Money and Computing

Estate tax. The clearest benefit for the Trump family would be the tax bills' changes to the estate tax, which falls on estates worth more than $5.49 million (nearly $11 million for a couple). The House bill would repeal the estate tax entirely in 2024. As we’ve written before, that would save Trump’s estate $564 million, according to a Bloomberg estimate, based on a net worth of $3 billion. Trump has said his net worth is $10 billion, and if so, the savings to his estate from a repeal of the tax would be $1.9 billion. more »

Janet Yellen before the Joint Economic Committee, US Congress "With the job gains this year, 17 million more Americans are employed now than eight years ago. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate, which stood at 4.1 percent in October, has fallen 0.6 percentage point since the turn of the year and is nearly 6 percentage points below its peak in 2010. In addition, the labor force participation rate has changed little, on net, in recent years, which is another indication of improving conditions in the labor market, given the downward pressure on the participation rate associated with an aging population." more »

Joan L. Cannon wrote: The Internet has become the conduit to confidants I didn’t know I needed, and now I behave as though I couldn’t survive without them. Actually, I doubt if I could. Nowadays I need to remind myself of how easy it’s going to be to overwork my new roster of what I can think of only as friends — real friends in most instances, as opposed to acquaintances. It’s such a temptation to tap out an email whenever a thought strikes me that I know would be of no interest or would be likely to be misunderstood by available ears, or worse, to raise hackles or prejudices that would spoil the relationship on the spot. more »

In recent weeks there have been many media reports about the process for employees in the legislative branch to file claims with the Congressional Office of Compliance (OOC) under the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (CAA). Several of those reports contain incorrect information about that process. The questions and answers [in this post] address the most common misconceptions about the OOC; more detailed information is available [at the website]. more »