Study Question Set #1 for Perfectly Legal

1. How did Jonathan Blattmachr help Bill Gates avoid paying capital gains tax on profits of Microsoft stock?

2. When does Johnston say, in particular, it pays to cheat on your taxes?

3. How has the nature of taxation changed (on whom has the burden fallen) since WWI?

4. What is the difference between what prognosticators in the 60's foresaw about the wealth of the American middle class in 2000 as opposed to the reality?

5. What does Johnston say that all the economic data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Reserve, IRS, and Dept. of Commerce agree on?

6. What did Piketty and Saez conclude about income distribution within the top 10% in the US?

7. What does Johnston say the effect has been on the electorate (since Vietnam) that parallels the effect on the political donor class?

8. What revolution in executive pay did Roberto Goizueta execute in 1992?

9. How, according to Johnston, does deferral hurt the company that grants it?

10. How does deferral hurt the nation, according to Johnston?

11. Extra Credit. What specific legislative activity explains why there are so many corporate planes flying today?

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12. Extra Credit. How was the committee report that Howard Metzenbaum thwarted where the vlaue of a personal trip was pegged to the cost of first-class airfare trumped by a later deal that favored execs?