News release: "Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 243,000 in January, and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job growth was widespread in the private sector, with large employment gains in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing. Government employment changed little over the month...The unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point in January to 8.3 percent; the rate has fallen by 0.8 point since August. The number of unemployed persons declined to 12.8 million in January."

via SEC: Facebook, Inc. Form S-1, February 1, 2012

• "We had 845 million MAUs as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 39% as compared to 608 million MAUs as of December 31, 2010.
  
• We had 483 million daily active users (DAUs) on average in December 2011, an increase of 48% as compared to 327 million DAUs in December 2010.
  
• We had more than 425 million MAUs who used Facebook mobile products in December 2011.
  
• There were more than 100 billion friend connections on Facebook as of December 31, 2011.
  
• Our users generated an average of 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day during the three months ended December 31, 2011."
  
• Reuters: "It's the year's hottest initial public offering, but some wealth managers find themselves having a hard time recommending Facebook to their clients."

Defense Logistics - Improvements Needed to Enhance Oversight of Estimated Long-term Costs for Operating and Supporting Major Weapon Systems, GAO-12-340, February 2, 2012

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke - The Economic Outlook and the Federal Budget Situation, Before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. February 2, 2012

NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities: Restoring NASA’s Technological Edge and Paving the Way for a New Era in Space, January 2012

Executive Pay and the Financial Crisis, Lucian Bebchuk, January 31, 2012

Living Well with Chronic Illness: A Call for Public Health Action, Institute of Medicine, January 31, 2012

Small Business GDP: Update 2002-2010, January 2012.

The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022. January 2012

News release: "The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today announced the first step of a Real-Estate Owned (REO) Initiative targeted to hardest-hit metropolitan areas announced in August 2011. Investors interested in participating may “pre-qualify” to establish eligibility to bid on transactions in the initial pilot phase as well as subsequent phases. The REO Initiative will allow qualified investors to purchase pools of foreclosed properties with the requirement to rent the purchased properties for a specified number of years. This rental period could provide relief for local housing markets that continue to be depressed by the volume of foreclosed properties, and provide additional rental options to certain markets. Prequalification ensures investors will have the financial capacity and operational expertise to manage properties in a way that is conducive to the stabilization of communities hard hit by the housing downturn...The pre-qualification will require those interested in receiving information regarding specific pilot transactions to meet certain minimum criteria including, but not limited to, (a) financial wherewithal to acquire the assets; (b) sufficient experience and knowledge in financial and business matters to analyze and bear the risks of the investment opportunity; and (c) agreement to keep certain information about the REO and related matters confidential. Interested investors can register at FHFA’s REO Initiative page to pre-qualify."

• International Affairs Actions to Enforce the Iran Sanctions Act and Implement Contractor Certification Requirement, GAO-12-316R, January 24, 2012
• Designing Evaluations 2012 Revision, GAO-12-208G, January 31, 2012
• International Affairs Firms Reported in Open Sources to Have Sold Iran Refined Petroleum Products Declined Since June 30, 2010, GAO-12-321R, January 24, 2012
• OPM Retirement Modernization, Progress Has Been Hindered by Longstanding Information Technology Management Weaknesses, GAO-12-430T, February 1, 2012

A Guide to the Supreme Court’s Review of the 2010 Health Care Reform Law, January 12, 2012

How Did the Great Recession Affect New York State’s Public Schools? - Rajashri Chakrabarti and Elizabeth Setren

News release: "According to NOAA scientists, 2011 was a record-breaking year for climate extremes, as much of the United States faced historic levels of heat, precipitation, flooding and severe weather, while La Niña events at both ends of the year impacted weather patterns at home and around the world. NOAA’s annual analysis of U.S. and global conditions, conducted by scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, reports that the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 53.8 degrees F, 1.0 degree F above the 20th century average, making it the 23rd warmest year on record. Precipitation across the nation averaged near normal, masking record-breaking extremes in both drought and precipitation...NOAA has identified two additional events in 2011 that caused an economic impact of $1 billion or greater, bringing the total number of major billion-dollar weather and climate disasters to 14 (not including the pre-Halloween snowstorm in the Northeast, which is still being analyzed)."

NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities: Restoring NASA's Technological Edge and Paving the Way for a New Era in Space, January 2012

CRS - Border Security: Immigration Enforcement Between Ports of Entry, Marc R. Rosenblum, Specialist in Immigration Policy, January 6, 2012

Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gun-walking in Arizona, Report of the Minority Staff, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, January 2012

The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022, January 31, 2012

Treasury Bills and/or Central Bank Bills for Absorbing Surplus Liquidity: The Main Considerations, Obert Nyawata. January 2012

"Towards a positive legacy of a terrible crisis: the title of the editorial by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría sets the tone in this second annual OECD Yearbook 2012. The 168 page volume features articles by renowned guests from government, business, trade unions and civil society who join OECD experts to take stock of the crisis and explore the key questions that confront the world economy in the year ahead."

Weathering financial crises: bond markets in Asia and the Pacific, BIS Papers No 63, January 2012

Implementation of the Consumer Credit Directive: "The study examines the state and the main difficulties of the implementation of Directive 2008/48/EC on credit agreements for consumers using the examples of fourteen Member States of the
European Union. The analysis focuses on fully harmonised aspects of the Directive as well as on the provisions for which the Member States were given a wide margin of appreciation in achieving the objective of the Directive and options provided by the Directive. Furthermore, new regulations and regulations requiring interpretation are dealt with. Finally, the study analyses the regulation of credit agreements which fall outside the scope of the Directive."

"The January 2012 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices addressed changes in the supply of, and demand for, bank loans to businesses and households over the past three months. The survey included three sets of special questions: the first set asked banks about lending to firms with European exposures; the second set asked banks about changes in their lending policies on commercial real estate (CRE) loans over the past year; and the third set asked banks about their outlook for credit quality in 2012. This summary is based on responses from 56 domestic banks and 23 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks."

• Antibiotics - FDA Needs to Do More to Ensure That Drug Labels Contain Up-to-Date Information, GAO-12-218, January 31, 2012
• Department of Energy - Additional Opportunities Exist to Streamline Support Functions at NNSA and Office of Science Sites, GAO-12-255, January 31, 2012
• Homeland Defense - Continued Actions Needed to Improve Management of Air Sovereignty Alert Operations, GAO-12-311, January 31, 2012
• IRS Management - Cost Estimate for New Information Reporting System Needs to be Made More Reliable, GAO-12-59, January 31, 2012

Open Access to Scientific Information, Published 25 January 2012 | POST Notes 397, by Chandrika Nath

News release: "The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is providing public access to the newly discovered audio tape recording of conversations between various individuals in Washington and Air Force One pilots and officials on board during the flight from Dallas to Andrews Air Force Base following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The tape recording is available on the U.S. Government Printing Office’s (GPO) Federal Digital System (FDsys). This is the first time audio content is available on the system, which is a one-stop site for authentic, published Government information. GPO and NARA have a long-standing collaborative relationship in publishing the Federal Register and recently worked together to provide the public with electronic access to the Nixon grand jury testimony."

Comparing the Compensation of Federal and Private-Sector Employees, January 30, 2012

Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll Summary Report: 2010 - "This report presents data on state and local government public employment and payroll based on information collected in the 2010 Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll for the month of March and historical data collected by prior surveys and censuses of government units. Data are published in tables at the federal, state, and local levels. Tables describing state and local level activities are compiled into national, as well as individual state totals. Employment figures are available for full- and part-time workers, as well as full-time equivalent employees. Total pay amounts are also available separately for full- and part-time employees."

"Most Americans obtain their health care coverage through an employment-related plan. The National Compensation Survey (NCS) provides measures of access, participation, and features for those plans This article discusses some of the issues that the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will present for the NCS. Health care in the United States is a complex system consisting of patients, providers, insurers, employers, and governments. Individuals and companies shopping for health coverage face a myriad of choices presenting varying costs and benefits. Since most Americans obtain coverage through an employment-related plan, employers must stay current with laws and regulations and educate their employees about the changing nature of health benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), as the principal federal agency charged with reporting labor market activity, disseminates statistical information on the costs to employers for health care benefits. It also reports measures of access, participation, and features for those plans as part of its National Compensation Survey (NCS)."

"The National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy is an integrated, coordinated, and comprehensive response to the threats of climate change. This multi-partner effort will outline a unified approach to maintaining the key terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems needed to sustain fish, wildlife and plant resources and the services they provide in the face of accelerating climate change. In short—it is a blueprint for common action. The Strategy will serve as a valuable tool for federal and state agencies, wildlife managers, tribes, and private landowners as they continue to manage their lands and natural resources in a changing environment."

"The Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program was created in 1991 as a set of support activities assisting the Former Soviet Union states in securing and eliminating strategic nuclear weapons and the materials used to create them. The Program evolved as needs and opportunities changed: Efforts to address biological and chemical threats were added, as was a program aimed at preventing cross-border smuggling of weapons of mass destruction. CTR has traveled through uncharted territory since its inception, and both the United States and its partners have taken bold steps resulting in progress unimagined in initial years. Over the years, much of the debate about CTR on Capitol Hill has concerned the effective use of funds, when the partners would take full responsibility for the efforts, and how progress, impact, and effectiveness should be measured. Directed by Congress, the Secretary of Defense completed a report describing DoD's metrics for the CTR Program (here called the DoD Metrics Report) in September 2010 and, as required in the same law, contracted with the National Academy of Sciences to review the metrics DoD developed and identify possible additional or alternative metrics, if necessary. Improving Metrics for the DoD Cooperative Threat Reduction Program provides that review and advice. Improving Metrics for the DoD Cooperative Threat Reduction Program identifies shortcomings in the DoD Metrics Report and provides recommendations to enhance DoD's development and use of metrics for the CTR Program. The committee wrote this report with two main audiences in mind: Those who are mostly concerned with the overall assessment and advice, and those readers directly involved in the CTR Program, who need the details of the DoD report assessment and of how to implement the approach that the committee recommends."

State Electricity Profiles 2010, January 2012

Global Financial Stability Report GFSR Market Update: "Since the last Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR), risks to stability have increased, despite various policy steps to contain the euro area debt crisis and banking problems. European policymakers have outlined significant policy measures to address the medium-term issues contributing to the crisis, and some of these have helped to improve market sentiment, but sovereign financing remains challenging and downside risks remain. If funding challenges result in a round of deleveraging by banks, this could ignite an adverse feedback loop to euro area economies. The United States and other advanced economies are susceptible to spillovers from a potential intensification of the euro area crisis, and some have homegrown challenges to the removal of financial tail risks, including overcoming political obstacles to achieving an appropriate pace of fiscal consolidation. Developments in the euro area also threaten emerging Europe and may spill over to other emerging markets. Further policy actions are needed to restore market confidence. This effort will require building larger backstops for sovereign financing, assuring adequate bank funding and capital, and maintaining a sufficient flow of credit to the economy, possibly by establishing a “gatekeeper” charged with preventing disorderly bank deleveraging."

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of a new tool that provides the public with important information about pollutants that are released into local waterways. Developed under President Obama’s transparency initiative, the Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool brings together millions of records and allows for easy searching and mapping of water pollution by local area, watershed, company, industry sector, and pollutant. Americans can use this new tool to protect their health and the health of their communities."

"Four interstate natural gas pipeline projects in the Northeast U.S. began commercial service in 2011, adding nearly 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of capacity (see map) and over 181 miles of new pipe. Average daily natural gas demand last winter (November 2010 - March 2011) in the Northeast was about 16 billion cubic feet per day. Recently, new Northeast pipeline capacity and a warmer-than-normal winter weather outlook have reduced the potential for pipeline constraints along the Northeast seaboard for the 2011/2012 winter. Despite these pipeline capacity increases, forward markets such as NYMEX ClearPort still reflect premiums of over $2 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) over the expected NYMEX natural gas futures contract in February at the Transco Zone 6 trading point. This signals that additional natural gas pipeline capacity may be needed to reduce peak winter premiums further in the big winter load centers like New York City and Boston that remain subject to pipeline constraints."

The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future released its final report: "The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future today released its final report to the U.S. Energy Secretary, detailing comprehensive recommendations for creating a safe, long term solution for managing and disposing of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high‐level radioactive waste...The strategy outlined in the Commission report contains three crucial elements. First, the Commission recommends a consent‐based approach to siting future nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities, noting that trying to force such facilities on unwilling states, tribes and communities has not worked. Second, the Commission recommends that the responsibility for the nation’s nuclear waste management program be transferred to a new organization; one that is independent of the DOE and dedicated solely to assuring the safe storage and ultimate disposal of spent nuclear waste fuel and high level radioactive waste. Third, the Commission recommends changing the manner in which fees being paid into the Nuclear Waste Fund – about $750 million a year – are treated in the federal budget to ensure they are being set aside and available for use as Congress initially intended."

The Role of Local Food Systems in U.S. Farm Policy, January 24, 2012

• Statistical commentary on preliminary locational and consolidated banking statistics at end-September 2011
• Locational and consolidated banking statistics as at end-September 2011, preliminary data in PDF format, CSV files and the BIS WebStats interactive query tool
• "In the third quarter of 2011, after adjusting for the effects of the depreciation of most currencies against the US dollar, cross-border claims of BIS reporting banks rebounded by 2.0% following a decline of 0.6% in the previous period, and cross-border liabilities increased by 2.8%. The upsurge in assets was mainly focused on interbank business, which grew by 4.2%, while lending to non-banks contracted by 1.8%. Excepting holdings of securities, which dropped by 3.9%, all other instruments rose on the assets side, and lending in euros increased by 3.8%. Most of the increase was recorded with developed countries and offshore centres, as activity with emerging economies in aggregate was subdued.Reporting banks' international claims on an immediate borrower basis, adjusted for exchange rate movements, increased in the third quarter of 2011 (by 1.4%) after a moderate slowdown of 0.3% in the previous quarter. Local claims in local currency also rose, by 1.3%. On an ultimate risk basis, which adjusts for net risk transfers across borrowing countries and sectors (but not for exchange rate changes), banks' consolidated foreign claims slowed down by 2.7%, in particular visà-vis the non-bank private sector (-3.9%). Due to the decrease in long term interest rates and the appreciation of the US dollar against almost all currencies during the third quarter, as well as to better liquidity in the market, other exposures resulting from derivatives contracts, excluding credit derivatives, grew by $1.2 trillion after an increase of $800 billion in guarantees in the second quarter. Data for the third quarter of 2011 are preliminary. Final data, with a detailed analysis of recent trends, will be published in the forthcoming BIS Quarterly Review, to be released on 12 March 2012.

