“Although the U.S. economy is recovering and appears to be on stable ground compared with other parts of the world, there’s still a lot of debate over how to best secure the future for American workers. Some Democrats have pushed for raising the federal minimum wage, and the Obama administration has proposed new overtime rules… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: September 2015
Millions of Americans experience poverty outside safety nets
Selling plasma to survive: how over a million American families live on $2 per day by Dylan Matthews on September 2, 2015 – “In early 2011, 1.5 million American households, including 3 million children, were living on less than $2 in cash per person per day. Half of those households didn’t have access to in-kind… Continue Reading
Remarks by the President at the GLACIER Conference Anchorage, AK
President Obama, Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center Anchorage, Alaska – September 1, 2015: “…Our understanding of climate change advances each day. Human activity is disrupting the climate, in many ways faster than we previously thought. The science is stark. It is sharpening. It proves that this once-distant threat is now very much in the present. … Continue Reading
Introducing Facebook and Summit’s K-12 Education Project
News release – Chris Cox, Chief Product Officer, Facebook , September 5 2015 – “Over the past year, a small team of Facebook engineers has been working together with a group of local educators on an exciting project — to create a classroom experience that’s centered around students’ ambitions that takes advantage of all the… Continue Reading
WSJ – Startups Put Data in Farmers’ Hands
Big data moves into the collective sphere of farmers who use it now directly to plan and manage all phases of crop production – WSJ.com: “Farmers and entrepreneurs are starting to compete with agribusiness giants over the newest commodity being harvested on U.S. farms—one measured in bytes, not bushels. Startups including Farmobile LLC, Granular Inc.… Continue Reading
Household Debt and Business Cycles Worldwide
Mian, Atif R. and Sufi, Amir and Verner, Emil, Household Debt and Business Cycles Worldwide (September 3, 2015). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2655804 “A rise in the household debt to GDP ratio predicts lower output growth and higher unemployment over the medium-run, contrary to standard macroeconomic models. GDP forecasts by the IMF and OECD… Continue Reading
Trends in Environmental Law Scholarship 2008-2014
Breggin, Linda K. and Brock, Jamieson and Agre, Carke and Vandenbergh, Michael P., Trends in Environmental Law Scholarship 2008-2014 (September 3, 2015). Environmental Law Reporter, Vol. 45, No. 10731, 2015; Vanderbilt Law and Economics Research Paper No. 15-23; Vanderbilt Public Law Research Paper No. 15-22. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2655783 “This comment provides a… Continue Reading
MLS Focus: Learning in Libraries report available
“Prepared by OCLC Research, IMLS Focus: Learning in Libraries summarizes the May 2015 IMLS forum on advancing learning in libraries. The event covered a variety of topics, including participatory learning, early learning; adult education and workforce development, continuing education and professional development, and digital literacy and inclusion. The interdependent relationship between research and practice and the… Continue Reading
Mapping Immigrant America
Mapping Immigrant America – Kyle Walker, Texas Christian University – Mapping Immigrant America is a project I am working on for my upcoming talk September 19 at Dallas’s Old Red Museum, “Visualizing the Changing Landscape of US Immigration.” The map is a dot-density representation of the US immigrant population, with dots colored by immigrants’ general… Continue Reading
GAO Reports – 401(K) Plans, TARP, Capital Power Plant, Military Personnel Ethics
401(K) Plans: Clearer Regulations Could Help Plan Sponsors Choose Investments for Participants, GAO-15-578: Published: Aug 25, 2015. Publicly Released: Sep 4, 2015: “Employers who sponsor 401(k) plans report using a range of default investment types to automatically enroll employees in their plans based on each type’s design and other attributes. From 2009 through 2013, the… Continue Reading
Foundations of Financial Well-Being
Foundations of Financial Well-Being: Insights into the Role of Executive Function, Financial Socialization, and Experience-Based Learning in Childhood and Youth. Journal of Consumer Affairs – Article first published online: 11 MAR 2015. DOI: 10.1111/joca.12068 “During childhood and youth we build the foundations for financial well-being later in life, acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and personality traits… Continue Reading
Employment Situation August 2015
BLS News Release: “Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 173,000 in August, and the unemployment rate edged down to 5.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care and social assistance and in financial activities. Manufacturing and mining lost jobs. Household Survey Data – In August, the unemployment… Continue Reading
