ClearSpending Background on Federal Spending Reporting Systems: “Clearspending analyzes the quality of data in USASpending.gov. To fully understand our analysis — and to understand why it’s necessary — it is important to know the history of the systems that have evolved into USASpending.gov. The infrastructure used to track federal spending has been steadily growing over the course of decades, in a process that has all too often involved ad-hoc alterations to outdated systems rather than thoughtful redesign. The story of how this occurred is every bit as complicated and problematic as the systems themselves. We’ve taken data from other federal reporting systems and compared it with just the grants data found in USASpending.gov across three categories: Consistency, Completeness and Timeliness. How close are the reported dollar amounts to the yearly estimates? How many of the required fields are filled out in each record? And how long did it take the agency to report the money once it was allocated to a project?”
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Daily Archives: February 6, 2013
EPIC Urges Public Support for Driver Privacy Safeguards
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed regulations for event data recorders (EDR) that will become mandatory in all cars and small trucks by 2014. Building on state privacy laws, EPIC has urged the federal agency to adopt comprehensive privacy safeguards for vehicle owners and operators, including driver ownership of data, limitations on disclosure,… Continue Reading
BIS – Understanding Global Liquidity
Understanding Global Liquidity, by Sandra Eickmeier, Leonardo Gambacorta and Boris Hofmann. Working Papers No 402, February 2013 “We explore the concept of global liquidity based on a factor model estimated using a large set of financial and macroeconomic variables from 24 advanced and emerging market economies. We measure global liquidity conditions based on the common… Continue Reading
BIS – Globalisation and inflation dynamics in Asia and the Pacific
Globalisation and inflation dynamics in Asia and the Pacific, BIS Papers No 70, February 2013 “The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) organised a research workshop on globalisation and inflation dynamics in Asia and the Pacific on June 18-19 in Hong Kong SAR. The topic was endorsed by the Asian Consultative Council in February 2012 as… Continue Reading
Pew – Coming and Going on Facebook
Report: Social Networking – Coming and Going on Facebook, by Lee Rainie, Aaron Smith, Maeve Duggan, Feb 5, 2013. “Two-thirds of online American adults (67%) are Facebook users, making Facebook the dominant social networking site in this country. And new findings from the Pew Research Centers Internet & American Life Project indicate there is considerable… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Charter Schools, FCC Controls over Enhanced Secured Network Project
Charter Schools – Guidance Needed for Military Base Schools on Startup and Operational Issues, GAO-13-67, Feb 1, 2013 Federal Communications Commission Needs to Strengthen Controls over Enhanced Secured Network Project, GAO-13-155, Jan 25, 2013 Continue Reading
CRS – The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)
The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), Christine Scott, Specialist in Social Policy, February 4, 2013 “The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) is meant to induce employers to hire members of families receiving benefits under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program and other groups thought to experience employment problems regardless of general economic conditions… Continue Reading
Survey – Federal Government Shows Two-Year Positive Trend for Satisfaction
News release: “Americans are more satisfied with services provided by the U.S. federal government for a second consecutive year, according to a report released today by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). ACSI results show that citizen satisfaction with federal government is up 2.2% to 68.4 (on a scale of 0 to 100) in 2012… Continue Reading
Report – As Traffic Jams Worsen, Commuters Allowing Extra Time for Urgent Trips
“As traffic congestion continues to worsen, the time required for a given trip becomes more unpredictable, and researchers now have a way to measure that degree of unreliability, introduced for the first time as part of the annual Urban Mobility Report (UMR), published by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). The Planning Time Index (PTI),… Continue Reading
Towers Watson – Global Pensions Asset Study – 2013
“This is a study of the 13 largest pension markets in the world and accounts for more than 85% of global pension assets. The countries included are Australia, Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the US. The study also analyses seven countries in greater depth by… Continue Reading