Global Risks 2012 Seventh Edition, An Initiative of the Risk Response Network

Cancer Screening — United States, 2010, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, January 27, 2012 / 61(03);41-45

Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act - Observations on Implementation, GAO-12-275R, January 27, 2012

News release: "Real gross domestic product - the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States - increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 1.8 percent. The Bureau emphasized that the fourth-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency. The "second" estimate for the fourth quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on February 29, 2012. The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter reflected positive contributions from private inventory investment, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, residential fixed investment, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased."

International Trade: Rules of Origin. Vivian C. Jones, Specialist in International Trade and Finance; Michael F. Martin, Analyst in Asian Trade and Finance, January 5, 2012

2011 Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories

TRAC: "The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during October 2011 the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to enforce immigration and customs laws accounted for 59% of all federal criminal prosecutions. The government reported 8,038 new prosecutions for these DHS matters as compared with a total of 13,628 from all sources. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 9.3 percent over the previous month. These comparisons of the number of defendants charged are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys."

• GAO Mission and Operations - Summary of GAO's Performance and Accountability Report Fiscal Year 2011, GAO-12-5SP, January 26, 2012
• Medicare Advantage - CMS Should Improve the Accuracy of Risk Score Adjustments for Diagnostic Coding Practices, GAO-12-51, January 12, 2012
• Financial Audit - Federal Housing Finance Agency's Fiscal Years 2011 and 2010 Financial Statements [Reissued on January 26, 2012] GAO-12-161, Nov 15, 2011

Large Exposures Regime Groups of Connected Clients and Connected Counterparties, Financial Services Authority, January 26, 2012

Health and Access to Care Among Employed and Unemployed Adults: United States, 2009–2010, Key data:

"In 2009–2010, 48.1% of unemployed adults aged 18–64 years had health insurance compared with 81.4% of employed adults; among the insured, a higher proportion of the unemployed had public insurance.

• Unemployed adults had poorer mental and physical health than employed adults; this pattern is found for insured and uninsured adults.
  
• Unemployed adults were less likely to receive needed medical care due to cost than the employed in each insurance category.
  
• The unemployed were less likely to receive needed prescriptions due to cost than the employed in all insurance categories.
  
• Uninsured adults were less likely to receive needed medical care and prescription drugs due to cost than those with public or private insurance, regardless of employment status.

CRS - Border Security: Immigration Enforcement Between Ports of Entry, Marc R. Rosenblum, Specialist in Immigration Policy. January 6, 2012

Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline: Legal Issues, January 23, 2012

Surveillance of Demographic Characteristics and Health Behaviors Among Adult Cancer Survivors — Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, United States, 2009 - MMWR / January 20, 2012 / Vol. 61 / No. 1

Tax Revenue Keeps Rising, But Growth Again Ticks Downward - Thirty-Six States Were Still Below Peak Collection Levels in FY 2011

American Bankers Association And State Bankers Associations Regulatory Feedback Initiative, Banker Reports on Recent Bank Examination Experiences For the Calendar Year 2011, Summary Report. January 25, 2012

News release: "The world faces the “urgent challenge” of creating 600 million productive jobs over the next decade in order to generate sustainable growth and maintain social cohesion, according to the annual report on global employment by the International Labour Organization (ILO). “After three years of continuous crisis conditions in global labour markets and against the prospect of a further deterioration of economic activity, there is a backlog of global unemployment of 200 million,” says the ILO in its annual report titled Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a deeper jobs crisis. Moreover, the report says more than 400 million new jobs will be needed over the next decade to absorb the estimated 40 million growth of the labour force each year. The Global Employment Trends Report also said the world faces the additional challenge of creating decent jobs for the estimated 900 million workers living with their families below the US$ 2 a day poverty line, mostly in developing countries."

• Arlington National Cemetery - Actions Taken and Steps Remaining to Address Contracting and Management Challenges, GAO-12-374T, January 25, 2012
• Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Risk Assessments - DHS Should Establish More Specific Guidance for Their Use, GAO-12-272, January 25, 2012
• Defense Health - Coordinating Authority Needed for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Activities, GAO-12-154, January 25, 2012
• Federal Employees' Compensation Act - Preliminary Observations on Fraud-Prevention Controls, GAO-12-402, January 25, 2012
• Capitol Police - Retirement Benefits, Pay, Duties, and Attrition Compared to Other Federal Police Forces, GAO-12-58, January 24, 2012

"The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones. For the first time, the map is available as an interactive GIS-based map, for which a broadband Internet connection is recommended, and as static images for those with slower Internet access. Users may also simply type in a ZIP Code and find the hardiness zone for that area."

Blueprint for an America Built to Last, January 25, 2012, President Obama. Key points:

• A Nation Where Everyone Gets a Fair Shot, Does Their Fair Share, and Plays by the Same Set of Rules
  
• A Blueprint to Create New Jobs Here in America, Discourage Outsourcing, and Encourage Insourcing
  
• A Blueprint To Give Hard-Working, Responsible Americans A Fair Shot
  
• A Blueprint to Make the Most of America’s Energy Resources
  
• A Blueprint to Return to America’s Values - Ensuring Everyone Plays by the Same Set of Rules and Pays Their Fair Share

Public Priorities: Deficit Rising, Terrorism Slipping - January 23, 2012: "The new poll finds that the federal budget deficit stands out as the fastest growing policy priority for Americans, largely because of growing Republican concerns about the issue. In the national survey, conducted Jan. 11-16 among 1,502 adults, 69% rate reducing the budget deficit as a top priority – the most in any of the Pew Research Center’s annual policy priority updates going back to 1994...The recent tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and disputes between the U.S. and Iran in the Persian Gulf have garnered a good deal of public attention. Roughly four-in-ten (42%) say they have heard a lot about this, and 41% have heard a little. The percentage naming Iran as the country posing the greatest danger to the U.S. has more than doubled to 28% from 12% a year ago, and it now ranks slightly higher than China. Of those following the Iran situation, 54% say the U.S. should take a firm stand against Iran’s actions, while 39% say it is more important to avoid a military conflict with Iran."

Congressional Record President's State of the Union Address, January 24, 2012 (PDF)

Presidential Signing Statements: Constitutional and Institutional Implications - Todd Garvey, Legislative Attorney. January 4, 2012

Serious Economic Crime - A boardroom guide to prevention and compliance, January 2012 [312 pages, UK government]

World Economic Outlook Update - Global Recovery Stalls, Downside Risks Intensify, January 24, 2012

National Archives Office of Inspector General Management Letter No. 12-01, Network Outage

Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Strategic Plan 2012-2016 - U.S. Army Joint IED Defeat Organization, January 2012

• Arleigh Burke Destroyers - Additional Analysis and Oversight Required to Support the Navy's Future Surface Combatant Plans, GAO-12-113, Jan 24, 2012
• Department of Energy - Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Could Benefit from Information on Applicants' Prior Funding, GAO-12-112, Jan 13, 2012
• Department of Energy - Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Could Improve Its Collection of Information from Applications, GAO-12-407T, Jan 24, 2012
• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education - Strategic Planning Needed to Better Manage Overlapping Programs across Multiple Agencies, GAO-12-108, Jan 20, 2012
• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education - Survey of Federal Programs (GAO-12-110SP, January 2012), an E-supplement to GAO-12-108 GAO-12-110SP, Jan 20, 2012

Small Business Lending Successes: "Treasury sent a report to Congress that contains strong evidence that the Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF) is working. The report shows that institutions participating in the Small Business Lending Fund have significantly increased lending to small businesses, to the tune of $3.5 billion over their baseline (the average lending reported in the four quarters before the Small Business Jobs Act, which created the SBLF, was enacted). These loans are helping small businesses to grow, create jobs and support families in communities all across the nation. Lending through the program is widespread. To date, 218 of the 281 participating community banks, or 78 percent, and 41 of the 51 participating community development loan funds (CDLFs), or 80 percent, have increased their small business lending. And a substantial majority of SBLF participants — more than 60 percent— have now increased their small business lending by 10 percent or more. In dollars, community bank participants increased their small business lending by $3.4 billion and CDLFs increased their small business lending by $86.8 million."

"Today, EIA issued the 2012 Annual Energy Outlook (AEO2012) Early Release Reference case, which provides updated projections for U.S. energy markets through 2035. In addition to a press release and tables that summarize the new projection, an Overview report is provided that addresses key findings and major changes in assumptions and results from the previous year's projection. The Early Release Overview specifically highlights the Reference case, which assumes no changes in current laws and regulations, thus serving as a starting point for analysis of potential policy changes or technology breakthroughs."

• Department of Justice - Working Capital Fund Adheres to Some Key Operating Principles but Could Better Measure Performance and Communicate with Customers, GAO-12-289, January 20 2012
• Homeless Women Veterans - Actions Needed to Ensure Safe and Appropriate Housing, GAO-12-182, January 20 2012
• Prescription Pain Reliever Abuse - Agencies Have Begun Coordinating Education Efforts, but Need to Assess Effectiveness, GAO-12-115, Dec 22, 2011
• Government Auditing Standards, 2011 Revision (Supersedes GAO-07-731G) [Reissued on January 20, 2012] GAO-12-331G, Dec 1, 2011

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Terrorism Investigations - Jerome P. Bjelopera, Specialist in Organized Crime and Terrorism, December 28, 2011

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have signed an agreement to coordinate efforts to protect consumers and avoid duplication of federal law enforcement and regulatory efforts. “The FTC has always been committed to protecting consumers and legitimate companies from bad actors in the financial marketplace,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “Now we have another cop on the beat, and this agreement ensures that businesses will not be double-teamed by the two agencies.” “Entering this agreement with the FTC is important to making sure markets for consumer financial products are getting efficient and effective federal government oversight,” said Richard Cordray, Director of the CFPB. “We are both motivated by the same thing: To do right by consumers. We look forward to this partnership.” The two agencies signed a memorandum of understanding. It is available here."

Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements: Assets, Account Balances, and Rollovers, 2006–2011. Employee Benefit Research Institute Issue Brief #367, January 2012

News release: "The Army released the Army 2020 Generating Health and Discipline in the Force, Report 2012, referred to as the Army Gold Book. The report serves as an update to the Army Red Book published in 2010. It summarizes the progress made in enhancing the health, discipline and readiness of the force. It represents the next phase in the Army's ongoing campaign to counter the stress associated with more than a decade of war. The Gold Book candidly addresses the challenges that Soldiers and families currently face, while providing a thorough assessment of what the Army has learned with respect to physical and behavioral health conditions, disciplinary problems, and the remaining gaps in Army policy. The report will serve as an invaluable resource for leaders, policy makers, commanders, and service providers, as they work together to address the unique and difficult challenges that lie ahead."

Performing Under Pressure: Annual Findings of a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2011-2012: "The annual 50-state survey of Medicaid and CHIP eligibility rules, enrollment and renewal procedures and cost sharing practices, conducted by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured with the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, found that, despite continued fiscal pressures on states, eligibility policies remained stable in nearly all state Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs during 2011. Moreover, many states used technology to increase program efficiency and streamline enrollment. The "maintenance of eligibility" requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) played a key role in preserving coverage levels. Without it, more states likely would have limited eligibility or tightened enrollment procedures."

Stress-testing macro stress testing: does it live up to expectations? by Claudio Borio, Mathias Drehmann and Kostas Tsatsaronis, BIS Working Papers No 369, January 2012

2011 Global Go To Think Tank Index, January 2012

Evaluating the Prospects for Increased Exports of Liquefied Natural Gas from the United States - Charles Ebinger, Kevin Massy, Govinda Avasarala - Brookings Energy Security Initiative, January 2012

• Bank Holding Company Act - Characteristics and Regulation of Exempt Institutions and the Implications of Removing the Exemptions, GAO-12-160, January 19, 2012
• Traffic Congestion - Road Pricing Can Help Reduce Congestion, but Equity Concerns May Grow, GAO-12-119, January 12, 2012

Arctic oil and natural gas resources - Resource basins in the Arctic Circle region

U.S. Metro Economies - 2012 Employment Forecast and the Impact of Exports, U.S. Conference of Mayors, January 2012

Remarks of Stefan Ingves, Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and Governor of Sveriges Riksbank, prepared for roundtable discussion at the European Ideas Network Seminar on Long-term growth: organizing the stability and attractiveness of European Financial Markets, Berlin (Deutsche Bank), 19-20 January 2012.

Special Tabulation of Supplemental Poverty Measure Estimates - This special tabulation of estimates using the Supplemental Poverty Measure were prepared at the request of the New York Times. It consists of five tables:

1. Estimates of the number of people with incomes/resources between 100 and 150 percent of their poverty thresholds by different poverty measures and by selected characteristics. These estimates can be used to calculate “rates” for either measure and/or the share of the population with each of these characteristics.
   
2. Effect of excluding individual elements on the percent of people with SPM Resources between 100 and 150 percent of their SPM poverty thresholds.
   
3. Cross tabulation of SPM vs Official Income to Poverty Ratios.
   
4. Poverty estimates by work status: 2010. This provides three SPM estimates not provided in the November 7 Research SPM report. Official estimates can be found in Table 4 of the September 2011 Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010.
   
5. SPM Threshold for DC Metro Area: 2010/Lowest and Highest Two Adult Two Child Thresholds

Digitizing Federal Public Records, By David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States: "Thank you for signing a petition asking the Obama Administration to digitize all public records. The Obama Administration believes increasing access to our collections by digitizing our records is a great idea. Our most recent efforts to do this ourselves as part of our OpenGov initiative, include the Citizen Archivist project, a Wikipedian in Residence, Tag it Tuesdays, and Scanathons. We are also moving forward on implementing the President’s recent Memorandum on Managing Government Records, which focuses on the need to update policies and practices for the digital age. But all those things aren’t enough. Your petition, and the Yes We Scan effort broadly, calls for a national strategy, and even a Federal Scanning Commission, to figure out what it would take to digitize the holdings of many federal entities, from the Library of Congress to the Government Printing Office to the Smithsonian Institution."

Global Economic Prospects, Uncertainties and Vulnerabilities, January 2012

Retirement Planning In a Post-Crisis Economy, January 2012: "Prolonged economic uncertainty and high unemployment have taken a heavy toll on U.S. workers. Few have escaped hits to their retirement savings or to their confidence in being able to retire comfortably. Unsurprisingly, many Americans have become more financially conservative, cutting back on spending and paying more attention to household finances and retirement planning and saving. As the economic recovery proceeds — albeit in fits and starts — economic satisfaction levels and optimism about retirement are slowly rising as well. Nevertheless, fallout from the crisis lingers in the psyche of American workers, as many remain apprehensive about their economic future generally and about retirement in particular. This article is the first in a three-part series based on the 2011 Towers Watson Retirement Attitudes Survey highlighting American workers' attitudes toward their household finances and retirement readiness. The second article will examine how the financial crisis has changed the trade-offs employees are willing to make to reduce their retirement and health care risks. The last article will look at the impact of retirement programs on attracting and retaining employees."

