Italian Sovereign Spreads: Their Determinants and Pass-through to Bank Funding Costs and Lending Conditions, by Edda Zoli, April 03, 2013 “Volatility in Italian sovereign spreads has increased since mid-2011. This paper finds that news on the euro area debt crisis and country specific events were important drivers of sovereign spreads. Movements in sovereign spreads affect… Continue Reading
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Author Archives: Sabrina I. Pacifici
Firefox getting smarter about third-party cookies
Via Firefox Aurora Notes – Firefox getting smarter about third-party cookies: “On Friday, Mozilla released a Firefox patch into its Nightly channel that changes how cookies from third party companies function. Users of this build of Firefox must directly interact with a site or company for a cookie to be installed on their machine. The… Continue Reading
EU Data Protection Policies Challenge Google Privacy Policy
PCWorld: “Six European data protection authorities will conduct formal investigations of Google’s privacy policy after the company repeatedly rejected their requests that it reverse changes it made to the policy last March. Data protection authorities in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K. have resolved to conduct investigations or inspections of Google’s privacy… Continue Reading
EPIC Supports Public Mark Up for Controversial Cyber Security Bill
“EPIC joined a letter signed by a coalition of privacy and civil liberty organizations to urge the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to open the markup process of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) to the public. CISPA suspends privacy safeguards so that companies can disclose vast amounts of customer and client… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports: Border Security, Critical Infrastructure Protection, SEC's Internal Controls
Border Security – Partnership Agreements and Enhanced Oversight Could Strengthen Coordination of Efforts on Indian Reservations, GAO-13-352, Apr 5, 2013 Critical Infrastructure Protection – DHS Efforts to Assess Chemical Security Risk and Gather Feedback on Facility Outreach Can Be Strengthened, GAO-13-353, Apr 5, 2013 Management Report – Improvements Needed in SEC’s Internal Controls and Accounting… Continue Reading
BLS – Employment Situation Summary, March 2013
News release: “Nonfarm payroll employment edged up in March (+88,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 7.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment grew in professional and business services and in health care but declined in retail trade. Household Survey Data – Both the number of unemployed persons, at… Continue Reading
NOAA – New technology will enable scientists to forecast patterns of whale traffic in the Pacific
News release: “The waters off the coast of California are heavily trafficked, not only by ships, but also by those other seagoing behemoths, the great whales. Blue, fin, humpback and gray whales all migrate up and down the West Coast. When whales and ships come into contact, however, the results can be fatal. Ship strikes… Continue Reading
New GAO Reports – Foreclosure Review, Inter-Agency Info Sharing, Political Intelligence
Foreclosure Review – Lessons Learned Could Enhance Continuing Reviews and Activities under Amended Consent Orders, GAO-13-277, Mar 26, 2013: “Complexity of the reviews, overly broad guidance, and limited monitoring for consistency impeded the ability of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal… Continue Reading
CDC Vital Signs – Preventing Repeat Teen Births
April 2013 – Preventing Repeat Teen Births: “Although teen birth rates have been falling for the last two decades, more than 365,000 teens, ages 1519, gave birth in 2010. Teen pregnancy and childbearing can carry high health, emotional, social, and financial costs for both teen mothers and their children. Teen mothers want to do their… Continue Reading
Commentary / Pew – The First Cell Phone Call
Commentary: Mobile The First Cell Phone Call: Excerpt from Networked: The New Social Operating System by Joanna Brenner, Apr 3, 2013 “April 3, 1973 (40 years ago today): The first cell phone call was made on a prototype of what would become the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x (http://qz.com/70309/the-first-mobile-phone-call-was-made-40-years-ago-today/), by Martin Cooper. Fast forward to April 3,… Continue Reading
EPIC: EU Takes Action Against Google for Privacy Policy Meltdown
EPIC: “Data protection agencies in six European countries have announced enforcement actions against Google. The agencies acted after Google ignored recommendations to comply with European data protection law. “It is now up to each national data protection authority to carry out further investigations according to the provisions of its national law transposing European legislation,” the… Continue Reading
NOAA, partners: Thin, low Arctic clouds played an important role in the massive 2012 Greenland ice melt
News release: “Clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were just right for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point, according to a new study by scientists at NOAA and the Universities of Wisconsin, Idaho and Colorado. The study, published today in Nature, found that thin, low-lying clouds allowed the suns energy… Continue Reading
