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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici

BLS Occupational Employment Statistics

“The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program produces employment and wage estimates annually for over 800 occupations. These estimates are available for the nation as a whole, for individual States, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas; national occupational estimates for specific industries are also available. The May 2013 Occupational Employment Statistics data were released on April 1, 2014 and… Continue Reading

Status Update: Encryption at Yahoo

By Alex Stamos, Chief Information Security Officer: “When I joined Yahoo four weeks ago, we were in the middle of a massive project to protect our users and their data through the deployment of encryption technologies as we discussed in our November 2013 Tumblr. So today, we’re updating you on our progress: Traffic moving between Yahoo data… Continue Reading

Why Fostering a Culture of Compassion in the Workplace Matters

Knowledge@Wharton – April 2, 2014: “For some employees, a typical day at the office might begin with a barrage of work-related questions from impatient colleagues who have been awaiting their arrival. For others, it might start off with a series of cheerful greetings from co-workers, questions about how their family members are doing or perhaps an… Continue Reading

Financial Stability Policies for Shadow Banking

Tobias Adrian, Staff Report No. 664, February 2014: “This paper explores financial stability policies for the shadow banking system. I tie policy options to economic mechanisms for shadow banking that have been documented in the literature. I then illustrate the role of shadow bank policies using three examples: agency mortgage real estate investment trusts, leveraged lending, and captive… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Information Security, Information Technology, Missile Defense, VA Health Care

INFORMATION SECURITY: Federal Agencies Need to Enhance Responses to Data Breaches, GAO-14-487T: Published: Apr 2, 2014. Publicly Released: Apr 2, 2014. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: IRS Needs to Improve the Reliability and Transparency of Reported Investment Information, GAO-14-298: Published: Apr 2, 2014. Publicly Released: Apr 2, 2014. MISSILE DEFENSE: Mixed Progress in Achieving Acquisition Goals and Improving Accountability, GAO-14-481T: Published: Apr 2, 2014. Publicly Released:… Continue Reading

Supreme Court’s 5-4 Ruling on Campaign Finance

McCutcheon v FEC. Apppeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 12-536. Argued October 8, 2013 – Decided April 2, 2014. “The Government has a strong interest, no less critical to our democratic system, in combatting corruption and its appearance. We have, however, held that this interest must be limited to a… Continue Reading

LIBOR: Origins, Economics, Crisis, Scandal, and Reform

David Hou, David Skeie – Staff Report No. 667 – March 2014 “The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a widely used indicator of funding conditions in the interbank market. As of 2013, LIBOR underpins more than $300 trillion of financial contracts, including swaps and futures, in addition to trillions more in variable-rate mortgage and student loans. LIBOR’s… Continue Reading

Obama’s intel czar confirms targeting U.S. communications

National Journal – How the NSA Used a ‘Loophole’ to Spy on Americans: “Technology Correspondent Brendan Sasso reports that Obama’s intel czar confirmed that they’re targeting U.S. communications: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gives the NSA broad power to listen in on phone calls and access emails. But the law covers only non-Americans located outside of… Continue Reading

Structural Asymmetries at the Roots of the Eurozone Crisis: What’s New for Industrial Policy in the EU?

Botta, Alberto, Structural Asymmetries at the Roots of the Eurozone Crisis: What’s New for Industrial Policy in the EU? (March 31, 2014). Levy Economics Institute, Working Papers Series No. 794. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2418530 “In this paper, we analyze and try to measure productive and technological asymmetries between central and peripheral economies in the eurozone.… Continue Reading

Do Financial Knowledge, Behavior, and Well-Being Differ by Gender?

Via the Urban Institute: Brett Theodos, Emma Kalish, Signe-Mary McKernan, Caroline Ratcliffe: “Using the National Financial Capability Survey, we examine differences among men and women in financial knowledge, behavior, and well-being. We find that women are less financially knowledgeable than men. Women are less willing than men to take financial risks and have more credit cards than men. However,… Continue Reading

Towers Watson – Capturing Meaningful Employee Opinion Data

“Today’s business leaders are inundated with a vast ongoing flow of information. Technological advances allow us to track financial results, customer behavior and operational performance on an up-to-the-minute basis. It is therefore only natural for leaders to expect that all business-relevant information — including employee opinion — should be gathered and reported on an equally… Continue Reading