Prepregnancy Contraceptive Use Among Teens with Unintended Pregnancies Resulting in Live Births — Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), 2004–2008, January 20, 2012

Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report, January 19, 2012: "In the week ending January 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 352,000, a decrease of 50,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 402,000. The 4-week moving average was 379,000, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 382,500. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7 percent for the week ending January 7, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 7, was 3,432,000, a decrease of 215,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,647,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,576,250, a decrease of 34,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,610,250."

"Bizjournals On Numbers compared the educational attainment of men and women in 942 metropolitan and micropolitan areas, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 American Community Survey. The percentage of men possessing four-year college degrees is higher than the comparable percentage of women in 485 markets. But women hold the educational edge in 431 metros and micros. The two sexes broke even in the remaining 26 markets. The accompanying database (scroll to end of article) contains complete breakdowns for all 942 areas. Use the tab to isolate a single state, or simply hit Search to see the top-to-bottom rankings. The list can be re-sorted by clicking any column header. (Click a second time to reverse the sort.)"

DOD Joint Operational Access Concept (JOAC)

Lessons from Medicare's Demonstration Projects on Disease Management, Care Coordination, and Value-Based Payment - January 18, 2012. "In the past two decades, Medicare has conducted two broad categories of demonstrations aimed at enhancing the quality of health care and improving the efficiency of health care delivery in its fee-for-service program:

• Disease management and care coordination demonstrations have sought to improve the quality of care of beneficiaries with chronic illnesses and those whose health care is expected to be particularly costly.
  
• Value-based payment demonstrations have given health care providers financial incentives to improve the quality and efficiency of care rather than payments based strictly on the volume and intensity of services delivered."

News release:"The FDIC today approved a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) that would require certain large insured depository institutions to conduct annual capital-adequacy stress tests. The proposal, to implement section 165(i)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, would apply to FDIC-insured state nonmember banks and FDIC-insured state-chartered savings associations with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion. The FDIC regulated 23 state non-member banks with total assets of more than $10 billion as of Sept. 30, 2011."

News release: "The OECD area unemployment rate was stable at 8.2% in November 2011, unchanged since August. The rate has hovered at this level since January 2011. However, stability at the aggregate level masks different national situations. The Euro area’s unemployment rate remained at 10.3% in November – the highest rate recorded since the start of the global financial crisis. This reflected ongoing increases in the unemployment rates for Portugal (at 13.2%), Spain (at 22.9%), Ireland (at 14.6%) and more lately the Netherlands (at 4.9%) offset by sustained declines in the unemployment rates for Germany (at 5.5%) and more recently Belgium (at 7.2%). Germany’s rate has now regained its 1991 reunification level, down from the peak of 11.5% in April 2005.
December 2011 unemployment rate data for North America show a similar divergent pattern, with a fourth consecutive monthly decline in the United States (at 8.5%) and a third consecutive increase in Canada (at 7.5%). Around 44.6 million people were unemployed across the OECD area in November 2011, down 1.8 million from November 2010 but still 13.8 million higher than in November 2007."

"The NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework offers a working taxonomy and common lexicon that can be overlaid onto any organization's existing occupational structure. Although much work has gone into this framework, we need to ensure that it can be adopted and used across the nation. We are actively seeking to refine this framework with input from every sector of our nation's cybersecurity stakeholders. You are an integral part of this process. NICE requests that you please contribute your expertise in the field of cybersecurity by reviewing the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework document and providing your public comments using the comments template."

• Interactive Cybersecurity Workforce Framework
  
• Summary of Cybersecurity Framework
  
• Cybersecurity Framework Comments Template

"Wind Powering America (a DOE program initiative) publishes an onshore wind resource map for the United States, at 80 meters above ground and with resolution down to 2.5 meters. This map was updated in March 2010, the first comprehensive update of U.S. wind energy potential since 1993. The 2010 update to the wind resource map raised the height at which the measurements were taken from 50 to 80 meters above ground, addressing updates in turbine technology and showing an increase in the total wind capacity resource of the continental United States."

Proposed EU Commission Financial Transaction Tax Impact Analysis on Foreign Exchange Markets. Oliver Wyman, January 2012: "The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the proposed EU Financial Transaction Tax on European FX markets. We aim to quantify the impacts of the FTT on FX cash and derivative markets, both in terms of the transaction costs and the effects on the participants in these markets. Previous studies have shown that introducing an FTT results in the primary impacts of an increase in the cost to transact, geographic relocation of trading, substitution and a general reduction in notional turnover. In addition, the secondary impacts are a reduction in liquidity and increased market inefficiencies. This can lead to an increase in short term price volatility and widening bid/ask spreads."

2012 Progress Report: "In the nearly two years since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, all States have taken some action to implement health reform. For example, forty-four States are participating in the new premium rate review system where insurers must justify the rationale for any double-digit insurance premium increase. And 28 States and the District of Columbia are on their way toward establishing their own Affordable Insurance Exchange – an essential component of the law. Affordable Insurance Exchanges are one-stop marketplaces where consumers can choose a private health insurance plan that fits their health needs. Starting in 2014, they will offer to the public the same kinds of insurance choices members of Congress will have. Exchanges will select health plans qualified to offer coverage; facilitate consumer assistance, shopping and enrollment; and coordinate eligibility for the Exchange and potential premium assistance."

• Credit Rating Agencies - Alternative Compensation Models for Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations, GAO-12-240, Jan 18, 2012
• Dodd-Frank Act - Hybrid Capital Instruments and Small Institution Access to Capital, GAO-12-237, Jan 18, 2012
• Real Estate Appraisals - Appraisal Subcommittee Needs to Improve Monitoring Procedures, GAO-12-147, Jan 18, 2012
• Real Estate Appraisals - Survey of State Appraiser Regulatory Agencies (GAO-12-198SP, January 2012), an E-supplement to GAO-12-147 GAO-12-198SP

Electric Power Monthly, Released January 18, 2012

Contemporary Developments in Presidential Elections, January 9, 2012

An International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities: Strengthening Long-Term Sustainability, Stability, Safety, and Security in Space, January 17, 2012

News release: "For the first time, comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) data reported directly from large facilities and suppliers across the country are now easily accessible to the public through EPA’s GHG Reporting Program. The 2010 GHG data released today includes public information from facilities in nine industry groups that directly emit large quantities of GHGs, as well as suppliers of certain fossil fuels...EPA’s online data publication tool allows users to view and sort GHG data for calendar year 2010 from over 6,700 facilities in a variety of ways—including by facility, location, industrial sector, and the type of GHG emitted. This information can be used by communities to identify nearby sources of GHGs, help businesses compare and track emissions, and provide information to state and local governments."

• Access EPA’s GHG Reporting Program Data and Data Publication Tool
  
• Information on the GHG Reporting Program
  
• Information on the U.S. Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Sources and Sinks

"The Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration (ISER) Division of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) is publishing a new newsletter, the Energy Emergency Preparedness Quarterly, designed to briefly highlight a few of the OE/ISER energy preparedness activities that occur each quarter. The first issue of the newsletter includes news items on the White House release of the PPD-8 system, the final ARRA regional energy assurance exercise, the DOE collaboration with the U.S. Secret Service for APEC 2011, and a retrospective on energy response in 2011."

Sunlight Foundation: "Making good on part of the House of Representative's commitment to increase congressional transparency, today the House Clerk's office launched http://docs.house.gov/, a one stop website where the public can access all House bills, amendments, resolutions for floor consideration, and conference reports in XML, as well as information on floor proceedings and more. Information will ultimately be published online in real time and archived for perpetuity. The Clerk is hosting the site, and the information will primarily come from the leadership, the Committee on House Administration, the Rules Committee, and the Clerk's office. The project has been driven by House Republican leaders as part of an push for transparency. Important milestones include the adoption of the new House Rules in January 2011 that gave the Committee on House Administration the power to establish standards for publishing documents online, an April 2011 letter from the Speaker and Majority Leader to the Clerk calling for better public access to House information, a Committee on House Administration hearing in June 2011 on modernizing information delivery in the House, a December 2011 public meeting on public access to congressional information, and finally the late December adoption of online publication standards."

News release: "The FDIC today approved a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) that would require certain large insured depository institutions to conduct annual capital-adequacy stress tests. The proposal, to implement section 165(i)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, would apply to FDIC-insured state nonmember banks and FDIC-insured state-chartered savings associations with total consolidated assets of more than $10 billion. The FDIC regulated 23 state non-member banks with total assets of more than $10 billion as of Sept. 30, 2011. The stress tests would provide forward-looking information that would assist the FDIC in assessing the capital adequacy of the banks covered by the rule. The banks that would be required to conduct the stress tests also are expected to benefit from improved internal assessments of capital adequacy and overall capital planning."

• Bank Capital Requirements - Potential Effects of New Changes on Foreign Holding Companies and U.S. Banks Abroad, GAO-12-235, Jan 17, 2012
• Death Services - State Regulation of the Death Care Industry Varies and Officials Have Mixed Views on Need for Further Federal Involvement, GAO-12-65, Dec 15, 2011
• Immigrant Integration - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Could Better Assess Its Grant Program, GAO-12-274, Dec 16, 2011
• Municipal Securities - Overview of Market Structure, Pricing, and Regulation, GAO-12-265, Jan 17, 2012
• 2011 Tax Filing Processing Gains, but Taxpayer Assistance Could Be Enhanced by More Self-Service Tools, GAO-12-176, Dec 15, 2011

"The Empire State Manufacturing Survey, a publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, indicates that manufacturing activity expanded in New York State in January. The general business conditions index climbed five points to 13.5. The new orders index rose eight points to 13.7 and the shipments index inched up to 21.7. The prices paid index was positive and slightly higher than it was last month while the prices received index jumped twenty points to 23.1, indicating a significant pickup in selling prices. Employment indexes were positive and higher, pointing to higher employment levels and a longer average workweek. Future indexes conveyed a high degree of optimism about the six-month outlook, with the future general business conditions index rising nine points to 54.9, its highest level since January 2011."

The Obama Administration’s Efforts To Stabilize the Housing Market and Help American Homeowners, December 2011

Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation Fiscal 2011 Annual Report, Dr. J. Michael Gilmore

Lost Ground, 2011: Disparities in Mortgage Lending and Foreclosures - Debbie Gruenstein Bocian, Wei Li, Carolina Reid, Center for Responsible Lending - Roberto G. Quercia, Center for Community Capital, - University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, November 2011

Water Reuse: Potential for Expanding the Nation's Water Supply Through Reuse of Municipal Wastewater, 2012

World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012: "The world economy is on the brink of another major downturn. Global economic growth started to decelerate on a broad front in mid-2011 and is estimated to have averaged 2.8 per cent over the last year. This economic slowdown is expected to continue into 2012 and 2013. The United Nations baseline forecast for the growth of world gross product (WGP) is 2.6 per cent for 2012 and 3.2 per cent for 2013, which is below the pre-crisis pace of global growth. Persistent high unemployment in the United States and low wage growth are holding back aggregate demand and, together with the prospect of prolonged depressed housing prices, this has heightened risks of a new wave of home foreclosures. Growth in the euro zone has slowed considerably since the beginning of 2011 and the ever-simmering sovereign debt crisis heavily weighs on consumer and business confidence across Europe. The failure of policymakers in developed countries to address unemployment and prevent sovereign debt distress and financial sector fragility from escalating has posed the most acute risk for the global economy in the outlook for 2012-2013, with renewed global recession being a distinct possibility."

Richard P, West K, Ku L (2012) The Return on Investment of a Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Program in Massachusetts. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29665. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029665

Report on Carcinogens, Twelfth Edition 2011. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program

"The NTI Nuclear Materials Security Index - Building a Framework for Assurance, Accountability, and Action is a first-of-its-kind public benchmarking project of nuclear materials security conditions on a country-by-country basis. The NTI Index, prepared with the Economist Intelligence Unit, was created to spark an international discussion about priorities required to strengthen security, and most importantly, encourage governments to provide assurances and take actions to reduce risks."

Unemployment Insurance and the Great Recession, Wayne Vroman, December 2011

Unemployment Statistics on Older Americans, Urban Institute Program on Retirement Policy, January 2012: "The recession has increased joblessness among older Americans. These graphs and tables report unemployment rates and how they have varied by age, sex, race, and education since 2007."

Unauthorized Appropriations and Expiring Authorizations, January 13, 2012: "As required, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports each January to the Congress on the following: All programs and activities funded for the current fiscal year for which authorizations of appropriations have expired, and; All programs and activities for which authorizations of appropriations will expire during the current fiscal year. Those requirements are specified in section 202(e)(3) of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974."

News release: "A new public opinion survey shows that in the midst of the global economic crisis and “Arab Spring,” attitudes toward immigration remain stable in the United States and five European countries. According to the 2011 Transatlantic Trends: Immigration survey, most Americans and Europeans see immigration as a problem yet remain optimistic about immigrant integration. The survey also shows that while most disapprove of government management of immigration, a majority of Americans and Europeans support centralized immigration policies over local ones. According to the fourth-annual Transatlantic Trends: Immigration survey of public opinion in the United States and five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom), slight majorities in the United States (53%) and Europe (52%) continue to view immigration as more of a problem than an opportunity. Most also maintain a negative view of government management of immigration, with 68% of Europeans and 73% of Americans believing that their government is doing a poor or very poor job. Nevertheless, most Americans (56%) and Europeans (52%) remain optimistic about immigrant integration, and majorities are interested in letting in more highly educated immigrants."

History of Medicine Finding Aids Consortium: "Welcome to the history of medicine finding aids project. A finding aid is a tool created by archivists to give information about the contents of archival collections. Finding aids provide contextual information about collections along with detailed inventories to help researchers locate relevant materials. We currently have over 3,000 finding aids from 20 institutions that collect broadly in the area of the history of medicine and its allied sciences. Links to finding aids direct users to web sites hosted by the participating institutions. All questions regarding the collection contents should be directed to the owning institution."

