New York Times, David W. Dunlap: “The law firm Kaye Scholer left a lot behind when it moved this month from 425 Park Avenue, where it had been since 1957, into new quarters at 250 West 55th Street. It left behind offices that had served giants like Milton Handler, one of whose students, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: October 2014
Tuition costs of colleges and universities
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Fast Facts: “What are the trends in the cost of college education? Response: For the 2011–12 academic year, annual current dollar prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board were estimated to be $14,300 at public institutions, $37,800 at private nonprofit institutions, and $23,300 at private for-profit institutions. Between 2001–02 and 2011–12, prices… Continue Reading
Wastebook 2014: What Washington doesn’t want you to read
“Wastebook 2014 — the report Washington doesn’t want you to read —reveals the 100 most outlandish government expenditures this year, costing taxpayers billions of dollars.” The Fiscal Times – Coburn’s 2014 Wastebook: A $25 Billion Taxpayer Loss Continue Reading
U.S. Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions, 2013
U.S. ENERGY-RELATED CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS INCREASED 2.5% IN 2013 “Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) increased from 5,267 million metric tons (MMmt) in 2012 to 5,396 MMmt in 2013 (2.5%). The 2013 increase was largely the result of colder weather leading to an increase in energy intensity (energy measured in Btu per dollar of gross domestic… Continue Reading
The impact of liquidity regulation on banks
Ryan Banerjee and Hitoshi Mio, Working Papers No 470. October 2014: “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to estimate the effect of liquidity regulation on bank balance sheets. It takes advantage of the fact that not all banks were made subject to tighter liquidity regulation by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA)… Continue Reading
New GAO Report – Individual Retirement Accounts
Preliminary Information on IRA Balances Accumulated as of 2011 [Reissued on October 22, 2014]. GAO-14-878T: Published: Sep 16, 2014. Publicly Released: Sep 16, 2014. “For tax year 2011 (the most recent year available), an estimated 43 million taxpayers had individual retirement accounts (IRA) with total reported fair market value of $5.2 trillion. About 99 percent of… Continue Reading
New Environmental Report Documents Fracking’s Toxic Loophole
News release: “Despite a federal ban on the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing without a permit, several oil and gas companies are exploiting a Safe Drinking Water Act loophole pushed through by Halliburton to frack with petroleum-based products containing even more dangerous toxic chemicals than diesel. For example, a drilling company in West Texas… Continue Reading
The Unequal Mortgage Market Is No Coincidence
Michela Zonta, Center for American Progress: “Persistent racial and ethnic inequality in the mortgage market is not a coincidence. Nearly 50 years after the adoption of the Fair Housing Act, newly released federal data indicate that people of color continued to lose ground in the homeownership market in 2013. In particular, black and Hispanic households continued to… Continue Reading
IG – Lessons Learned From the Federal Reserve’s Supervision of JPMorgan Chase
The Board Should Enhance Its Supervisory Processes as a Result of Lessons Learned From the Federal Reserve’s Supervision of JPMorgan Chase & Company’s Chief Investment Office “Our report contains four findings. First, as part of its continuous monitoring activities at JPMC, FRB New York effectively identified risks related to the CIO’s trading activities and planned… Continue Reading
Enhancing Financial Stability by Improving Culture in the Financial Services Industry
William C. Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer – Remarks at the Workshop on Reforming Culture and Behavior in the Financial Services Industry, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York City, October 20, 2014. As prepared for delivery: “As I noted earlier at the start of today’s workshop, improving culture in the financial services industry is… Continue Reading
Medicare Beneficiaries Paid Nearly Half of the Costs for Outpatient Services at Critical Access Hospitals
HHS IG Report (OEI-05-12-00085), October 7, 2014 “The Critical Access Hospital (CAH) certification was created to ensure that rural beneficiaries would have access to hospital services. Medicare reimburses CAHs at 101 percent of their “reasonable costs,” rather than at the predetermined rates set by the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS). The system that Medicare uses to… Continue Reading
Government Debt Management at the Zero Lower Bound
This paper re-examines government debt management policy in light of the U.S. experience with extraordinary fiscal and monetary policies since 2008. Brookings – Robin Greenwood, Samuel G. Hanson, Joshua S. Rudolph and Lawrence H. Summers: “We first document that the Treasury’s decision to lengthen the average maturity of the debt has partially offset the Federal Reserve’s… Continue Reading
