“Ageing populations pose serious social policy and regulatory/supervisory challenges in many countries. Longevity risk – the risk of paying out on pensions and annuities for longer than anticipated – is significant when measured from a financial perspective. Longevity risk transfer markets: market structure, growth drivers and impediments, and potential risks [December 2013] is a forward-looking… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: December 2013
2013 Blawggie Awards – Tenth Edition – beSpacific is Best Law Librarian Blog
Thank you Dennis – and congratulations to all my colleagues. “Welcome to the 2013 edition of Dennis Kennedy’s annual Best of Law-related Blogging Awards, affectionately known as the “Blawggies.” The Blawggies, which honor the best law-related blogs as determined from my personal and highly-opinionated perspective, were first unleashed on an unsuspecting blogosphere in December 2004… Continue Reading
GAO – TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities
AVIATION SECURITY: TSA Should Limit Future Funding for Behavior Detection Activities, GAO-14-158T, Nov 14, 2013 “In November 2013, GAO reported that (1) peer-reviewed, published research we reviewed did not support whether nonverbal behavioral indicators can be used to reliably identify deception, (2) methodological issues limited the usefulness of DHS’s April 2011 SPOT validation study, and (3) variation… Continue Reading
Commentary – Social media: The next generation of archiving
Social media: The next generation of archiving, by John Moore: “Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have become commonplace tools for government outreach. Agencies tweet about everything from developments in medical research to public safety information. Federal Facebook pages offer a similar scope of government missives, while YouTube provides a collection of… Continue Reading
2013 Report on NASA’s Top Management and Performance Challenges
Office of Inspector General, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, December 2, 2013. “As required by the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000, this memorandum provides our views of the top management and performance challenges facing NASA for inclusion in the Agency’s fiscal year (FY) 2013 Performance and Accountability Report. In deciding whether to identify an issue as a… Continue Reading
Social Engineering and Malware in Syria: EFF and Citizen Lab’s Latest Report on the Digital Battlefield
“More than two years into the Syrian conflict, the violence continues both on the ground and in the digital realm. Just as human rights investigators and weapons inspectors search for evidence of chemical weapons, EFF, and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab have been collecting, dissecting, and documenting malicious software deployed against the Syrian opposition. Citizen Lab security… Continue Reading
FTC Report Updates Congress on the State of the National Do Not Call Registry
“The Federal Trade Commission published a biennial report to Congress focusing on the use of the Do Not Call Registry by both consumers and businesses over the past two years. The report also highlights how the FTC is responding to new technologies that have increased the number of illegal robocalls made to telephone numbers on… Continue Reading
WaPo – HealthCare.gov contract: Politics not a factor, but neither were firm’s ties to failed projects
HealthCare.gov contract: Politics not a factor, but neither were firm’s ties to failed projects – By Jerry Markon and Alice Crites [snipped] “CGI Federal, the company responsible for building the problem-plagued Web site for the Affordable Care Act, won the job because of what federal officials deemed a “technically superior” proposal, according to government documents and people… Continue Reading
Why Labor Force Participation (Usually) Increases When Unemployment Declines
Why Labor Force Participation (Usually) Increases When Unemployment Declines, by Andreas Hornstein, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Economic Quarterly, Vol. 99, No. 1, First Quarter 2013, pp.1-23 “Unemployment and labor force participation (LFP) are usually negatively correlated over the business cycle, that is, once the unemployment rate starts to decline the LFP rate starts to increase after about… Continue Reading
Saving for Retirement with Job Loss Risk
Saving for Retirement with Job Loss Risk by Borys Grochulski and Yuzhe Zhang. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Economic Quarterly, Vol. 99, No. 1, First Quarter 2013, Pages 45-81. “This article studies a tractable theoretical model of optimal consumption and saving decisions with endogenous retirement. Particular attention is paid to the impact of an increase in the risk of… Continue Reading
DNI Announces the Declassification of the Existence of Collection Activities Authorized by President Bush Shortly After Attacks of September 11, 2001
News release, December 21, 2013: “Yesterday, the Director of National Intelligence (“DNI”) announced the declassification of the existence of collection activities authorized by President George W. Bush shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Starting on October 4, 2001, President Bush authorized the Secretary of Defense to employ the capabilities of the Department of Defense,… Continue Reading
Adequacy of USSS Efforts to Identify, Mitigate, and Address Instances of Misconduct and Inappropriate Behavior (Redacted)
DHS OIG – Adequacy of USSS Efforts to Identify, Mitigate, and Address Instances of Misconduct and Inappropriate Behavior (Redacted), December 20, 2013 “We found no evidence that USSS [United States Secret Service] employees frequently engage in behaviors contrary to conduct standards or that could cause a security concern. Although some employees engaged in certain misconduct during a foreign… Continue Reading
