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Daily Archives: July 9, 2015

The Beauty of Ivy: When Inequality Meets Equality

Puaschunder, Julia M., The Beauty of Ivy: When Inequality Meets Equality (July 7, 2015). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2627882

“Thomas Piketty’s (2014) Capital in the 21st Century revolutionized economic thoughts on inequality. Started by the 2008/09 World Financial Crisis and cumulated in the subsequent Occupy movement, attention to rising inequality regarding economic wage, opportunity and wealth led to advocacy for a more equal society. Innovatively, this article argues for a mixture of equality and inequality within a system holding value when access to opportunities to transfer implicit wealth is distributed merit-based. By the example of Ivy League educational institutions but also elaborating on social environments and interaction networks, a novel economic wealth transfer model is proposed. Within an economic system, dyads of unequal crystallized value based on heritage (e.g., royal families, legacy admits) and merit-based equality represented by offspring from families with underprivileged backgrounds, whose outperforming ambition, fluid intelligence and drive may lead to fruitful social interactions and beneficial wealth transfers, may create beneficial economic outcomes. On the societal level, within networks favorable environments may serve as transformation hubs if entered merit-based by underprivileged families. While presenting a preliminary idea of an economic model of value transfer between equality and inequality, the article outlines a blatant research gap on information about the direct transactions and interactions between equality and inequality representing agents within societal networks. The article concludes with giving hope in Piketty’s outlook of rising inequality by showing the economic merits of inequality when paying attention to merit-based distributed value transfer opportunities.”

Open Access Law Reviews and Commentary MetaSearch

Via Lyonette Louis-Jacques, thanks to the work of Annette Demers – we all have access to this Open Access Law Reviews and Legal Commentary Meta Search which searches sites that include the following: BePress Law Commons Network BePress Law School Institutional Repositories Centre d’accès a l’information juridique (CAIJ) Cornell Law School Working Papers Series Directory… Continue Reading

Hacking of federal personnel data called “treasure trove of information”

Washington Post, Ellen Nakashima: “The massive hack last year of the Office of Personnel Management’s system containing security clearance information affected 21.5 million people, including current and former employees, contractors and their families and friends, officials said Thursday. That is in addition to a separate hack – also last year — of OPM’s personnel database… Continue Reading

Armed police in England, Wales only fired weapons twice during 14,864 operations in 2013-14

Police use of firearms statistics, England and Wales: financial year ending 31 March 2014:  “This release contains statistics on police use of firearms across England and Wales in the year ending March 2014. It details the total number of: police firearms’ operations (operations in which firearms were authorised) police firearms’ operations involving Armed Response Vehicles… Continue Reading

Understanding the Long-Term Budget Outlook

CBO Director Keith Hall testifies on the long-term budget outlook before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, July 9, 2015: “The long-term outlook for the federal budget has changed little since last year, according to CBO’s projections. If current laws remained generally unchanged in the future, federal debt held by… Continue Reading

GAO Reports – Afghanistan, Buy Indian Act, Debt Limit, Diplomatic Security, FEMA, International Food Assistance

Afghanistan: Embassy Construction Cost and Schedule Have Increased, and Further Facilities Planning Is Needed, GAO-15-755T: Published: Jul 9, 2015. Publicly Released: Jul 9, 2015. Buy Indian Act: Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service Need Greater Insight into Implementation at Regional Offices, GAO-15-588: Published: Jul 9, 2015. Publicly Released: Jul 9, 2015. Debt Limit:… Continue Reading