"Heritage and the Wall Street Journal released the 2012 Index of Economic Freedom on January 12, 2012, ranking 179 countries on 10 benchmarks that gauge their economic success. The Index covers 10 freedoms – from property rights to entrepreneurship – in 184 countries. This year Heritage introduced a new interactive feature that gives you the opportunity to create a comparative graph. This week’s chart shows how the United States stacks up against Canada and the United Kingdom. As recently as 2009, the United States led both countries in economic freedom. But after four years of decline, the United States is heading in the wrong direction. This year it fell to 10th in the Index of Economic Freedom. For the 18th straight year, Hong Kong and Singapore finished first and second in the rankings, followed this year by Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland. North Korea was at the bottom of the rankings. All contents of the book are available online. A few notable developments in this year’s Index [download data here:

• Arctic Capabilities - DOD Addressed Many Specified Reporting Elements in Its 2011 Arctic Report but Should Take Steps to Meet Near- and Long-term Needs, GAO-12-180, January 13, 2011
• Defense Contracting - Improved Policies and Tools Could Help Increase Competition on DOD's National Security Exception Procurements, GAO-12-263, January 13, 2011
• Health Care Quality Measurement - HHS Should Address Contractor Performance and Plan for Needed Measures, GAO-12-136, January 2013
• Taxpayer Privacy - A Guide for Screening and Assessing Proposals to Disclose Confidential Tax Information to Specific Parties for Specific Purposes, GAO-12-231SP, December 14, 2011
• VA Enhanced Monthly Benefits - Recipient Population Is Changing, and Awareness Could Be Improved, GAO-12-153, December 14, 2011

Foreign Banks: Trends, Impact and Financial Stability, Prepared by Stijn Claessens and Neeltje van Horen, January 2012

A Toolkit to Assessing Fiscal Vulnerabilities and Risks in Advanced Economies, IMF Working Paper, by a staff team led by Andrea Schaechter, January 2012

Programmable Web Services Directory of over 100 government [local, state and federal] APIs released in 2011.

• Over 2,000 APIs Added in 2011: Social, Telephony, Open Government
  
• See also How the Internet of Things Is Turning Cities Into Living Organisms - "When city services can autonomously go online and digest information from the cloud, they can reach a level of performance never before seen." December 6, 2011

Draft National Ocean Policy Implementation Plan, National Ocean Council, January 2012

Via EITI: "Iraq has disclosed detailed information about the US$ 41 billion in revenue it received from oil and gas exports in 2009. Iraq’s disclosure of the figures follows the country’s commitment to the EITI standard, the global standard for transparency of resource revenues. The revenues are published in Iraq’s first EITI Report, which detailed production figures and revenues from the sales of oil abroad in 2009."

Proposed Changes Would Expedite Investigatory Processes, Keep Pace with Technology: "The Federal Trade Commission today issued proposed changes to two parts of the procedures that govern the way the agency operates. The proposed changes would streamline the FTC's investigatory procedures, make updates to keep pace with electronic discovery, and detail the agency's procedures for evaluating allegations of misconduct by attorneys practicing before the Commission. The proposed changes, which will be published in the Federal Register and are subject to public comment until March 23, 2012, concern the procedures in Parts 2 and 4 of the agency's Rules of Practice. They are part of the FTC's effort to periodically review and update its rules to ensure that they are efficient and not unduly burdensome on outside parties."

Full Report - Beige Book, January 11, 2012 and Links to the Districts: "Contact reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that national economic activity expanded at a modest to moderate pace during the reporting period of late November through the end of December. Seven Districts characterized growth as modest; of the remaining five, New York and Chicago noted a pickup in the pace of growth, Dallas and San Francisco reported moderate growth, and Richmond indicated that activity flattened or improved slightly. Compared with prior summaries, the reports on balance suggest ongoing improvement in economic conditions in recent months, with most Districts highlighting more favorable conditions than identified in reports from the late spring through early fall."

News release: "On the basis of data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE), consumers spent less in 2010, compared with 2009, on almost all major components of the household budget. Average annual expenditures per consumer unit (CU)[1] fell 2.0 percent, and average annual income before taxes dropped 0.6 percent, the second consecutive yearly decline for both of these measures. Overview of Spending:

• Entertainment expenditures, which tend to be more discretionary, fell 7.0 percent in 2010, the most in percentage terms of any category. All subcomponents of entertainment spending fell, with fees and admissions spending reduced by 7.5 percent.
  
• Overall food spending decreased 3.8 percent. Spending on food away from home fell more than spending on food at home, 4.4 percent versus 3.4 percent, respectively. Consumers spent 6.9 percent less on going out to dinner, a subcomponent of food away from home, in 2010.
  
• Mortgage interest payments and charges, a subcomponent of housing, fell 6.8 percent, evidence of the continued weakness of the housing market in the nation.
  
• Donations to charities and other organizations fell 23.4 percent, and charitable giving to churches and religious organizations dropped 8.8 percent.
  
• Healthcare, one of two major spending components that increased, rose 1.0 percent. The 2.6-percent jump in health insurance spending, a subcomponent of healthcare, fueled the healthcare increase.
  
• The 0.2-percent increase in transportation spending was driven by a 7.3-percent rise in gasoline and motor oil expenditures.

News release: "On the basis of data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE), consumers spent less in 2010, compared with 2009, on almost all major components of the household budget. Average annual expenditures per consumer unit (CU)[1] fell 2.0 percent, and average annual income before taxes dropped 0.6 percent, the second consecutive yearly decline for both of these measures. Overview of Spending:

• Entertainment expenditures, which tend to be more discretionary, fell 7.0 percent in 2010, the most in percentage terms of any category. All subcomponents of entertainment spending fell, with fees and admissions spending reduced by 7.5 percent.
  
• Overall food spending decreased 3.8 percent. Spending on food away from home fell more than spending on food at home, 4.4 percent versus 3.4 percent, respectively. Consumers spent 6.9 percent less on going out to dinner, a subcomponent of food away from home, in 2010.
  
• Mortgage interest payments and charges, a subcomponent of housing, fell 6.8 percent, evidence of the continued weakness of the housing market in the nation.
  
• Donations to charities and other organizations fell 23.4 percent, and charitable giving to churches and religious organizations dropped 8.8 percent.
  
• Healthcare, one of two major spending components that increased, rose 1.0 percent. The 2.6-percent jump in health insurance spending, a subcomponent of healthcare, fueled the healthcare increase.
  
• The 0.2-percent increase in transportation spending was driven by a 7.3-percent rise in gasoline and motor oil expenditures."

EPIC: In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, EPIC has called for an investigation of recent changes by Google to Google Search, the dominant search algorithm on the Internet. EPIC cited Google's decision to include personal data, such as photos, posts, and contact details, gathered from Google+ in Google Search results. “Google’s business practices raise concerns related to both competition and the implementation of the Commission’s consent order,” EPIC said, referring to a settlement that the FTC reached with Google that establishes new privacy safeguards for users of Google products and services and subjects the company to regular privacy audits. Recently, the Senate held a hearing on Google’s use of its dominance in the search market to suppress competition, and EPIC urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google’s acquisition of Youtube, which allowed Google to give preferential treatment to Google's own video content. For more information, see EPIC: Google/DoubleClick and EPIC: Federal Trade."

• Elections - Views on Implementing Federal Elections on a Weekend, GAO-12-69, January 12, 2012
• Securities Research - Additional Actions Could Improve Regulatory Oversight of Analyst Conflicts of Interest, GAO-12-209, January 12, 2012

Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries Over the Decade Ending 2009, Dev Kar and Sarah Freitas1, December 2011

Financial sector regulation for growth, equity and stability, BIS Papers No 62, January 2012

"An "EU sweep" is an action co-ordinated by the European Commission, and carried out simultaneously by the national consumer enforcement authorities in the Member States, Norway and Iceland. In a given week each year, consumer authorities check hundreds of sites in a particular sector in order to see where consumer rights are being compromised or denied. When they find that a website does not comply with EU consumer law, they then contact the operator and ask for corrective action. Those who fail to correct illegal practices can face fines or be ordered to close their websites."

• Airline Sweep
  
• Mobile Phone Sweep
  
• Electronic Goods Sweep
  
• Online Ticket Sales Sweep
  
• Online Ticket Sales Sweep
  
• Consumer credit Sweep

News release: "Were you ever about to sign a contract for a personal loan, credit card, or other consumer credit and discovered that it was all working out more expensive than you had first expected? An EU-wide investigation of websites offering consumer credit took place to check whether consumers are receiving the information to which they are entitled under EU consumer law1 before signing a consumer credit contract. National enforcement authorities checked more than 500 websites across the 27 Member States plus Norway and Iceland. They flagged 70% (393) of sites for further investigation in relation to the following main problems: the advertising did not include the required standard information; the offers omitted key information that is essential for making a decision; the costs were presented in a misleading way. National enforcement authorities will now contact financial institutions and credit intermediaries about suspected irregularities and ask them to clarify or take corrective action. The sweep operation checked in particular how business is applying the Consumer Credit Directive (recently transposed in Member States), which aims to make it easier for consumers to understand and compare credit offers."

The Gov Doc Kids Group and Free Government Information - Tom Adamich, Martha Childers, Katy Davis, John H. Faria and Antoinette W. Satterfield. The IFLA World Library and Information Congress

American Association for the Advancement of Science: "Basic and applied research and energy and environmental research scored significant increases in a 2012 budget bill signed recently by President Barack Obama, but overall research and development spending will decline by 1.3%, according to a new analysis by the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program. Total R&D spending for fiscal year 2012 was set at $142 billion, down about $1.9 billion from 2011."

• FY 2012 Congressional Action on R&D by Agency
  
• Chart detailing 2012 R&D for the U.S. Department of Defense
  
• AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program

"Welcome to the beta version of Econ Stats, the Economic Statistics Database service provided by EconomyWatch.com...Finding accurate and update economic statistics can be a considerable challenge. Multiple different intergovernmental agencies, national governments and analysts continuously update figures that are calculated and presented in a multitude of different ways. These include Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment, inflation, interest rates, currency exchange rates, trade figures, money, supply and pricing for everything from houses to uranium. In all, over 1,000 economic indicators exist for the roughly 250 countries and geographic, economic or political country blocs that exist. These indicators are tracked on an annual, quarterly or monthly basis for the most part, although some indicators such as stock market valuations and currency exchange rates fluctuate continuously during market opening times. This is the second update to our beta service, in which we have taken the latest available data from all sources, including the first half 2009 update of WEO data from the IMF. We have consolidated data series display for country economic indicators, to show on one consolidated page for that country/ indicator pairing, for all years of data. We have also expanded the range of indicators on display."

"This edition of the Short-Term Energy Outlook is the first to include forecasts for 2013. EIA expects the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil to average about $100 per barrel in 2012, $5 per barrel higher than the average price last year. For 2013, EIA expects WTI prices to continue to rise, reaching $106 per barrel in the fourth quarter of next year. EIA’s forecast assumes that U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) grows by 1.8 percent in 2012 and 2.5 percent in 2013, while world real GDP (weighted by oil consumption) grows by 2.9 percent and 3.8 percent in 2012 and 2013, respectively."

Raising the Ages of Eligibility for Medicare and Social Security: "Raising the ages at which people can collect Medicare and Social Security would reduce federal spending and increase federal revenues by inducing some people to work longer. However, raising the eligibility ages for those programs also would reduce people's lifetime Social Security benefits and cause many of the people who would otherwise have enrolled in Medicare to face higher premiums for health insurance, higher out-of-pocket costs for health care, or both. This issue brief reviews how ages of eligibility affect beneficiaries under current law and how delaying eligibility would affect beneficiaries, the federal budget, and the economy."

News release: "From June 2010 to June 2011, employment increased in 215 of the 322 largest U.S. counties, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Ottawa, Mich., posted the largest increase, with a gain of 4.7 percent over the year, compared with national job growth of 0.9 percent. Within Ottawa, the largest employment increase occurred in manufacturing, which gained 2,514 jobs over the year (9.0 percent). San Joaquin, Calif., experienced the largest over-the-year decrease in employment among the largest counties in the U.S. with a loss of 4.0 percent. The U.S. average weekly wage increased over the year by 3.0 percent to $891 in the second quarter of 2011. Among the large counties in the U.S., Williamson, Texas, had the largest over-the-year increase in average weekly wages in the second quarter of 2011 with a gain of 18.0 percent. Within Williamson, a total wage increase of $195.2 million (39.2 percent) in the trade, transportation, and utilities industry had the largest impact on the county’s over-the-year increase in average weekly wages. Champaign, Ill., experienced the largest decline in average weekly wages with a loss of 3.6 percent over the year. County employment and wage data are compiled under the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program."

News release: "There were 3.2 million job openings on the last business day of November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The hires rate (3.2 percent) and separations rate (3.0 percent) were little changed over the month. The job openings rate has trended upward since the end of the recession in June 2009. (Recession dates are determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research.) This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the nonfarm sector by industry and by geographic region. The number of job openings in November was 3.2 million, unchanged from October. (See table 1.) Although the number of job openings remained below the 4.4 million openings when the recession began in December 2007, the level in November was 1.0 million higher than in July 2009 (the most recent trough for the series). The number of job openings has increased 30 percent since the end of the recession in June 2009."

News release: "The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced preliminary unaudited results indicating that the Reserve Banks provided for payments of approximately $76.9 billion of their estimated 2011 net income to the U.S. Treasury. Under the Board's policy, the residual earnings of each Federal Reserve Bank, after providing for the costs of operations, payment of dividends, and the amount necessary to equate surplus with capital paid-in, are distributed to the U.S. Treasury. The Federal Reserve Banks' 2011 estimated net income of $78.9 billion was derived primarily from $83.6 billion in interest income on securities acquired through open market operations (U.S. Treasury securities, federal agency and government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) mortgage-backed securities, and GSE debt securities). Additional earnings were derived primarily from realized gains on the sale of U.S. Treasury securities of $2.3 billion, foreign currency gains of $152 million, and income from services of $479 million. The Reserve Banks had interest expense of $3.8 billion on depository institutions' reserve balances and term deposits."

Draft Framework for the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's

National Infrastructure Bank: Overview and Current Legislation, December 14, 2011. "Several bills to establish a national infrastructure bank have been introduced in the 112th Congress. This report examines three such bills, the Building and Upgrading Infrastructure for Long-Term Development Act (S. 652), the American Infrastructure Investment Fund Act of 2011 (S. 936), and the National Infrastructure Development Bank Act of 2011 (H.R. 402). These proposals share three main goals:

• increasing total investment in infrastructure by encouraging new investment from nonfederal sources;
  
• improving project selection by insulating decisions from political influence; and
  
• encouraging new investment with relatively little effect on the federal budget through a mostly self-sustaining entity."

News release: "U.S. health care spending grew 3.9 percent in 2010 following record slow growth of 3.8 percent in 2009; the two slowest rates of growth in the fifty-one year history of the National Health Expenditure Accounts. Total health expenditures reached $2.6 trillion, which translates to $8,402 per person or 17.9 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)."

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Conservation Easement Enforcement and Monitoring, January 9, 2012

U.S. Unmanned Aerial Systems, Jeremiah Gertler, Specialist in Military Aviation, January 3, 2012 via Wired Danger Room

EIA: "Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions vary significantly across States, whether considered on an absolute or per capita basis. The overall size of a State, of course, determines much of the absolute level of a State’s emissions. Available fuels, types of businesses, climate, and population density also play a role in overall and per capita emissions. It should be noted that each State’s energy system reflects circumstances specific to that State. For example, some States are located near abundant hydroelectric supplies, while others contain abundant coal resources. This paper presents a basic analysis of the factors that contribute to a State’s carbon dioxide profile. This analysis neither attempts to assess the effect of State policies on absolute emissions levels or on changes over time, nor does it intend to imply that certain policies would be appropriate for a particular State."

