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Michael J. Graetz is Justus S. Hotchkiss Professor of Law, Yale University.

Værker af Michael J. Graetz

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Fødselsdato
1944
Køn
male
Nationalitet
USA

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5427. The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right, by Michael J. Graetz and Linda Greenhouse (read 29 Nov 2016) This is an excellent book, right up to the present. It discusses the Supreme Court during the years from 1969 to 1987--the years when Warren Burger was Chief Justice. But in order to give context the book discusses events before and after those years as well. Its principal divisions are captioned Crime, Race, Social Transformation, Business, and The Presidency. Each topic is covered as thoroughly as even a lawyer would want, with full footnotes and legal citations. The authors show the ways that the Burger Court cut down on the accomplishments of the Warren Court, even though they did not reverse them--leaving such for the Rehnquist and Roberts Court to do. I found all the discussion of exceptional interest, although I will admit the section under Business dealing with workplace inequality is pretty technical and without close study is hard to absorb. But all the other parts of the book are of huge interest and most enlightening.… (mere)
 
Markeret
Schmerguls | Nov 29, 2016 |
A book about repeal of the estate tax... I can hear groaning noises coming out of the laptop from you. "Where does she find these deadly (ha ha) boring books??"" Death by a Thousand Cuts is NOT an economics book. And it's not even all about tax - it's about politics and how the repeal of the estate tax went from being a crazy idea to being supported by many, many Americans and by members of both political parties in the US Senate and Congress until in 2001 it was passed as part of Bush's package of tax cuts, to take full effect in 2011.

I've given it 5 stars, because I got so much out of it and couldn't put it down (and had to keep reading bits out to my husband). For some people though it'd be a 1 or 2 star book, because it displays its biases so openly - the authors are firmly opposed to the repeal of the estate tax.

I don't know what the LT recommender will say on this book, but here's my quiz to see if you will like it:

1. Do your friends think you are obssessed with US politics?

2. Do you find yourself reading articles about the Tea Party when you could be doing housework?

3. Do you look forward to Friday morning because the latest Slate Political Gabfest podcast will be out?
(If you answered "what's that?", you will probably still like this book. If you answered "Isn't Slate that leftie current events website?" then you might want to skip this book.)

4. When you followed the US healthcare debate, did you wonder exactly how the reconciliation process worked?

It was written in 2005, 4 years after Bush's tax cut bill was passed. I'd love to see an updated epilogue to see what they think of the latest tax cuts deal finalised last week. What is most fascinating about the move for total repeal of the estate tax is that many of the supporters of full repeal would have been better off accepting a deal from the Democrats to increase the level at which the estate tax kicks in (used to be 55% of the estate for estates worth over US$600,000), reducing the level, and some exemptions, rather than waiting 10 years to get complete repeal.

The first half of the book discusses how the coalition to get the estate tax repealed got started. The second half starts when Bush gets elected as President and repeal makes it onto Congress's list of priorities. There is tons in here about US politics in the 90s and names you've forgotten about - Gingrich, Bob Packwood, Jim Jeffords, Bill Frist - and some that are still around (e.g. Max Baucus). There's also a lot about the role of think tanks (lots on Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute), the importance of labelling (the tax was called the death tax, and this had an impact early on in warping people's perceptions about who would be eligible).
… (mere)
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Markeret
cushlareads | Dec 28, 2010 |

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Værker
15
Medlemmer
236
Popularitet
#95,935
Vurdering
4.0
Anmeldelser
2
ISBN
41

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