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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici

CDC – Progress on Childhood Obesity

Vital Signs: Obesity Among Low-Income, Preschool-Aged Children — United States, 2008–2011. August 6, 2013 – Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) “Background: The prevalence of obesity among U.S. preschoolers has doubled in recent decades. Childhood obesity increases the risk for adult obesity and is associated with negative health consequences. Trends in the state-specific prevalence of… Continue Reading

Credit Crunches and Credit Allocation in a Model of Entrepreneurship

Bassetto, Marco, Cagetti, Marco and De Nardi, Mariacristina, Credit Crunches and Credit Allocation in a Model of Entrepreneurship (July 31, 2013). FRB of Chicago Working Paper No. 2013-06. “We study the effects of credit shocks in a model with heterogeneous entrepreneurs, financing constraints, and a realistic firm size distribution. As entrepreneurial firms can grow only… Continue Reading

Google – In-depth articles in search results

Posted by Pandu Nayak, Member of Google Technical Staff: “Users often turn to Google to answer a quick question, but research suggests that up to 10% of users’ daily information needs involve learning about a broad topic. That’s why today we’re introducing new search results to help users find in-depth articles. These results are ranked… Continue Reading

Historic Treaty Adopted, Boosts Access to Books for Visually Impaired Persons Worldwide

News release: “International negotiators meeting under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted [on June 27, 2013] a landmark new treaty that boosts access to books for the benefit of hundreds of millions of people who are blind, visually impaired and print-disabled. The treaty, approved after more than a week of intense… Continue Reading

The MF Global Bankruptcy, Missing Customer Funds, and Proposals for Reform

CRS – The MF Global Bankruptcy, Missing Customer Funds, and Proposals for Reform, Rena S. Miller – Analyst in Financial Economics, August 1, 2013 “On October 31, 2011, MF Global, a large brokerage firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a broker-dealer and with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a… Continue Reading

DOJ Sues BofA for Defrauding Investors in Connection with Sale of Over $850M of Residential MBS

News release: “Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Anne M. Tompkins announced today that the United States has filed a civil lawsuit against Bank of America Corporation and certain of its affiliates, including Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith f/k/a/ Banc of America Securities, LLC, Bank of… Continue Reading

SEC Report Relating to the Use of Data Collected from Private Fund Systemic Risk Reports

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Annual Staff Report Relating to the Use of Data Collected from Private Fund Systemic Risk Reports, July 24, 2013 “The Dodd-Frank Act provided the Commission with new authority, and directed it to use this authority to require registered investment advisers to maintain records and file reports regarding the hedge funds,… Continue Reading

NYT – TSA Expands Duties Beyond Airport Security

Ron Nixon: “With little fanfare, the agency best known for airport screenings has vastly expanded its reach to sporting events, music festivals, rodeos, highway weigh stations and train terminals. Not everyone is happy. T.S.A. and local law enforcement officials say the teams are a critical component of the nation’s counterterrorism efforts, but some members of… Continue Reading

McKinsey – Five opportunities for US growth and renewal

Game changers: Five opportunities for US growth and renewal – by Susan Lund, James Manyika, Scott Nyquist, Lenny Mendonca, and Sreenivas Ramaswa. July 2013 “Four years after the official end of the Great Recession, US economic growth remains lackluster. But there is more at work here than simply the business cycle: strains in the labor market… Continue Reading

UK Monetary policy trade-offs and forward guidance

News release: “At its meeting on 1 August, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to provide some explicit guidance regarding the future conduct of monetary policy. The Committee intends at a minimum to maintain the current highly stimulative stance of monetary policy until economic slack has been substantially reduced, provided this does… Continue Reading