“The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $43.4 billion in December, up $1.1 billion from $42.2 billion in November, revised. December exports were $181.5 billion, $0.5 billion less than November exports. December imports were $224.9 billion, up $0.6 billion from November. The December increase in the goods and services deficit reflected an increase in the goods deficit of $1.3 billion to $62.5 billion and an increase in the services surplus of $0.1 billion to $ 19.2 billion…”
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Daily Archives: February 5, 2016
Downloadable Housing Market Data From Redfin
Via Redfin: “Redfin is a real estate brokerage, which means we have direct access to data from local multiple listing services, as well as insight from our real estate agents across the country. That’s why we’re able to give you the earliest and most reliable data on the state of the housing market. We publish… Continue Reading
Twitter – Combating Violent Extremism
Twitter news release: “Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups. We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service. As the nature of the… Continue Reading
Gallup – No-Managers Organizational Approach Doesn’t Work – Focusing on employee strengths works
Brandon Rigoni and Bailey Nelson, Business Journal February 5, 2016 – “Zappos may have discovered that employees need managers after all. The online shoe and clothing retailer’s holacracy management system doesn’t appear to be working. According to a recent New York Times article, Zappos continues to “hemorrhage employees” as a result of the companywide implementation… Continue Reading
By the Numbers: The Costs of War and Peace in the Middle East
World Bank – By the Numbers: The Costs of War and Peace in the Middle East – Five years of war in Syria and spillovers to neighboring countries have cost an estimated $35 billion in output, equivalent to Syria’s GDP in 2007. A new report examines how civil wars are affecting the economies of the… Continue Reading
Asymmetric Naivete: Beliefs About Self-Control
Fedyk, Anastassia, Asymmetric Naivete: Beliefs About Self-Control (February 3, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2727499 “The issue of people’s beliefs regarding their own and others’ present-bias is pivotal in studying interactions between multiple present-biased individuals. While several studies document individuals’ naivete about their own present-bias, beliefs regarding others remain unexplored. This paper investigates beliefs… Continue Reading
Report Explores the Use of Social Tools to Improve Interagency Collaboration
IBM Center for Business of Government – “This report is intended for an audience beyond the U.S. Intelligence Community—senior managers in government, their advisors and students of government performance who are interested in the progress of collaboration in a difficult environment. This week, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a new report… Continue Reading
Negotiations for UK wiretap order access to US social media
Washington Post: “If U.S. and British negotiators have their way, MI5, the British domestic security service, could one day go directly to American companies like Facebook or Google with a wiretap order for the online chats of British suspects in a counterterrorism investigation. The transatlantic allies have quietly begun negotiations this month on an agreement… Continue Reading
Independent Voices – historic online searchable alternative press database
“Independent Voices chronicles the transformative decades of the 60s, 70s and 80s through the lens of an independent alternative press. Consolidated for the first time, Independent Voices provides over 1,000 titles from the special collections of dozens of libraries. Independent Voices provides easy access to the powerful voices of feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native… Continue Reading
