Wall Street Journal:  The Renouncers: Who Gave Up U.S. Citizenship, and Why?, by Laura Saunders:

The latest list of renouncers is out.

One is a buyout specialist at the Carlyle Group, another a private equity executive at J.P. Morgan Chase. There’s also a big-law partner, an international socialite, an Israeli Supreme Court justice and a London-based artist.

Each one recently renounced U.S. citizenship or turned in a long-held “green card” conferring permanent-resident status in the U.S. Their names appeared on a quarterly list published last Friday by the Treasury Department, as required by law since 1996.

The list contained 189 names, far fewer than other recent lists. Some experts speculated the number dropped because many Americans who planned to expatriate while tax rates were both low and certain have already done so. (Current tax rates expire at the end of 2012.) Because there’s about a six-month delay between a renunciation and publication on the Treasury’s list, other experts expect a surge latter this year.