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Monthly Archives: January 2012

House Oversight Report – Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gun-walking in Arizona

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Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gun-walking in Arizona, Report of the Minority Staff, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, January 2012

  • “…this report tells the story of how misguided gunwalking operations originated in 2006 as ATF’s Phoenix Field Division devised a strategy to forgo prosecutions against lowlevel straw purchasers while they attempted to build bigger charges against higher-level cartel members. Unfortunately, this strategy failed to include sufficient operational controls to stop these dangerous weapons from getting into the hands of violent criminals, creating a danger to public safety on both sides of the border. The report describes how, rather than halting this operation after its flaws became evident, ATF’s Phoenix Field Division launched several similarly reckless operations over the course of several years, also with tragic results. Operation Fast and Furious was the fourth in a series of operations in which gunwalking—the non-interdiction of illegally purchased firearms that could and should be seized by law enforcement—occurred since 2006. This report also details complaints by ATF line agents and senior officials in Washington, who told the Committee that these failures were aggravated and compounded by the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office, which failed to aggressively prosecute firearms trafficking cases, and Federal courts in Arizona, which showed leniency toward the trafficking networks that fuel armed violence in Mexico.”

    • The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022

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    The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022, January 31, 2012 “Each January, CBO prepares “baseline” budget projections spanning the next 10 years. Those projections are not a forecast of future events; rather, they are intended to provide a benchmark against which potential policy changes can be measured. Therefore, as specified in law,… Continue Reading

    Boycott Against Scientific Journal Publisher Gathering Supporters

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    Wired Campus by Josh Fischman: “Elsevier, the global publishing company, is responsible for The Lancet, Cell, and about 2,000 other important journals; the iconic reference work Gray’s Anatomy, along with 20,000 other books—and one fed-up, award-winning mathematician. Timothy Gowers of the University of Cambridge, who won the Fields Medal for his research, has organized a… Continue Reading

    Treasury Bills and/or Central Bank Bills for Absorbing Surplus Liquidity: The Main Considerations

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    Treasury Bills and/or Central Bank Bills for Absorbing Surplus Liquidity: The Main Considerations, Obert Nyawata. January 2012 “This paper discusses the challenging question of whether central banks should use treasury bills or central bank bills for draining excess liquidity in the banking system. While recognizing that there are practical reasons for using central bank bills,… Continue Reading

    OECD Yearbook 2012

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    “Towards a positive legacy of a terrible crisis: the title of the editorial by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría sets the tone in this second annual OECD Yearbook 2012. The 168 page volume features articles by renowned guests from government, business, trade unions and civil society who join OECD experts to take stock of the crisis… Continue Reading

    Weathering financial crises: bond markets in Asia and the Pacific (BIS Papers)

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    Weathering financial crises: bond markets in Asia and the Pacific, BIS Papers No 63, January 2012 “The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) jointly organised a high-level seminar on “The development of regional capital markets” in Yokohama, Japan, on 21-22 November 2011. The seminar brought together senior officials of 12… Continue Reading

    European Union: Implementation of the Consumer Credit Directive

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    Implementation of the Consumer Credit Directive: “The study examines the state and the main difficulties of the implementation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers using the examples of fourteen Member States of the European Union. The analysis focuses on fully harmonised aspects of the Directive as well as on the provisions for which… Continue Reading

    Federal Reserve: Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices

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    “The January 2012 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices addressed changes in the supply of, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months. The survey included three sets of special questions: the first set asked banks about lending to firms with European exposures; the second set… Continue Reading

    New GAO Reports: Antibiotics, Office of Science Sites, Air Sovereignty Alert Operations, IRS Management

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    Antibiotics – FDA Needs to Do More to Ensure That Drug Labels Contain Up-to-Date Information, GAO-12-218, January 31, 2012 Department of Energy – Additional Opportunities Exist to Streamline Support Functions at NNSA and Office of Science Sites, GAO-12-255, January 31, 2012 Homeland Defense – Continued Actions Needed to Improve Management of Air Sovereignty Alert Operations,… Continue Reading

    UK Houses of Parliament – Open Access to Scientific Information

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    Open Access to Scientific Information, Published 25 January 2012 | POST Notes 397, by Chandrika Nath “The internet has transformed the nature of scientific research, opening up new ways to collect, use and disseminate scientific information. This has led to increased demand for access to such information. Open Access (OA) to scientific journal publications means… Continue Reading

    Pew – The rise of in-store mobile commerce

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    The rise of in-store mobile commerce – “During the holiday season, 25% of cell owners used their phone inside stores to gather price comparisons; 24% used them to look up online reviews. And 19% of those who searched for a better price on an in-store product eventually bought the product online.” Aaron Smith Senior Research… Continue Reading

    Report: Much work still needed to achieve widespread use of computerized patient records

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    Transforming Health Care: The Role of Health IT Bipartisan Policy, Center Task Force on Delivery System Reform and Health IT, January 2012 “Health information technology (IT) plays a critical role in supporting new models of care and payment that are designed to achieve health care’s triple aim: improve health, improve the experience of care for… Continue Reading