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Monthly Archives: November 2013

New GAO Reports – DHS, Native American Veterans, Small Business Innovation Research

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY – Opportunities Exist to Enhance Visibility over Collaborative Field Mechanisms, GAO-13-734, Sep 27, 2013 NATIVE AMERICAN VETERANS – DOL Needs a Clear Plan to Improve Employment and Training Services on Tribal Lands, GAO-13-664, Sep 26, 2013 SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH – Data Rights Protections, GAO-14-116R, Nov 4, 2013 Continue Reading

CDC – Hypertension Among Adults in the United States

Hypertension Among Adults in the United States: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–2012 – National Center for Health Statistics, October 2013 ‘The age-adjusted prevalence of hypertension among U.S. adults aged 18 and over was 29.1% in 2011–2012, similar to the prevalence in 2009–2010. The prevalence of hypertension was similar for men and women at… Continue Reading

The Legislative Attack on American Wages and Labor Standards, 2011–2012

Economic Policy Institute: The Legislative Attack on American Wages and Labor Standards, 2011–2012 – By Gordon Lafer | October 31, 2013 “Over the past two years, state legislators across the country have launched an unprecedented series of initiatives aimed at lowering labor standards, weakening unions, and eroding workplace protections for both union and non-union workers. This… Continue Reading

The October 2013 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices

“The October 2013 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices addressed changes in the standards and terms on, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months. Domestic banks, on balance, reported having eased their lending standards and having experienced little change in loan demand, on average, over… Continue Reading

How do individual sectors respond to macroeconomic shocks? A structural dynamic factor approach applied to Swiss data

How do individual sectors respond to macroeconomic shocks? A structural dynamic factor approach applied to Swiss data – Gregor Baurle and Elizabeth Steiner, September 5, 2013 “Surprisingly little empirical work is available on how individual production sectors respond to macroeconomic shocks. The model developed in this paper quantifies the impact of monetary policy, exchange rates… Continue Reading

The Effects of Policy Guidance on Perceptions of the Fed’s Reaction Function

Katherine Femia, Steven Friedman, and Brian Sack. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, November 1, 2013. “In the past few years, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has been using forward guidance about the federal funds rate in a more explicit way than ever before. This paper explores the market reaction to the forward guidance, with particular focus… Continue Reading

Is an Aging Workforce Less Productive? No!

Brookings – Gary Burtless: “As the population grows older an increasing percentage of the workforce will be past age 60. Older workers are ordinarily thought to be less productive than younger ones, raising the question of whether an aging workforce will also be a less productive one. In new research funded by the Social Security… Continue Reading

CRS – Sovereign Debt in Advanced Economies

Sovereign Debt in Advanced Economies:  Overview and Issues for Congress, Rebecca M. Nelson – Analyst in International Trade and Finance. October 28, 2013 “High levels of sovereign debt in advanced economies are of interest to Congress for a number of reasons. First, the IMF has identified advanced economy debt as a possible threat to the global economic recovery, as countries… Continue Reading

NIST Releases Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework

Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity – Executive Order 13636 – Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework – November 1, 2013 [snipped] “The Framework Core is a set of cybersecurity activities and references that are common across critical infrastructure sectors organized around particular outcomes. The Core presents standards and best practices in a manner that allows for communication of cybersecurity risk across the organization… Continue Reading

The Truth About Wireless Phones and the Do-Not-Call List

FCC FAQ: “You may be one of many consumers who have received emails saying you’re about to be assaulted by unwanted telemarketing calls to your wireless phone. Rest assured that placing telemarketing calls to wireless phones is – and  always has been – illegal in most cases.  Contrary to what some email campaigns are saying,… Continue Reading

Stanford Medical School – Seeking a Path to Health on Rosebud Indian Reservation

BY TRACIE WHITE – ILLUSTRATIONS BY JEFFREY DECOSTER “Cursed with some of the highest suicide rates in the country, tribal leaders declared a state of emergency here back in 2007 making headlines in The New York Times. But today, six years later, not much has changed. Across the United States, American Indian and Alaska Native youth ages… Continue Reading

NYT – No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming N.S.A.

Via Scott Shane this investigative report – “From thousands of classified documents, the National Security Agency emerges as an electronic omnivore of staggering capabilities, eavesdropping and hacking its way around the world to strip governments and other targets of their secrets, all the while enforcing the utmost secrecy about its own operations. It spies routinely on friends as well as… Continue Reading