Wired: “[Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek’s] full arsenal includes functions that at lower speeds fully kill the engine, abruptly engage the brakes, or disable them altogether. The most disturbing maneuver came when they cut the Jeep’s brakes, leaving me frantically pumping the pedal as the 2-ton SUV slid uncontrollably into a ditch. The researchers say… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: July 2015
Laser playing role in repairing aging US infrastructure
Bloomberg – With 65 percent of U.S. roads rated in less than good condition, cities and states no longer leave funding decisions to intuition and influence: “Instead, they use data vacuumed up by arachnid-armed “spider vans” with bulbous cameras and global-positioning equipment protruding from roofs. Six computers inside Phoenix’s four-ton vehicle stored data for engineers… Continue Reading
Millions of Children Living in High-Poverty Areas
Annie E. Casey Foundation: “The 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book reports that 14% of children — 10.1 million total — are now living in areas of concentrated poverty. These numbers represent an unsettling trend: An increase of nearly 4 million more children living in high-poverty areas since 2000. State-by-state, the percentage of children living in… Continue Reading
CFPB Consumer Complaint Database
“The Consumer Complaint Database is a collection of 420,678 complaints, on a range of consumer financial products and services, sent to nearly 3,000 companies for response. We don’t verify all the facts alleged in these complaints, but we take steps to confirm a commercial relationship between the consumer and the company. See publication criteria. Since… Continue Reading
Big Spending by Google Facebook and Amazon on Federal Lobbying
ConsumerWatchDog: “Google trimmed its spending on lobbying in the second quarter by 13 percent to $4.62 million, according to disclosure forms filed today with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, but still significantly outspent other tech giants. Google spent $5.29 million on federal lobbying in the second quarter of 2014 and $5.1 million… Continue Reading
EU structural financial indicators: 2014
Decline in number of bank branches continues in most EU countries Number of bank employees down by about 74,000 to around 2.8 million Share of assets of five largest institutions at national level varies from 32% to 94% “The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a comprehensive dataset of structural financial indicators for the banking… Continue Reading
Art and the History of Environmental Law
“Schorr, David, Art and the History of Environmental Law (July 19, 2015). Critical Analysis of Law (2015, Forthcoming). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2633175 “This article is an initial exploration of what the history of environmental law can learn from the arts. Looking at visual art (mainly paintings, with some drawings, prints, photographs, and poster… Continue Reading
Feds new rule requires biggest banking companies to increase capital
“The Federal Reserve Board on Monday approved a final rule requiring the largest, most systemically important U.S. bank holding companies to further strengthen their capital positions. Under the rule, a firm that is identified as a global systemically important bank holding company, or GSIB, will have to hold additional capital to increase its resiliency in… Continue Reading
General guide to account opening – consultative document
Bank for International Settlements: “The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has today issued for public consultation a revised version of the General guide to account opening, which was first published in February 2003. Most bank-customer relationships start with an account opening procedure. The customer information collected and verified at this stage is crucial in order… Continue Reading
HHS unveils first compendium of resources for health emergencies
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today launched the first online collection of the federal resources and capabilities available to mitigate the health impacts of emergencies. The HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) sponsored the HHS Response and Recovery Resources Compendium to aid state, tribal, territorial, local officials… Continue Reading
Guidelines for identifying and dealing with weak banks
Bank for International Settlements: “The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today published the final Guidelines for identifying and dealing with weak banks. Weak banks are a worldwide phenomenon. They pose a continuing challenge for bank supervisors and resolution authorities in all countries, regardless of the political structure, financial system and level of economic and technical… Continue Reading
China will soon surpass South Korea, Russia, and Japan in nuclear generating capacity
EIA – “Nuclear power currently makes up slightly more than 2% of China’s total power generation. However, the Chinese government has a stated goal to provide at least 15% of overall energy consumption by 2020 (increasing to 20% by 2030) from non-fossil fuel sources, including nuclear, hydroelectricity and other renewable sources. To help achieve this… Continue Reading
