McCutcheon v FEC. Apppeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 12-536. Argued October 8, 2013 – Decided April 2, 2014. “The Government has a strong interest, no less critical to our democratic system, in combatting corruption and its appearance. We have, however, held that this interest must be limited to a… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: April 2014
LIBOR: Origins, Economics, Crisis, Scandal, and Reform
David Hou, David Skeie – Staff Report No. 667 – March 2014 “The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a widely used indicator of funding conditions in the interbank market. As of 2013, LIBOR underpins more than $300 trillion of financial contracts, including swaps and futures, in addition to trillions more in variable-rate mortgage and student loans. LIBOR’s… Continue Reading
Obama’s intel czar confirms targeting U.S. communications
National Journal – How the NSA Used a ‘Loophole’ to Spy on Americans: “Technology Correspondent Brendan Sasso reports that Obama’s intel czar confirmed that they’re targeting U.S. communications: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gives the NSA broad power to listen in on phone calls and access emails. But the law covers only non-Americans located outside of… Continue Reading
Structural Asymmetries at the Roots of the Eurozone Crisis: What’s New for Industrial Policy in the EU?
Botta, Alberto, Structural Asymmetries at the Roots of the Eurozone Crisis: What’s New for Industrial Policy in the EU? (March 31, 2014). Levy Economics Institute, Working Papers Series No. 794. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2418530 “In this paper, we analyze and try to measure productive and technological asymmetries between central and peripheral economies in the eurozone.… Continue Reading
Do Financial Knowledge, Behavior, and Well-Being Differ by Gender?
Via the Urban Institute: Brett Theodos, Emma Kalish, Signe-Mary McKernan, Caroline Ratcliffe: “Using the National Financial Capability Survey, we examine differences among men and women in financial knowledge, behavior, and well-being. We find that women are less financially knowledgeable than men. Women are less willing than men to take financial risks and have more credit cards than men. However,… Continue Reading
Towers Watson – Capturing Meaningful Employee Opinion Data
“Today’s business leaders are inundated with a vast ongoing flow of information. Technological advances allow us to track financial results, customer behavior and operational performance on an up-to-the-minute basis. It is therefore only natural for leaders to expect that all business-relevant information — including employee opinion — should be gathered and reported on an equally… Continue Reading
Crude Oil Causes Developmental Abnormalities in Large Marine Fish
NOAA: Crude oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster causes severe defects in the developing hearts of bluefin and yellowfin tunas, according to a new study by a team of NOAA and academic scientists. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, show how… Continue Reading
EPIC- Judge Approves Controversial Settlement Over Objection of Consumer Privacy Organizations
“A federal judge in California has approved a settlement agreement in a lawsuit against Google that will allow the company to continue to sell data about users’ browsing history to advertisers. EPIC and several other consumer privacy organizations objected to the settlement, stating that it requires no change in Google’s business practices and provides no benefit to those… Continue Reading
Developing a 21st Century Global Library for Mathematics Research
“Like most areas of scholarship, mathematics is a cumulative discipline: new research is reliant on well-organized and well-curated literature. Because of the precise definitions and structures within mathematics, today’s information technologies and machine learning tools provide an opportunity to further organize and enhance discoverability of the mathematics literature in new ways, with the potential to… Continue Reading
McKinsey – The disruptive potential of solar power
April 2014 | by David Frankel, Kenneth Ostrowski, and Dickon Pinner: “The economics of solar power are improving. It is a far more cost-competitive power source today than it was in the mid-2000s, when installations and manufacturing were taking off, subsidies were generous, and investors were piling in. Consumption continued rising even as the MAC Global Solar Energy… Continue Reading
EIA – South Korea Country Analysis Brief
“South Korea relies on imports to meet about 97% of its energy demand as a result of insufficient domestic resources, and the country is one of the world’s leading energy importers. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that South Korea was the world’s ninth-largest energy consumer in 2011. Korea is one of the top energy… Continue Reading
Census – Race Reporting Among Hispanics: 2010
“This working paper shows how Hispanics reported their race on the 2010 Census questionnaire, with a unique emphasis on Hispanics who self-reported their origin. The paper provides an overall demographic description of the Latino population and examines different responses to the race question by selected demographic characteristics and geography.” Continue Reading
