camp. Kallhoff also analyzes the problems of regulatory frameworks and the normative issues resulting from the need to support by means of public finance. These perspectives will be most significant to political philosophers and policymakers, though the language used and the examples given will make Kallhoff's arguments comprehensible to non-experts as well.

In 1783, a stamp duty was imposed on proprietary or 'quack' medicines. These largely useless but often dangerous remedies were immensely popular. The tax, which lasted until 1941, was imposed to raise revenue. It failed in its incidental regulatory purpose, had a negative effect in that the stamp was perceived as a guarantee of quality, and had a positive effect in encouraging disclosure of the formula. The book explains the considerable impact the tax had on chemists and druggists - how it led to an improvement in professional status, but undermined it by reinforcing their reputations as traders. The legislation imposing the tax was complex, ambiguous and never reformed. The tax authorities had to administer it, and executive practice came to dominate it. A minor, specialised, low-yield tax is shown to be of real significance in the pharmaceutical context, and of exceptional importance as a model revealing the wider impact of tax law and administration.

This volume offers a collection of studies on problem of organization's efficiency, criteria for evaluating the efficiency, tools and methods for measuring the efficiency. The articles included present an interdisciplinary look at efficiency, its essence and the principles of its measurement. The contributions also identify a broad spectrum of conditions for achieving efficiency in various types of organizations and systems (e.g. public institution, non-profit organizations), representing various industries. The book collects selected papers presented at the 7th International Conference "Efficiency as a Source of the Wealth of Nations", held in Wroclaw, Poland, in May 2017.

Serving as an introduction to one of the "hottest" topics in financial crime, the Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud, this new and original book aims to analyze and decrypt the fraud and explore multi-disciplinary avenues, thereby exposing nuances and shades that remain concealed by traditional taxation oriented researches. Quantifying the impact of the fraud on the real economy underlines the structural damages propagated by this crime in the European Union. The 'fruadsters' benefit when policy changes are inflicted in an economic space without a fully fledged legal framework. Geopolitical events like the creation of the Eurasian Union and 'Brexit' are analyzed from the perspective of the VAT fraud, thereby underlining the foreseeable risks of such historical turnarounds. In addition, this book also provides a unique collection of case studies that depict the main characteristics of VAT fraud. Introduction to VAT Fraud will be of interest to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regards to banking and finance law, international law, criminal law, taxation, accounting, and financial crime. It will be of value to researchers, academics, professionals, and students in the fields of law, financial crime, technology, accounting and taxation.

Modern-day tax treaties have their foundations in one of the three Model Tax Treaties developed by the League of Nations in 1928. Using previously unexplored archival material, Sunita Jogarajan provides the first in-depth examination of the development of the League's Models. This new research provides insights into questions such as the importance of double taxation versus tax evasion; the preference for source-taxation versus residence-taxation; the influence of theory and practice on the League's work; the development of bilateral rather than multilateral treaties; the influence of developing countries on the League's work; the role of Commentary in interpreting model tax treaties; and the influential factors and key individuals involved. A better understanding of the development of the original models will inform and help guide interpretation and reform of modern-day tax treaties. Additionally, this book will be of interest to scholars of international relations and the development of law at international organisations.

Originally published in 1987, Cost-Benefit Analysis in Urban and Regional Planning, outlines the theory and practice of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in the context of urban and regional planning. The theory of CBA is developed with examples to illustrate the principles, it also deals with details of the applications and covers issues such as local health and social services provision, local economic development and regional policy evaluation, and planning in less developed countries - as well as the conventional land-use issues of physical planning.