Using Public-Private Partnerships to Carry Out Highway Projects, January 2012.

Follow up to previous postings on the Deepwater Horizon Spill, this news release from NOAA: "By combining detailed chemical measurements in the deep ocean, in the oil slick, and in the air, NOAA scientists and academic colleagues have independently estimated how fast gases and oil were leaking during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The new chemistry-based spill rate estimate, an average of 11,130 tons of gas and oil compounds per day, is close to the official average leak rate estimate of about 11,350 tons of gas and oil per day (equal to about 59,200 barrels of liquid oil per day)."

• Troubled Asset Relief Program - As Treasury Continues to Exit Programs, Opportunities to Enhance Communication on Costs Exist, GAO-12-229, January 9, 2012
• Chemical Assessments, Challenges Remain with EPA's Integrated Risk Information System Program, GAO-12-42, December 9, 2011
• Critical Infrastructure Protection - Cybersecurity Guidance Is Available, but More Can Be Done to Promote Its Use, GAO-12-92, December 9, 2011
• Medicare Advantage - Changes Improved Accuracy of Risk Adjustment for Certain Beneficiaries, GAO-12-52, December 9, 2011
• Digital Vision Race to the Top - Characteristics of Grantees' Amended Programs and Education's Review Process, GAO-12-228R, December 8, 2011
• Risk Retention Groups, Clarifications Could Facilitate States' Implementation of the Liability Risk Retention Act, GAO-12-16, December 8, 2011
• Risk Retention Groups, Survey of State Regulators (GAO-12-17SP, December 2011), an E-supplement to GAO-12-16 GAO-12-17SP, December 8, 2011

Monthly Budget Review - January 2012: "The federal budget deficit was $320 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, CBO estimates, $49 billion less than the deficit recorded in the same period in fiscal year 2011. But $26 billion of that difference resulted from shifts in the timing of certain payments because the regular payment dates fell on weekends or holidays; otherwise, the deficit would have declined by only $23 billion. Receipts were up by 4 percent, compared with those in the same period a year before. Adjusted for timing shifts, outlays were essentially unchanged. Later this month, CBO will issue new budget projections spanning the period from 2012 through 2022."

Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post-Crisis Economy, Craig K. Elwell, Specialist in Macroeconomic Policy, December 1, 2011

"States manage the Child Nutrition Programs. To participate, or to learn more, contact your State agency."

CRS - Changes in the Distribution of Income Among Tax Filers Between 1996 and 2006: The Role of Labor Income, Capital Income, and Tax Policy, Thomas L. Hungerford, Specialist in Public Finance, December 29, 2011

News release: "The Internal Revenue Service today released a new set of tax gap estimates for tax year 2006. The tax gap is defined as the amount of tax liability faced by taxpayers that is not paid on time. The new tax gap estimate represents the first full update of the report in five years, and it shows the nation’s compliance rate is essentially unchanged from the last review covering tax year 2001. The tax gap statistic is a helpful guide to the scale of tax compliance and to the persisting sources of low compliance, but it is not an adequate guide to year-to-year changes in IRS programs or to year-to-year returns on IRS service and enforcement initiatives."

Economic Developments, Risks to the Outlook, and Housing Market Policies - Governor Elizabeth A. Duke At the Virginia Bankers Association/Virginia Chamber of Commerce 2012 Financial Forecast, Richmond, Virginia, January 6, 2012

Deforestation and Greenhouse Gases - Human activities produce large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), primarily carbon dioxide (CO2), and thus contribute to global warming. The use of fossil fuels is the primary source of CO2 emissions, but the removal of trees from forested land has also contributed. Mature forests, having absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere while growing, store carbon in wood, leaves, and soil. That carbon is released when people clear forested land and destroy the wood. From 2000 to 2005, the loss of forests, primarily in tropical developing countries, accounted for approximately 12 percent of global GHG emissions. Slowing or halting deforestation in developing countries is a potentially low-cost way to help reduce global GHG emissions. For that potential to be realized, however, substantial challenges would need to be addressed—by providing technical and financial assistance to governments, by creating demand from private markets, or both."

Down and Out: Measuring Long-Term Hardship in the Labor Market, January 2012, John Schmitt and Janelle Jones - Center for Economic and Policy Research

Maldives: Detailed Assessment Report on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism, January 2012 - IMF Country Report No. 12/1

What the Great Recession Wrought: The State of the U.S. in 3 Years of Polls

The Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of the United States, January 2012

EPA Blog: "Almost 40 years ago, EPA’s Documerica project captured thousands of images of environmental problems and everyday life. Now it’s your turn! On Earth Day 2011, EPA put out a global call for current photos of life and our environment, PLUS a challenge to photograph the ‘now’ of places in Documerica. Your photo could be exhibited around the U.S. in 2012! Join In! Sign up and submit photos through Flickr!"

"The national U.S. unemployment rate is 8.5%, but that varies widely by what profession you might be in. The below chart shows the size of select industries and their unemployment rates. The table below shows all the occupations within those industries and their unemployment rates. Search the list to find what the unemployment rate is for your job."

Statistics on payment, clearing and settlement systems in the CPSS countries - Figures for 2010, CPSS Publications No 99, January 2012

The sustainability of pension schemes by Srichander Ramaswamy, Working Papers No 368, January 2012

Employment Situation Summary, December 2011: "Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 200,000 in December, and the unemployment rate, at 8.5 percent, continued to trend down, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in transportation and warehousing, retail trade, manufacturing, health care, and mining. Both the number of unemployed persons (13.1 million) and the unemployment rate (8.5 percent) continued to trend down in December. The unemployment rate has declined by 0.6 percentage point since August. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men decreased to 8.0 percent in December. The jobless rates for adult women (7.9 percent), teenagers (23.1 percent), whites (7.5 percent), blacks (15.8 percent), and Hispanics (11.0 percent) showed little change. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.8 percent, not seasonally adjusted. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 5.6 million and accounted for 42.5 percent of the unemployed. The civilian labor force participation rate (64.0 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were both unchanged over the month."

Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense, January 2012

News release: "A payment processor and two of its principals are now banned from using a new payment method to process electronic payments under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which resolves charges that they debited consumers' bank accounts without their consent. The settlement furthers the FTC's ongoing efforts to protect financially-strapped consumers during the economic downturn by scrutinizing not only merchants, but all parties who participate in defrauding consumers."

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing its annual national analysis of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), providing all Americans with vital information about their communities. The TRI program publishes information on toxic chemical disposals and other releases into the air, land and water, as well as information on waste management and pollution prevention activities in neighborhoods across the country. Total releases including disposals for the latest reporting year, 2010, are higher than the previous two years but lower than 2007 and prior year totals. Many of the releases from TRI facilities are regulated under various EPA programs and requirements designed to limit human and environmental harm."

• Coast Guard - Continued Improvements Needed to Address Potential Barriers to Equal Employment Opportunity, GAO-12-135, December 6, 2011
• National Credit Union Administration - Earlier Actions Are Needed to Better Address Troubled Credit Unions, GAO-12-247, January 4, 2012

Petroleum Marketing Monthly January 2012 Petroleum Marketing Monthly With Data for October 2011 - "Monthly price and volume statistics on crude oil and petroleum products at a national, regional and state level."

News release: "New standards for electronic funds transfers in health care, required by the Affordable Care Act, will reduce up to $4.5 billion off administrative costs for doctors and hospitals, private health plans, states, and other government health plans, over the next ten years, according to estimates included in new rules published today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The standards build upon regulations published earlier this year that set industry-wide standards for how health providers use electronic systems to quickly and easily determine a patient’s eligibility for health coverage and check on the status of a health claim. Together, the two regulations implementing the Administrative Simplification provisions of the Affordable Care Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are projected to save the health care industry more than $16 billion over the next 10 years. These savings come from the adoption of electronic standards that will help eliminate inefficient manual processes and reduce costs."

News release: "Unemployment rates were lower in November than a year earlier in 351 of the 372 metropolitan areas, higher in 16 areas, and unchanged in 5 areas, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Eight areas recorded jobless rates of at least 15.0 percent, while 25 areas registered rates of less than 5.0 percent. Two hundred thirty-nine metropolitan areas reported over-the-year increases in nonfarm payroll employment, 127 reported decreases, and 6 had no change. The national unemployment rate in November was 8.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted, down from 9.3 percent a year earlier."

A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America’s Cities - A 29-City Survey

Transformative Times: New Opportunities for Business in an Era of Upheaval, January 03, 2012 - Knowledge@Wharton

Debunking the "Job Killer" Myth - How Pollution Limits Encourage Jobs in the Chesapeake Bay Region, December 2011, Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

News release: "Manufacturing hourly compensation costs in the United States in 2010 were lower than in several northern and western European countries, Australia, and Canada, but higher than in the United Kingdom and 19 countries in southern and eastern Europe, Asia, and South America, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported [December 21, 2011]. U.S. hourly compensation costs rose about 2 percent from the previous year to $34.74. From 1997 to 2010, U.S. compensation cost competitiveness in manufacturing improved relative to all but five countries covered: Brazil, Germany, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan."

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide - Completely Updated - December 2011: Sabrina I. Pacifici's comprehensive, current awareness guide focuses on leveraging a wide but selected range of reliable, focused, predominantly free websites and resources to effectively track, monitor, analyze, background and review current and historical data, news, reports, and profiles on companies, markets, countries, people, and issues, from a global perspective. Sabrina's guide is a "best of" web resource that encompasses search engines, databases, alerts, publisher specific services and tools, along with links to content targeted sources produced by leading media organizations, governments, academia, NGOs and independent researchers.

CRS: Changes in the Distribution of Income Among Tax Filers Between 1996 and 2006: The Role of Labor Income, Capital Income, and Tax Policy, Thomas L. Hungerford, Specialist in Public Finance, December 29, 2011

"The UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics provides essential data for analysing and measuring world trade, investment, international financial flows and development. Reliable statistical information is often considered as the first step during the preparation of making recommendations or taking decisions that countries will commit for many years as they strive to integrate into the world economy and improve the living standards of their citizens. Whether it is for research, consultation or technical cooperation, UNCTAD [United Nations Conference on Trade and Development] requires comparable, often detailed economic, demographic and social data, over several decades and for as many countries as possible. In addition to facilitating the work of the secretariat’s economists, the UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics also enables other users, such as policymakers, research specialists, academics, officials from national governments or international organizations, executive managers or members of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from developing, transition or developed countries to have access to this rich statistical information. The Handbook further offers journalists comprehensive information in a presentation that meets their needs."

CRS: U.S.-Japan Economic Relations: Significance, Prospects, and Policy Options, William H. Cooper - Specialist in International Trade and Finance, December 5, 2011

Finances of Selected State and Local Government Employee Retirement Systems: 3rd Quarter 2011

World Oil Checkpoints: "Chokepoints are narrow channels along widely used global sea routes, some so narrow that restrictions are placed on the size of vessel that can navigate through them. They are a critical part of global energy security due to the high volume of oil traded through their narrow straits. In 2011, total world oil production amounted to approximately 88 million barrels per day (bbl/d), and over one-half was moved by tankers on fixed maritime routes. By volume of oil transit, the Strait of Hormuz leading out of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Malacca linking the Indian and Pacific Oceans are two of the world's most strategic chokepoints. The international energy market is dependent upon reliable transport. The blockage of a chokepoint, even temporarily, can lead to substantial increases in total energy costs. In addition, chokepoints leave oil tankers vulnerable to theft from pirates, terrorist attacks, and political unrest in the form of wars or hostilities as well as shipping accidents which can lead to disastrous oil spills."

• Employment growth by size class: comparing firm and establishment data - Sherry Dalton, Erik Friesenhahn, James Spletzer, and David Talan
• Estimating an energy consumer price index from establishment survey data, Janice Lent
• Entire December 2011 in one PDF file

"In the United States, we have come to depend on plentiful and inexpensive energy to support our economy and lifestyles. In recent years, many questions have been raised regarding the sustainability of our current pattern of high consumption of nonrenewable energy and its environmental consequences. Further, because the United States imports about 55 percent of the nation's consumption of crude oil, there are additional concerns about the security of supply. Hence, efforts are being made to find alternatives to our current pathway, including greater energy efficiency and use of energy sources that could lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as nuclear and renewable sources, including solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels. The United States has a long history with biofuels and the nation is on a course charted to achieve a substantial increase in biofuels. Renewable Fuel Standard evaluates the economic and environmental consequences of increasing biofuels production as a result of Renewable Fuels Standard, as amended by EISA (RFS2). The report describes biofuels produced in 2010 and those projected to be produced and consumed by 2022, reviews model projections and other estimates of the relative impact on the prices of land, and discusses the potential environmental harm and benefits of biofuels production and the barriers to achieving the RFS2 consumption mandate. Policy makers, investors, leaders in the transportation sector, and others with concerns for the environment, economy, and energy security can rely on the recommendations provided in this report."

EPA Needs to Manage Nanomaterial Risks More Effectively - Report No. 12-P-0162 December 29, 2011

"Widespread degradation and deepening scarcity of land and water resources have placed a number of key food production systems around the globe at risk, posing a profound challenge to the task of feeding a world population expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050, according to a new FAO report. The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW) notes that while the last 50 years witnessed a notable increase in food production, “in too many places, achievements have been associated with management practices that have degraded the land and water systems upon which food production depends.” Today a number of those systems “face the risk of progressive breakdown of their productive capacity under a combination of excessive demographic pressure and unsustainable agriculture use and practices,” the report says. No region is immune: systems at risk can be found around the globe, from the highlands of the Andes to the steppes of Central Asia, from Australia’s Murray-Darling river basin to the central United States."

"The 2011 Milken Institute Best-Performing Cities Index ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. The components include job, wage and salary, and technology growth. In most years, these give a good indication of the underlying structural performance of regional economics. The full report can be downloaded here.

• Scroll over the map on this page to see the ranked metros in each state and click through for more metro-specific data in that state.
  
• Click through the full list of ranked metros (see additional tabs for full list) on the left for job growth, wage and salary and other data.
  
• Find a specific metro by typing in any part of the metro name in the table below.
  
• Compare metro data side by side with another metro of your choice.
  
• Best-Performing Cities time series - see how regional and national economic trends have shaped the top 20 rankings since 1999.

"Top 5 Economic Charts of 2011 - As the year draws to a close, Real Time Economics takes a look back at five of our favorite charts from the Journal in 2011. These graphics look at the most recent year as well as the past to give us some insight into the future. Click on any image for larger version."

