IMF Report: “Job creation and growth with inclusion are imperatives that resonate today in every country. While some advanced countries face the challenge of supporting aggregate demand with limited fiscal space in the aftermath of the Great Recession, many countries have to address ways to generate growth and create jobs in the face of the… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: April 2013
Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions declined in 2012
EIA: “Energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2012 were the lowest in the United States since 1994, at 5.3 billion metric tons of CO2 (see figure above). With the exception of 2010, emissions have declined every year since 2007. The largest drop in emissions in 2012 came from coal, which is used almost exclusively for… Continue Reading
Does Auditor 'Commentary' in Unqualified Audit Reports Reflect Financial Misstatement Risk?
Czerney, Keith, Schmidt, Jaime J. and Thompson, Anne, Does Auditor ‘Commentary’ in Unqualified Audit Reports Reflect Financial Misstatement Risk? (April 1, 2013). Available at SSRN “According to auditing standards, explanatory language added at the auditors discretion to unqualified audit reports should not indicate increased financial misstatement risk. However, in practice, an auditor is unlikely to… Continue Reading
IRS Releases the Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2013
News release: “The Internal Revenue Service…issued its annual Dirty Dozen list of tax scams, reminding taxpayers to use caution during tax season to protect themselves against a wide range of schemes ranging from identity theft to return preparer fraud. The Dirty Dozen listing, compiled by the IRS each year, lists a variety of common scams… Continue Reading
Working Paper – Italian Sovereign Spreads
Italian Sovereign Spreads: Their Determinants and Pass-through to Bank Funding Costs and Lending Conditions, by Edda Zoli, April 03, 2013 “Volatility in Italian sovereign spreads has increased since mid-2011. This paper finds that news on the euro area debt crisis and country specific events were important drivers of sovereign spreads. Movements in sovereign spreads affect… Continue Reading
Firefox getting smarter about third-party cookies
Via Firefox Aurora Notes – Firefox getting smarter about third-party cookies: “On Friday, Mozilla released a Firefox patch into its Nightly channel that changes how cookies from third party companies function. Users of this build of Firefox must directly interact with a site or company for a cookie to be installed on their machine. The… Continue Reading
EU Data Protection Policies Challenge Google Privacy Policy
PCWorld: “Six European data protection authorities will conduct formal investigations of Google’s privacy policy after the company repeatedly rejected their requests that it reverse changes it made to the policy last March. Data protection authorities in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K. have resolved to conduct investigations or inspections of Google’s privacy… Continue Reading
EPIC Supports Public Mark Up for Controversial Cyber Security Bill
“EPIC joined a letter signed by a coalition of privacy and civil liberty organizations to urge the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to open the markup process of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) to the public. CISPA suspends privacy safeguards so that companies can disclose vast amounts of customer and client… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports: Border Security, Critical Infrastructure Protection, SEC's Internal Controls
Border Security – Partnership Agreements and Enhanced Oversight Could Strengthen Coordination of Efforts on Indian Reservations, GAO-13-352, Apr 5, 2013 Critical Infrastructure Protection – DHS Efforts to Assess Chemical Security Risk and Gather Feedback on Facility Outreach Can Be Strengthened, GAO-13-353, Apr 5, 2013 Management Report – Improvements Needed in SEC’s Internal Controls and Accounting… Continue Reading
BLS – Employment Situation Summary, March 2013
News release: “Nonfarm payroll employment edged up in March (+88,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 7.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment grew in professional and business services and in health care but declined in retail trade. Household Survey Data – Both the number of unemployed persons, at… Continue Reading
NOAA – New technology will enable scientists to forecast patterns of whale traffic in the Pacific
News release: “The waters off the coast of California are heavily trafficked, not only by ships, but also by those other seagoing behemoths, the great whales. Blue, fin, humpback and gray whales all migrate up and down the West Coast. When whales and ships come into contact, however, the results can be fatal. Ship strikes… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Foreclosure Review, Inter-Agency Info Sharing, Political Intelligence
Foreclosure Review – Lessons Learned Could Enhance Continuing Reviews and Activities under Amended Consent Orders, GAO-13-277, Mar 26, 2013: “Complexity of the reviews, overly broad guidance, and limited monitoring for consistency impeded the ability of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal… Continue Reading