Since 1945, the liberal-democratic model of capitalism spread across the globe, ultimately prevailing over communism. Over the past two decades, a new statist-authoritarian model has begun diffusing across East Asia. Rather than rejecting capitalism, authoritarian leaders harness it to uphold their rule. Based on extensive research of East Asia's largest corporations and sovereign wealth funds, this book argues that the most aggressive version of this model does not belong to China. Rather, it can be found in Malaysia and Singapore. Although these countries are small, the implications are profound because one-third of all countries in the world possess the same type of regime. With an increasing number of these authoritarian regimes establishing sovereign wealth funds, their ability to intervene in the corporate sectors of other countries is rapidly expanding.

Seventy-five percent of Americans claim religious affiliation, which can impact their taxpaying responsibilities. In this illuminating book, Samuel D. Brunson describes the many problems and breakdowns that can occur when tax meets religion in the United States, and shows how the US government has too often responded to these issues in an unprincipled, ad hoc manner. God and the IRS offers a better framework to understand tax and religion. It should be read by scholars of religion and the law, policymakers, and individuals interested in understanding the implications of taxation on their religious practices.

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the implications of rising public debt in India. It specifically investigates the implications of domestic debt on consumption, the effect of monetised debt on prices, the long-term relationship between domestic debt and growth, and the separation of debt and monetary management. It studies data on debt in India from 1951 to 2017, and covers a wide canvas of issues related to debt management and important developments in the government securities market. It discusses trends in domestic debt, and provides a descriptive review of the major components of public debt. The book presents a close theoretical discussion on the Ricardian equivalence hypothesis, an important concept both historically and in contemporary literature on public debt. The implications of domestic debt delineated in the objectives are empirically analysed.

Seventy-five percent of Americans claim religious affiliation, which can impact their taxpaying responsibilities. In this illuminating book, Samuel D. Brunson describes the many problems and breakdowns that can occur when tax meets religion in the United States, and shows how the US government has too often responded to these issues in an unprincipled, ad hoc manner. God and the IRS offers a better framework to understand tax and religion. It should be read by scholars of religion and the law, policymakers, and individuals interested in understanding the implications of taxation on their religious practices.

Save BIGGER THAN EVER with this fully updated edition of the classic tax-saving guide! Tax whiz Jeff Schnepper has been helping ordinary taxpayers dramatically lower their tax bills for decades. Now, Schnepper brings his classic guide up to date for the coming tax season. Presented in language anyone can understand, How to Pay Zero Taxes 2020-2021 delivers everything you need to take full advantage of the newest tax laws-and pay the IRS less than ever before. Schnepper uncovers hundreds of sanctioned deductions, shelters, credits, and exemptions and provides invaluable tax tips you'll only find here. You'll learn how to navigate the tax code like a pro and save the maximum legal amounts on: * Capital gains and dividends * IRA and retirement plans * Converting personal expenses into deductible business expenses * Charitable deductions * Child care and elder care * Moving and job-hunting expenses * Mortgages and points * Investment expenses Every April, thousands of people around the country pay far more than they have to. Don't give the IRA one dollar more than the law requires. Use How to Pay Zero Taxes 2020-2021 to keep more of your hard-earned money in your own pocket.

Figuring Out the Tax recounts the forgotten early development of the federal income tax in the US, resulting from the interplay between Congress and the Treasury Department in the decades following the enactment of the tax in 1913. It covers a wide range of topics including the income tax treatments of marriage, capital losses, charitable contributions and homeownership, as well as the rise, demise and resurrection of income tax withholding. Lawrence Zelenak deftly illustrates how the income tax achieved its current form through a range of stories which are new to tax history scholarship and involve some remarkable personalities and surprising plot twists. Although of particular interest to tax academics and professionals, this book will also serve as a useful introduction to the development of income tax for undergraduate students and law students.

International Applications of U.S. Income Tax Law provides tax, accounting, and legal practitioners in the U.S. with a fundamental understanding of major concepts and issues in international tax. Readers will become more knowledgeable of how taxpayers achieve excess credit or excess limit positions and how they can profit from the economic incentives these positions create. International Applications of U.S. Income Tax Law also explains how to calculate marginal tax rates in many situations, a concept not found in other international tax books.