“The Center for Microeconomic Data’s latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit reveals that total household debt increased by 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2016, rising $226 billion to reach $12.58 trillion, only 99 billion shy of its 2008 third quarter peak. Balances increased across all debt products, with a 1.6% increase in… Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: March 2017
GAO – US Gov’t Procurement – More Opportunities to Foreign Firms Than Other Countries
Government Procurement: United States Reported Opening More Opportunities to Foreign Firms Than Other Countries, but Better Data Are Needed, GAO-17-168: Published: Feb 9, 2017. Publicly Released: Mar 13, 2017. “The United States participates with 57 other countries in trade agreements that allow foreign firms to compete for government business. We found that the United States… Continue Reading
Forbes – The Massive Cost Of America’s Crumbling Infrastructure [Infographic]
Niall McCarthy – Forbes: “One of President Trump’s key aims during his time in office is overhauling and revitalizing America’s potholed roads, disheveled railways and creaking bridges. Illinois and Connecticut have the worst roads in the nation (73 percent of roads in each state are in poor or mediocre condition) while according to the government,… Continue Reading
OpenSecrets – Foreign Lobby Watch
Center for Responsive Politics – ‘Use our new FARA search tool…to look up the lobbyists registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the foreign interests they represent, and their meetings and other contacts with government officials. Please be patient — this search is slower than most on our site; we are working on that. See… Continue Reading
CBO Health Score – 14 million more uninsured next year under GOP plan
Washington Post – Analysis underscores concerns about dramatic loss in health coverage – “The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said 24 million fewer Americans would have insurance by 2026, and also predicts $337 billion in deficit reduction over the same period. The projected loss in coverage potentially contradicts President Trump’s vow that health-care reform would provide… Continue Reading
The Economist – Why Europeans are less eager consumers of online ranting than Americans
Perhaps because they trust the mainstream media more – “…But in other ways Europe is less suited to internet-based populism than America. Enthusiasm for social media is related to scepticism towards traditional media, says Cornelius Puschmann of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute, a Berlin-based think-tank—and Americans have plenty of both. In 2016, 16% of American… Continue Reading
LC Exhibition – The Red Book of Carl G. Jung: Its Origins and Influence
“Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) created the Red Book, an account of what he called his “confrontation with the unconscious” in the first decades of the twentieth century. The Red Book contains the raw material from which Jung refined his distinctive theories and concepts. Until the publication of a facsimile edition of the Red… Continue Reading
What Happened to Global Banking after the Crisis?
Schoenmaker, Dirk, What Happened to Global Banking after the Crisis? (March 9, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2930568 “The global financial crisis led to an alleged end of global banking. However, we find that reports on the end of global banking are premature. Investigating the global systemically important banks, we identify a strong composition effect: a… Continue Reading
WaPo – Trump budget goal to implement record slash of federal programs and boost military
Trump budget expected to seek historic contraction of federal workforce – “The president is expected to propose a budget this week that includes cuts in the federal government of a magnitude not seen since the end of World War II, a plan expected to prioritize military and homeland security spending while slashing budgets for a… Continue Reading
Tim Berners-Lee: I invented the web. Here are three things we need to change to save it
theguardian – Sir Tim Berners-Lee – “Today marks 28 years since I submitted my original proposal for the worldwide web. I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries. In many ways, the web has lived up to this… Continue Reading
Spring into cycling – Mapzen’s new bike map
Mapzen Blog – “Sometimes finding a bike route can be as hard as biking up a hill. Our new bike overlay for Walkabout shows the way, and is enabled by fantastic bike data in OpenStreetMap and Tangram’s shader magic. If you’ve ever edited cycleway tags in OpenStreetMap, this map is dedicated to you.” Coverage is… Continue Reading
Number of women leaders around world still small group
Pew – Most of the world’s nations have never had a female leader – “…the number of countries that have had a female leader continues to expand. But the list is still relatively short, and even when women have made it to power, they’ve rarely led for a long time. Fifty-six of the 146 nations (38%)… Continue Reading