Addendum - A Year or More: The High Cost of Long-Term Unemployment. "In the third quarter of 2011 (the three month period from July to September), approximately 31.8 percent of the nearly 14 million Americans who were unemployed had been jobless for a year or more, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That percentage translates into more than 4.4 million people, nearly the population of Louisiana."

"Gallup in 2011 published nearly 100 unique articles about Americans' health and wellbeing. Through its daily surveys, conducted year-round, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index uncovers new insights into and provides the most up-to-date data available on Americans' mental state, exercise and eating habits, healthcare coverage, physical health, and financial wellbeing. The following list comprises Gallup editors' picks for the top 10 most compelling findings from this year."

Chief Justice's Year-End Reports on the Federal Judiciary, 2011: "Some observers have recently questioned whether the Judicial Conference’s Code of Conduct for United States Judges should apply to the Supreme Court. I would like to use my annual report this year to address
that issue, as well as some other related issues that have recently drawn public attention. The space constraints of the annual report prevent me from setting out a detailed dissertation on judicial ethics. And my judicial responsibilities preclude me from commenting on any ongoing debates about particular issues or the constitutionality of any enacted legislation or pending proposals. But I can provide some clarification on how the Justices address ethical issues and dispel some common misconceptions."

Top ten global weather events of 2011 by Dr. Jeff Masters

Revolution in the Arab World: "In the first article, Dr. Laleh Khalili compares the Arab Spring with other revolutions in the twentieth century, pointing out how difficult it is to ascertain what the effects of revolutions might be. Next, Dr. Jillian Schwedler also takes a historical approach to the study of revolution by looking systematically at protests in Jordan over several decades with a focus on law, urban space, and spectacle. Third, Dr. William Zartman focuses particularly on the events in Tunisia, commenting particularly on different groups vying for leadership. Fourth, Gamal Eid writes about how youth have used social media to rally support and organize protests in Egypt." The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)

Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, 2011 Annual Report to Congress, Report Period CY 2010, December 2011 - Issued December 2011

LSCM’s Past, Present, and Future of Keeping America Informed FY2011 Year in Review: "One LSCM focus this past year has been to increase content in GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) by improving and escalating our efforts to partner and collaborate with Federal depository libraries, Federal executive agencies, the Library of Congress, and the Federal courts. As a result, many new collections have been added to FDsys, including Federal court opinions and digitized historic volumes of the U.S. Statutes at Large. FDsys became GPO’s official system of record in December 2010, and GPO Access is now archive-only and will be officially shut down in 2012. LSCM staff have been instrumental in making the transition from GPO Access to FDsys a success. It’s important to point out that the eCFR is not affected by this change and will continue to be updated and remain publicly accessible."

"In September 2009, the President announced that—for the first time in history—White House visitor records would be made available to the public on an ongoing basis. Today, the White House releases visitor records that were generated in September 2011. Today’s release also includes several visitor records generated prior to September 16, 2009 that were requested by members of the public in November 2011 pursuant to the White House voluntary disclosure policy. This release brings the total number of records made public by this White House to more than 1.9 million records—all of which can be viewed in our Disclosures section."

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission has approved a biennial report to Congress focusing on the use of the Do Not Call Registry by both consumers and businesses over the past two years, as well as the impact that new technologies have had on the Registry. As detailed in the report, the Do Not Call Registry now has more than 209 million active registrations, and more than eight million new phone numbers were registered in Fiscal Year 2011. During that time, approximately 35,000 sellers, telemarketers, and exempt organizations such as charities subscribed to access the Registry, paying fees totaling more than $13.7 million. The report concludes that since its inception, the Registry has successfully accepted consumer registrations and complaints, allowed businesses to obtain access to Registry data, and provided law enforcement with the tools needed to investigate complaints and bring appropriate actions."

Labor Force Exits Are Complicating Unemployment Rate Forecasts, Richard Peach, Josiah Bethards, and Joseph Song. December 28, 2011

(WSJ graphic) - "New York had its safest decade in recorded history. Fire deaths, murders and other crimes were down."

PRNewswire: "With mortgage rates continuing to be near record lows, LendingTree.com, the nation's leading online lender exchange and personal finance resource, today released data highlighting the average loan amount on residential real estate purchases for all 50 states and Washington D.C. for the year. Hawaii, by far, leads the nation with an average home loan amount of $677,299, followed by Washington D.C. at $393,453, New Jersey at $344,240 and New York at $340,124. The states with the lowest average home loan amounts are Mississippi at $137,182 and Nebraska at $137,515. The national average for a home loan is $222,261. The full list of average home loan amounts for all 50 states and Washington D.C. is here."

The Federal Food Safety Working Group Progress Report, December 2011

News release: "As our nation prepares to ring in the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau today projected the Jan. 1, 2012, total United States population will be 312,780,968. This would represent an increase of 2,250,129, or 0.7 percent, from New Year's Day 2011, and an increase of 4,035,430, or 1.3 percent, since Census Day (April 1, 2010). In January 2012, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds in the United States and one death every 12 seconds. Meanwhile, net international migration is expected to add one person to the U.S. population every 46 seconds in January 2012. The combination of births, deaths and net international migration results in an increase in the total U.S. population of one person every 17 seconds."

News release: "Manufacturing hourly compensation costs in the United States in 2010 were lower than in several northern and western European countries, Australia, and Canada, but higher than in the United Kingdom and 19 countries in southern and eastern Europe, Asia, and South America, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. U.S. hourly compensation costs rose about 2 percent from the previous year to $34.74. From 1997 to 2010, U.S. compensation cost competitiveness in manufacturing improved relative to all but five countries covered: Brazil, Germany, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan."

Rising Inequality: Transitory or Permanent? New Evidence from a U.S. Panel of Household Income 1987-2006. December 15, 2011. Jason DeBacker (Treasury Department), Bradley Heim (Indiana University), Vasia Panousi (Federal Reserve Board), Ivan Vidangos (Federal Reserve Board)

News release: "The U.S. Department of the Treasury today released the Semi-Annual Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies, December 27, 2011 - that is required under Sections 3004 and 3005 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. The Report covers international economic and foreign exchange developments in the first half of 2011. Where pertinent and available, data and developments through mid-December 2011 are included. The Report highlights the need for greater exchange rate flexibility, most notably by China, but also in other major economies. Based on the ongoing appreciation of the RMB against the dollar since June 2010, the decline in China's current account surplus, and China's official commitments at the G-20, APEC, and the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) that it will move more rapidly toward exchange rate flexibility, Treasury has concluded that the standards identified in Section 3004 of the Act during the period covered in this Report have not been met with respect to China. Nonetheless, the movement of the RMB to date is insufficient. Treasury will closely monitor the pace of RMB appreciation and press for policy changes that yield greater exchange rate flexibility, a level playing field, and a sustained shift to domestic demand-led growth."

• Higher Education and Disability - Improved Federal Enforcement Needed to Better Protect Students' Rights to Testing Accommodations, GAO-12-40, November 29, 2011. "Federal enforcement of laws and regulations governing testing accommodations is largely complaint-driven and involves multiple agencies. While Justice has overall responsibility for enforcing compliance under the ADA, Education and HHS have enforcement responsibilities under the Rehabilitation Act for testing companies that receive federal financial assistance from them. Education and HHS officials said that they investigate each eligible complaint. Justice officials said they review each complaint at in-take, but they do not make a determination on every complaint because of the large volume of complaints it receives. Justice has clarified ADA requirements for testing accommodations primarily by revising its regulations, but it lacks a strategic approach to targeting enforcement."
• Commercial Spectrum - Plans and Actions to Meet Future Needs, Including Continued Use of Auctions, GAO-12-118, November 23, 2011
• Border Security - Additional Steps Needed to Ensure That Officers Are Fully Trained - GAO-12-269, December 22, 2011
• Hardrock Mining - BLM Needs to Revise Its Systems for Assessing the Adequacy of Financial Assurances, GAO-12-189R, December 12, 2011

"Taxpayers can get the most out of various recovery tax benefits and get a jump on preparing their 2011 federal income tax returns by consulting a newly revised comprehensive tax guide now available on IRS.gov. Publication 17, Tax Guide 2011 for Individuals, features details on taking advantage of a wide range of tax-saving opportunities, such as the American opportunity credit for parents and college students, and the child tax credit and expanded earned income tax credit for low- and moderate-income workers. This useful 303-page guide also provides more than 5,000 interactive links to help taxpayers quickly get answers to their questions. Publication 17 has been published annually by the IRS since the 1940s and has been available on the IRS web site since 1996. As in prior years, this publication is packed with basic tax-filing information and tips on what income to report and how to report it, figuring capital gains and losses, claiming dependents, choosing the standard deduction versus itemizing deductions and using IRAs to save for retirement."

"America's Youngest Outcasts 2010 documents the numbers of homeless children in every state, their well-being, their risk for child homelessness, and state level planning and policy activities. Using findings from numerous sources that include well-established national data sets as well as our own research, we rank the states in four domains and then develop a composite of these domains to rank the states from 1 (best) to 50 (worst). A page about the District of Columbia is also available. By rolling over each of the states in the map here, you can open and download the state page from the report that displays some of the key data used in ranking each state."

Survey of Current Business, December 2011, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Volume 91 Number 12

• GDP and the Economy: Second Estimates for the Third Quarter of 2011: Real GDP rose 2.0 percent after rising 1.3 percent in the second quarter. Consumer spending and nonresidential investment picked up. State and local government spending decreased less. Corporate profits slowed.
  
• Government Receipts and Expenditures: Third Quarter of 2011 - Net government saving increased $64.6 billion to –$1,251.0 billion. Net federal government saving increased $102.6 billion to –$1,172.8 billion. Net state and local government saving decreased $38.0 billion to –$78.2 billion.
  
• Annual Industry Accounts: Revised Statistics for 2003–2010 - Real GDP by industry grew 3.0 percent in 2010 after decreasing 3.5 percent in 2009. In 2010, 16 of 22 major industry groups contributed to the growth.
  
• Related postings on financial system

Women in the Labor Force: A Databook, 2011 Edition

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today finalized the 2012 percentage standards for four fuel categories that are part of the agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard program (RFS2). EPA continues to support greater use of renewable fuels within the transportation sector every year through the RFS2 program, which encourages innovation, strengthens American energy security, and decreases greenhouse gas pollution. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) established the RFS2 program and the annual renewable fuel volume targets, which steadily increase to an overall level of 36 billion gallons in 2022. To achieve these volumes, EPA calculates a percentage-based standard for the following year. Based on the standard, each refiner and importer determines the minimum volume of renewable fuel that it must ensure is used in its transportation fuel."

News release: "Data through October 2011, released today by S&P Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed decreases of 1.1% and 1.2% for the 10- and 20-City Composites in October vs. September. Nineteen of the 20 cities covered by the indices also saw home prices decrease over the month. The 10- and 20-City Composites posted annual returns of -3.0% and -3.4% versus October 2010, respectively. Fourteen of the 20 MSAs and both Composites saw improved annual returns compared to September’s data. Miami saw no change in annual returns in October; while Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Minneapolis saw their annual rates worsen. At -11.7% Atlanta posted the lowest annual return. Detroit and Washington DC were the only two cities to post positive annual returns of +2.5% and +1.3%, respectively."

News release: "The Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) released the ninth annual Ready or Not? Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, which finds key programs that detect and respond to bioterrorism, new disease outbreaks and natural or accidental disasters are at risk due to federal and state budget cuts. Some key programs at risk due to continued cuts to federal public health emergency preparedness funds include:

• 51 of the 72 cities in the Cities Readiness Initiative are at risk for elimination; the Initiative supports the ability to rapidly distribute and administer vaccines and medications during emergencies;
  
• All 10 state labs with "Level 1" chemical testing status are at risk for losing top level capabilities, which could leave the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with the only public health lab in the country with full ability to test for chemical terrorism and accidents;
  
• 24 states are at risk for losing the support of Career Epidemiology Field Officers - CDC experts who supplement state and local gaps to rapidly prevent and respond to outbreaks and disasters, such as during the H1N1 flu pandemic and responding to the health impact of the Gulf Oil Spill in 2010; and
  
• The ability for CDC to mount a comprehensive response to nuclear, radiologic and chemical threats as well as natural disasters is at risk due to potential cuts to the National Center for Environmental Health. All 50 states and Washington, D.C. would lose the support CDC provides during these emergencies.

"This application allows public access to court electronic records for Federal District Courts across the United States. Users MUST be registered, have a valid PACER account, to use this application. New users may register here PACER. This application is 'CASE SEARCH' only, therefore documents CANNOT be filed using this applciation, users can only view documents and information that is currently filed. It is important to note that a PACER account is separate from any filing account. A PACER account is required for document access in all federal courts."

Children and Justice During and in the Aftermath of Armed Conflict, September 2011. Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict

Reductions in Northeast Refining Activity: Potential Implications for Petroleum Product Markets, December 2011

H.8 Assets and Liabilities of Commercial Banks in the United States [from this link you may view chart and choose data download options] - last released Friday, December 23, 2011

Department of Defense Annual Report on Sexual Harassment and Violence at the Military Service Academies Academic Program Year 2010-2011, Report to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives, released December 27, 2011

U.S. Nuclear Cooperation with India: Issues for Congress, Paul K. Kerr, Analyst in Nonproliferation, December 15, 2011

Enhancing Personnel Reliability among Individuals with Access to Select Agents, Report of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), December 2011

Booms, Busts, and Divorce, Judith K. Hellerstein and Melinda Sandler Morrill (2011), The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy: Vol. 11: Iss. 1 (Contributions), Article 54.

"ViewPoint, the quarterly report from the Atlanta Fed's supervision and regulation division, presents the most recent data about banking conditions in the Southeast and nationally. This quarter's report in Financial Update includes information about small business lending, real estate lending, earnings performance, liquidity, and more."

"Healthy People 2020 provides a comprehensive set of 10-year, national goals and objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 contains 42 topic areas with nearly 600 objectives (with others still evolving), which encompass 1,200 measures. A smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, called Leading Health Indicators, has been selected to communicate high-priority health issues and actions that can be taken to address them."

Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008 - Annual Rates for 2009 and 2010. Alexia Cooper and Erica L. Smith, BJS Statisticians

OECD Economic Surveys - Israel, December 2011

News release, December 21, 2011: "The Department of Justice today filed its largest residential fair lending settlement in history to resolve allegations that Countrywide Financial Corporation and its subsidiaries engaged in a widespread pattern or practice of discrimination against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers in their mortgage lending from 2004 through 2008. The settlement provides $335 million in compensation for victims of Countrywide’s discrimination during a period when Countrywide originated millions of residential mortgage loans as one of the nation’s largest single-family mortgage lenders. The settlement, which is subject to court approval, was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in conjunction with the department’s complaint which alleges that Countrywide discriminated by charging more than 200,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers higher fees and interest rates than non-Hispanic white borrowers in both its retail and wholesale lending. The complaint alleges that these borrowers were charged higher fees and interest rates because of their race or national origin, and not because of the borrowers’ creditworthiness or other objective criteria related to borrower risk."

• WSJ: Countrywide Victims Sought - "The Justice Department faces the daunting task of tracking down more than 210,000 alleged victims and determining how to compensate them, following its landmark settlement with Bank of America's Countrywide unit."
  
• Related postings on financial system

Germany: Technical Note on Stress Testing, December 2011. IMF Country Report No. 11/371

Food Safety Epidemiology Capacity in State Health Departments — United States, 2010. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), December 23, 2011 / 60(50);1701-1704

Germany: Technical Note on Banking Sector Structure, December 2011. IMF Country Report No. 11/370

Money - Via the The Baseline Scenario

"Welcome to the Beta version of MyFCC, a new tool that lets you create a customized FCC online experience, with quick access to the tools and information that you need...Personalization options built into MyFCC make it possible to easily create, save and manage a customized page, or “dashboard.” Choose from a menu of “widgets” featuring a wide variety of the FCC’s most frequently used tools and services by simply dragging and dropping your selections onto your screen. MyFCC also makes it possible for you to share your MyFCC selections with colleagues or on the Web, either as a customized dashboard or by embedding individual widgets on a website or blog."

News release: "As the year draws to a close, EFF is looking back at the major trends influencing digital rights in 2011 and discussing where we are in the fight for a free expression, innovation, fair use, and privacy. The government has been using its secrecy system in absurd ways for decades, but 2011 was particularly egregious. Here are a few examples...

In following this initial FAA statement, The Apple iPad and Other Suitable Tablet Computing Devices as Electronic Flight Bags (EFB), May 13, 2011 - ZDNet reported, FAA approves iPads in the cockpit; American Airlines to start December 16, 2011.

Assessment of U.S. Government and Coalition Efforts to Develop the Logistics Sustainment Capability of the Afghan National Army, Report No. DODIG-2012-028 December 9, 2011

Follow up to DOD OIG Report: Examination of Allegations Involving DoD Office of Public Affairs Outreach Program [2009], this new report - Review of Matters Related to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Retired Military Analyst Outreach Activities (Redacted), DODIG-2012-025, November 21, 2011

From Keeping Up with the Joneses to Keeping Above Water: The Status of the US Consumer - A Publication of the BlackRock Investment Institute, September 2011

News release: "A new study released today by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provides new evidence on the liquidity of Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) and how it differs from that of nominal Treasury securities. The study, The Microstructure of the TIPS Market, is the latest article in the New York Fed’s Economic Policy Review series. Authors Michael J. Fleming and Neel Krishnan explain that the expected benefits from the Treasury’s introduction of TIPS in 1997 have yet to be fully realized, mainly because the securities are less liquid than nominal Treasuries. The relative lack of liquidity is thought to result in TIPS yields having a liquidity premium compared with nominal Treasuries, a factor that offsets the advantages of TIPS having no inflation risk. Despite the importance of TIPS liquidity and the market’s large size–$728 billion in November 2011 - there is hardly any quantitative evidence on the securities’ liquidity. The authors note that published Federal Reserve data show trading activity in TIPS to be much lower than activity in nominal securities. But the Fed data are aggregated over the week and across all TIPS and cover only trading volume. The data therefore do not provide information about activity in particular TIPS, activity over the day or week, or other measures of liquidity, such as bid-ask spreads."

"Bloomberg News today released spreadsheets showing daily borrowing totals for 407 banks and companies that tapped Federal Reserve emergency programs during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. It’s the first time such data have been publicly available in this form. To download a zip file of the spreadsheets, go to http://bit.ly/Bloomberg-Fed-Data. For an explanation of the files, see the one labeled “1a Fed Data Roadmap.” The day-by-day, bank-by-bank numbers, culled from about 50,000 transactions the U.S. central bank made through seven facilities, formed the basis of a series of Bloomberg News articles this year about the largest financial bailout in history."

Harvard School of Public Health Report - Four-Country Comparative Effectiveness Decision-Making and Patient Access Survey: "A new survey by the Harvard School of Public Health and the Alliance for Aging Research finds that a majority (62%) of Americans oppose decisions by the government or health insurance plans where prescription drugs or medical or surgical treatments are not paid for because the payors determine that the benefits do not justify the cost. The exception is if there’s evidence that something else works equally well but costs less. A majority (64%) of Americans believe the government or health insurance plans should not pay for a more expensive prescription drug or medical or surgical treatment if it has not been shown to work better than less expensive ones. Majorities in Italy and Germany share both of these beliefs with the U.S. public. In the United Kingdom, at least a plurality shares these beliefs."

CHIP Enrollment: December 2010 Data Snapshot, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured

Medical Bill Problems Steady for U.S. Families, 2007-2010 - by Anna Sommers and Peter J. Cunningham

Department of Energy Releases its 2011 Critical Materials Strategy: "The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released the 2011 Critical Materials Strategy. The report examines the role that rare earth metals and other key materials play in clean energy technologies such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, solar cells and energy-efficient lighting. The report found that several clean energy technologies use materials at risk of supply disruptions in the short term, with risks generally decreasing in the medium and long terms. Supply challenges for five rare earth metals (dysprosium, neodymium, terbium, europium and yttrium) may affect clean energy technology deployment in the years ahead."

Budgetary Effects of the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011, as Posted on the Website of the House Committee on Rules on December 22, 2011

"The Secretary of the Treasury, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is required annually to submit financial statements for the U.S. government to the President and the Congress. GAO is required to audit these statements. The Fiscal Year 2011 Financial Report of the United States Government (Financial Report) published by the Department of the Treasury includes GAO's report on the accompanying U.S. government's consolidated financial statements for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2011 and 2010, and the associated reports on internal control and compliance with significant laws and regulations."

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the first national standards to protect American families from power plant emissions of mercury and toxic air pollution like arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium, and cyanide. The standards will slash emissions of these dangerous pollutants by relying on widely available, proven pollution controls that are already in use at more than half of the nation’s coal-fired power plants. EPA estimates that the new safeguards will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year. The standards will also help America’s children grow up healthier – preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year."

"U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting Administrator Michael Huerta today announced a sweeping final rule that overhauls commercial passenger airline pilot scheduling to ensure pilots have a longer opportunity for rest before they enter the cockpit...The Department of Transportation identified the issue of pilot fatigue as a top priority during a 2009 airline Safety Call to Action following the crash of Colgan Air flight 3407. The FAA launched an aggressive effort to take advantage of the latest research on fatigue to create a new pilot flight, duty and rest proposal, which the agency issued on September 10, 2010."

• Government Auditing Standards - 2011 Revision (Supercedes GAO-07-731G) GAO-12-331G, Dec 1, 2011, Strategic Sourcing
• Office Supplies Pricing Study Had Limitations, but New Initiative Shows Potential for Savings, GAO-12-178, Dec 20, 2011
• DOD Financial Management - Ongoing Challenges with Reconciling Navy and Marine Corps Fund Balance with Treasury, GAO-12-132, Dec 20, 2011
• Pediatric Medical Devices - Provisions Support Development, but Better Data Needed for Required Reporting - GAO-12-225, Dec 20, 2011

State of the Federal Web Report, December 16, 2011. Produced by the .gov Reform Task Force

"Have you ever wondered why some online ads you see are targeted to your tastes and interests, or how websites remember your preferences from visit to visit? The answer may be in the “cookies." A cookie is information saved by your web browser, the software program you use to visit the web. Cookies can be used by companies that collect, store and share bits of information about your online activities to track your behavior across sites. Cookies also can be used to customize your browsing experience, or to deliver ads targeted to you. OnGuardOnline.gov wants you to know how cookies are used and how you can control information about your browsing activities. Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about cookies – what they are, what they do, and how you can control them."

CRS - U.S. Arms Sales: Agreements with and Deliveries to Major Clients, 2003-2010.
Richard F. Grimmett, Specialist in International Security, December 16, 2011

News release: "The Securities and Exchange Commission [December 16, 2011] charged six former top executives of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) with securities fraud, alleging they knew and approved of misleading statements claiming the companies had minimal holdings of higher-risk mortgage loans, including subprime loans.

• SEC complaint vs. Freddie Mac executives
  
• SEC complaint vs. Fannie Mae executives
  
• Non-Prosecution Agreement - Freddie Mac
  
• Non-Prosecution Agreement - Fannie Mae

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, December 2011: "The October downturn in the share of Americans with a favorable view of the health reform law, a dip driven by an erosion of support among Democrats, has been fully reversed in December, with support among Democrats rebounding and overall national opinion on the law returning to the roughly even split seen in Kaiser polls for most of 2011. Forty-three percent of Americans expressed unfavorable views of the law in December (compared to 51% and 44% in October and November, respectively), while 41 percent had favorable views (compared to 34% in October and 37% in November). Partisan divisions persist with 64 percent of Democrats backing the law and just as many Republicans (69%) opposing it. The December poll is the latest in a series designed and analyzed by the Foundation’s public opinion research team.

• Findings
  
• Chartpack
  
• Timeline

Inspection Report: Waste Disposal and Recovery Act Efforts at the Oak Ridge Reservation, INS-RA-L-12-01 December 2011

"[December 19, 2011], President Obama issued an executive order directing the implementation of the United States’ first-ever National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. The plan was developed with collaboration across the U.S. government, and with the help of NGOs and civil society groups that support women and girls every day. It is a historic step toward a future where all men and women can reach their full potential. The tangible commitments our government is making as part of the National Action Plan will weave perspectives of women and girls into the DNA of our foreign policy. These commitments include helping women engage in peace processes; providing assistance to NGOs focused on women’s participation; helping to integrate women into the security sectors of our partner nations; improving the UN’s capacity to combat sexual violence; holding development personnel and contractors to the highest standards for preventing human trafficking; and helping to ensure that humanitarian assistance is distributed equally to women as well as men."

High Risks & Challenges Overview: "Every two years, GAO provides Congress with an update on its High-Risk Program, which highlights major problems that are at high risk for waste, fraud, abuse mismanagement or in need of broad reform. There are 30 areas on GAO's High-Risk list. Pages in this section discuss each of these high-risk areas, including information from GAO's February 2011 high-risk update as well as the results of work completed since then. The 2011 high-risk update included one new issue area, Management of Federal Oil and Gas Resources. Two issues were removed from the list: 2010 Census and DOD’s Personnel Security Clearance Program. In addition to the high-risk issues, GAO is also calling attention to three other major government challenges that are of great national and international concern. GAO's recommendations to address these high-risk areas and major challenges could lead to billions of dollars in savings for the federal government, dramatically improve service to the public, and strengthen confidence in the performance and accountability of the U.S. government at home and abroad."

OECD Factbook 2011-2012 - Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics

News release: "The OECD area unemployment rate rose slightly, to 8.3% in October 2011, compared to 8.2% in September. The rate has hovered around this level since January 2011. The Euro area unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage point to 10.3% in October 2011, the highest rate recorded since the global financial crisis. The Netherlands (at 4.8%) and Spain (at 22.8%) both registered strong increases (0.3 percentage point). Spain’s rate now stands 14.9 percentage points higher than its previous low of 7.9% in July 2007. By contrast, in Germany the unemployment rate fell by 0.2 percentage point to 5.5%, continuing a sustained decline seen since the 8.0% peak in mid-2009."

• Coast Guard - Security Risk Model Meets DHS Criteria, but More Training Could Enhance Its Use for Managing Programs and Operations, GAO-12-14, Nov 17, 2011
• International Climate Change Assessments, Federal Agencies Should Improve Reporting and Oversight of U.S. Funding, GAO-12-43, Nov 17, 2011
• Port Security Grant Program - Risk Model, Grant Management, and Effectiveness Measures Could Be Strengthened, GAO-12-47, Nov 17, 2011

News release: "Customer satisfaction with credit unions breaks all prior records this year, according to a report released [December 14, 2011] by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Customers are more satisfied then ever before with credit unions, as the industry’s score soars 8.7% to 87 (on a scale of 0 to 100)—the highest score ever reached by any of ACSI’s 47 industries. In just one year, credit unions have tripled their ACSI lead over banks."

Report on the Troubled Asset Relief Program - December 2011: "In October 2008, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Division A of Public Law 110-343) established the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to enable the Department of the Treasury to promote stability in financial markets through the purchase and guarantee of "troubled assets." Section 202 of that legislation requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to submit semiannual reports on the costs of the Treasury’s purchases and guarantees of troubled assets. The law also requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to prepare an assessment of each OMB report within 45 days of its issuance. That assessment must discuss three elements:

• The costs of purchases and guarantees of troubled assets,
  
• The information and valuation methods used to calculate those costs, and
  
• The impact on the federal budget deficit and debt."
  
• See also CBO's Troubled Asset Relief Program: Infographic, December 16, 2011

Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research: Assessing the Necessity, December 15, 2011. Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

County Compensation by Industry, 2010: "Compensation increased in 2,480 counties and declined in 633 counties in the U.S. in 2010, as the average annual compensation per job increased 2.7 percent to $58,451, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Total compensation of U.S. workers increased 2.2 percent in 2010, as net job losses partially offset compensation growth. Inflation grew 1.8 percent, as measured by the national price index for personal consumption expenditures."

Basel III definition of capital - Frequently asked questions, Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, December 2011

News release: "The Federal Trade Commission today sent a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that oversees Internet domain names, expressing concern that the organization's plan to dramatically expand the domain name system could leave consumers more vulnerable to online fraud and undermine law enforcers' ability to track down online scammers. In its letter to ICANN, the Commission warned that rapid expansion of the number of generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) – the part of the domain name to the right of the dot, such as ".com," ".net" and ".org" – could create a "dramatically increased opportunity for consumer fraud," and make it easier for scam artists to manipulate the system to avoid being detected by law enforcement authorities. The Commission urged ICANN – before approving any new gTLD applications – to take additional steps to protect consumers, including starting with a pilot program to work out potential problems."

Smart Grid Legislative and Regulatory Policies and Case Studies, December 12, 2011 [299 pages, PDF]

Macroprudential regulation and policy BIS Papers No 60 December 2011: "The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Bank of Korea (BoK) jointly organised a conference on macroprudential regulation and policy in Seoul, Korea, on 16-18 January 2011. The conference aimed to bring academics together with researchers at central banks and other public institutions to present and discuss ongoing theoretical and empirical work in the field. In response to their call for papers, the organisers received more than 75 submissions from central banks, public agencies, supranational organisations and academic institutions. From these, a selection committee from the BIS and the BoK chose 12 papers organised around the following four themes: (i) systemic risk; (ii) financial system procyclicality; (iii) macroeconomic impact studies and early warning indicators; and (iv) effective implementation of macroprudential policy. In all, 35 participants took part, including central bank economists from Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the United States, as well as academics from Europe, Korea and North America. Governor Choongsoo Kim of the BoK gave the welcome address, and Governor Stefan Ingves of Sveriges Riksbank and Professor Hyun Song Shin from Princeton University gave keynote speeches. The conference concluded with a policy panel focusing on macroprudential policy frameworks. This volume is a collection of the welcome address, keynote speeches, revised versions of all papers presented during the conference and the panel discussions."

Are Recoveries from Banking and Financial Crises Really So Different? , Greg Howard, Robert Martin, and Beth Anne Wilson, (November 2011)

Tossed and Turned: Wealth Dynamics of U.S. Households 2007–2009, Arthur B. Kennickell

"As part of its Energy and Financial Markets Initiative, EIA is assessing the various factors that may influence oil prices — physical market factors as well as those related to trading and financial markets. This website describes 7 key factors that could influence oil markets. The analysis explores possible linkages between each factor and oil prices, and includes regularly-updated graphs that depict aspects of those relationships. EIA's traditional coverage of physical fundamentals such as energy consumption, production, inventories, spare production capacity, and geopolitical risks continues to be essential. EIA is also assessing other influences, such as futures market trading activity, commodity investment, exchange rates, and equity markets, as it seeks to fully assess energy price movements."

Moral Science - Protecting Participants in Human Subjects Research, Presidential Commission, for the Study of Bioethical Issues - December 2011

Follow up to postings on driving distractions and texting, this news release and related documentation: "The NTSB voted unanimously for a nationwide ban on the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed to support the driving task) for all drivers."

via IEEE Spectrum, Geothermal Energy’s Promise and Problems: "Geothermal energy is touted as one of the few renewable resources that could be used for base-load (round-the-clock) power generation: Earth’s heat is always on, and it’s not dependent on the vagaries of wind or sun. New research from Southern Methodist University—sponsored by Google’s philanthropic arm—suggests massive potential for geothermal power in the United States. But exploiting that resource will be slowed by the cost of the technology—and the fact that it can cause small earthquakes."

• Foster Children - HHS Guidance Could Help States Improve Oversight of Psychotropic Prescriptions [Reissued on December 15, 2011], GAO-12-201, Dec 14, 2011
• Progress and Challenges in Spending Weatherization Funds, GAO-12-195, Dec 16, 2011
• Medicaid - Health Opportunity Accounts Demonstration Program, GAO-12-221R, Dec 16, 2011
• Station Fire - Forest Service's Response Offers Potential Lessons for Future Wildland Fire Management, GAO-12-155, Dec 16, 2011

Northern soils will release huge amounts of carbon in a warmer world, say Edward A. G. Schuur, Benjamin Abbott and the Permafrost Carbon Network.

Follow up to related postings on public health and obesity, see this new CDC report: Obesity in K–8 Students — New York City, 2006–07 to 2010–11 School Years, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), December 16, 2011 / 60(49);1673-1678

News release: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and OpenTheGovernment.org released a joint report, Measuring Transparency Under the FOIA: The Real Story Behind the Numbers, analyzing the government’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) data for 2010 and how it compares to the previous administration’s data...The results paint a very mixed picture on the FOIA front, with agencies generally processing more requests more quickly, but also increasing their reliance on the FOIA’s nine exemptions to withhold more information from the public. Our analysis revealed an even more alarming truth: the government’s FOIA data is flawed, making it impossible to assess key areas of progress and casting doubt on its overall reliability. As a result, what started as a statistical report on agencies’ handling of FOIA requests ended as an expose of the problems with the data and tools the government has developed to measure its progress in implementing the FOIA."

• Arlington National Cemetery - Additional Actions Needed to Continue Improvements in Contract Management, GAO-12-99, December 15, 2011
• Arlington National Cemetery - Management Improvements Made, but a Strategy Is Needed to Address Remaining Challenges, GAO-12-105, December 15, 2011
• Coast Guard - Communication of Post-Government Employment Restriction Can Be Strengthened, GAO-12-174, December 15, 2011
• Delphi Pension Plans - GM Agreements with Unions Give Rise to Unique Differences in Participant Benefits, GAO-12-168, December 15, 2011
• DOD Health Care - Actions Needed to Help Ensure Full Compliance and Complete Documentation for Physician Credentialing and Privileging, GAO-12-31, December 15, 2011
• Drug Shortages - FDA's Ability to Respond Should Be Strengthened, GAO-12-315T, December 15, 2011
• Health Care Coverage - Job Lock and the Potential Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, GAO-12-166R, December 15, 2011
• Homelessness - To Improve Data and Programs, Agencies Have Taken Steps to Develop a Common Vocabulary, GAO-12-302T, Dec 15, 2011
• International Space Station - Approaches for Ensuring Utilization through 2020 Are Reasonable but Should Be Revisited as NASA Gains More Knowledge of On-Orbit Performance, GAO-12-162, Dec 15, 2011

News release: "The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has today published new guidance making it clear that information concerning official business held in private email accounts is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham said:

"The Blueprint for a Secure Cyber Future builds on the Department of Homeland Security Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Report’s strategic framework by providing a clear path to create a safe, secure, and resilient cyber environment for the homeland security enterprise. With this guide, stakeholders at all levels of government, the private sector, and our international partners can work together to develop the cybersecurity capabilities that are key to our economy, national security, and public health and safety. The Blueprint describes two areas of action: Protecting our Critical Information Infrastructure Today and Building a Stronger Cyber Ecosystem for Tomorrow. The Blueprint is designed to protect our most vital systems and assets and, over time, drive fundamental change in the way people and devices work together to secure cyberspace. The integration of privacy and civil liberties protections into the Department’s cybersecurity activities is fundamental to safeguarding and securing cyberspace."

Kaiser - Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 13 Years Later - A Report on the States’ Allocation of the Tobacco Settlement Dollars

News release: "The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported today in Prisoners in 2010 that the number of offenders under adult correctional supervision in the U.S. declined 1.3 percent in 2010, the second consecutive year of decline since BJS began reporting on this population in 1980. At yearend 2010, about 7.1 million people, or 1 in 33 adults, were under the supervision of adult correctional authorities in the U.S. In addition, the total U.S. prison population fell to 1.6 million at yearend 2010, a decline of 0.6 percent during the year, the first decline in the total prison population in nearly four decades. This decline was due to a decrease of 10,881 in the number of state prisoners, which fell to just under 1.4 million persons and was the largest yearly decrease since 1977. The federal prison population grew by 0.8 percent (1,653 prisoners) to reach 209,771, the smallest percentage increase since 1980. Most offenders under correctional supervision (about 7 in 10 persons or nearly 4.9 million people) were supervised in the community on probation or parole at yearend 2010. About 3 in 10 (or nearly 2.3 million people) were incarcerated in state or federal prisons or local jails. The decline in the total correctional population during 2010 was mainly due to a decrease in the number of probationers during the year (down 69,500 persons) and a decrease in the number of inmates incarcerated in local jails (down 18,700 persons)."

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization - G.17, December 15, 2011

Changes in Health Insurance Coverage in the Great Recession, 2007-2010. Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): "On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, based on a survey conducted in 2010. Over the course of a year, that equals more than 12 million women and men. Those numbers only tell part of the story — more than 1 million women are raped in a year and over 6 million women and men are victims of stalking in a year. These findings emphasize that sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence are important and widespread public health problems in the United States."

Follow up to previous postings on the Deepwater Horizon Spill, via National Academies Press - Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Offshore Drilling Safety

• Foster Children: HHS Guidance Could Help States Improve Oversight of Psychotropic Prescriptions, GAO-12-201, Dec 14, 2011
• Nuclear Nonproliferation - Action Needed to Address NNSA's Program Management and Coordination Challenges, GAO-12-71, Dec 14, 2011
• Small Business Lending Fund - Additional Actions Needed to Improve Transparency and Accountability, GAO-12-183, Dec 14, 2011

Subsidizing Employment Opportunities for Low-Income Families - A Review of State Employment Programs Created Through the TANF Emergency Fund. Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) Report 2011-38. December 2011. Administration for Children and Families, Health and Human Services. Key Findings:

• "While states and localities often had less than one year to create or expand their subsidized employment programs, many were able to mount relatively large-scale efforts. In all, 15 states placed over 5,000 people in jobs. Four of those states — California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Texas — each placed more than 25,000 people, accounting for over half of the national total. Nationwide, about half the placements were summer jobs for youth.
  
• Responding to the flexibility allowed under the Emergency Fund, states and localities implemented a wide range of programs. Programs differed in the participants targeted (most were not limited to TANF recipients), the type of employers recruited, the structure of the subsidy, and the size of the program.
  
• In many programs, participants worked for private employers, who were reimbursed for all or part of participants’ wages. This model contrasted with that of most earlier subsidized employment initiatives, which placed participants in nonprofit or public agencies.
  
• After funding ended, many of the programs also ended, and others sharply reduced the number of people served. Only a few states continued to operate at the same levels as previously, and these were states that, for the most part, were operating subsidized employment programs using TANF funds before ARRA was enacted."

Pew Research Center: Barely Half of U.S. Adults Are Married – A Record Low, New Marriages Down 5% from 2009 to 2010, by D’Vera Cohn, Jeffrey Passel and Wendy Wang

News release: "Total state government revenue increased to $2.0 trillion in 2010, up 79.0 percent from $1.1 trillion in 2009, resulting mainly from large increases in social insurance trust revenue, according to the latest findings from the U.S. Census Bureau. After a substantial loss in earnings in 2009, trust systems showed earnings of $450.5 billion in 2010, a gain of 218.2 percent over the year before. Two major sources make up these trust systems: (1) employee retirement systems and (2) federal and state social insurance trust systems, which include the unemployment compensation system, state government worker's compensation programs, Social Security, Medicare, veteran's life insurance and railroad retirement. Earnings on these systems vary widely year to year because state retirement systems invest heavily in financial markets and respond to shifts in market performance. More detailed statistics about the state retirement systems will be available with the upcoming state retirement data release in the first quarter of 2012. Nonetheless, state government budgets depend mostly on revenue from general sources — taxes, federal grants, service charges and other miscellaneous revenues. General revenues fund most state programs and in general comprise most of the state governments' revenue (76.8 percent in 2010)."

• Broadcasting Board of Governors Should Provide Additional Information to Congress Regarding Broadcasting to Cuba, GAO-12-243R, Dec 13, 2011
• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Additional Actions Needed to Strengthen Grants Management, GAO-12-158, Dec 13, 2011
• Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan Comparison of Implementation and Early Enrollment with the Children's Health Insurance Program, GAO-12-62R, Nov 10, 2011
• Retirement Benefit and Retained Asset Account Disclosures Could Be Improved, GAO-12-94, Nov 10, 2011
• Employment and Other Impacts Reported by NIH Recovery Act Grantees, GAO-12-32, Nov 10, 2011

"The Academic Libraries: 2010 First Look summarizes services, staff, collections, and expenditures of academic libraries in 2- and 4-year, degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia."

Illustrating Health Reform: How Health Insurance Coverage Will Work - "Click on the YouToon characters and Main Street businesses to view their illustrative profiles and learn how the Affordable Care Act will affect their coverage. Access downloads, additional resources and video explainers. View Health Reform Hits Main Street to learn more about the problems with the current health care system, the changes that are happening now, and the big changes coming in 2014."

Areas With Concentrated Poverty: 2006–2010, American Community Survey Briefs, December 2011

News release: "The market for fuel ethanol in the United States remains unconcentrated, with 164 firms nationwide either producing ethanol or likely to be in production in the next 12 to 18 months, according to the Federal Trade Commission's 2011 report on the state of U.S. ethanol production. The FTC report is the agency's seventh annual report on ethanol market concentration. In it, staff calculated market concentration for the ethanol production industry using different measures. The staff concluded that as of September 2011, there were four more ethanol producers in the United States than at the time of the FTC's 2010 report on U.S. ethanol production. The largest ethanol producer's share of capacity decreased slightly to 11.5 percent of domestic ethanol production capacity – below the 12 percent share in 2010, and remaining below the largest producer's capacity share between 2005 and 2007, which ranged from 26 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2007."

Lifeline for Families, Support for the Economy - The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, November 22, 2011

Smart Grid Legislative and Regulatory Policies and Case Studies, December 12, 2011

News release: "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today released year-end data on fiscal year (FY) 2011 border enforcement and management efforts, highlighting trends that reflect the Administration’s ongoing commitment to securing the border and facilitating legitimate trade and travel through targeted operations, enhanced partnerships and unprecedented deployment of personnel, technology and infrastructure along the border...U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions—a key indicator of illegal immigration—decreased to 340,252 in FY 2011, down 53 percent since FY 2008 and one fifth of what they were at their peak in FY 2000. Of these apprehensions, 87,334 people had a record in the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, a law enforcement database of individuals with criminal charges and convictions."

The U.S. Federal Budget: Infographic - December 12, 2011: "The United States is facing significant and fundamental budgetary challenges. The federal government's budget deficit for fiscal year 2011 was $1.3 trillion; at 8.7% of gross domestic product (GDP), that deficit was the third-largest shortfall in the past 40 years. (GDP is the sum of all income earned in the domestic production of goods and services. In 2011, it totaled $15.0 trillion.)"

Response to Questions About the Effects of a Tax on Financial Transactions That Would Be Imposed by the Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act, December 12. 2011

The Obama Administration’s Efforts To Stabilize the Housing Market and Help American Homeowners, November 2011

The U.S. automobile industry can be viewed as both a barometer and beneficiary of American growth and economic achievement. Supporting that view is the fact that the automobile industry affects industries that manufacture steel, glass, plastics, and rubber, as well as those that refine and sell gasoline, build roads, and maintain, repair, and sell motor vehicles. Motor vehicles also affect our daily lives. In 2010, on an average day, 67.6 percent of the civilian noninstitutional population aged 15 and over drove; those who drove spent on average 1 hour and 18 minutes driving. The structure of the U.S. automobile industry has changed. Several domestic automakers have lost market share to foreign-owned manufacturers, which now manufacture and sell an increasing number of cars in the United States and throughout North America. In this Spotlight we present BLS data to provide insight into employment within the motor vehicle and parts manufacturing industry, motor vehicle-related expenditures on the part of U.S. households, injuries experienced by those who work on motor vehicles, and industry productivity."

Aging in Place: A State Survey of Livability Policies and Practices, December 2011: "Nearly 90 percent of people over the age of 65 want to stay in their home for as long as possible. However, for older adults to age in place, their physical and service environment must be able to accommodate their needs. NCSL partnered with the AARP Public Policy Institute to examine promising state land use, transportation, and housing policies that may enable aging in place. These policies include integrating land use, housing and transportation; efficiently delivering services in the home; providing more transportation choices; and improving affordable, accessible housing to prevent social isolation."

Tison, J., Chaudhary, N., & Cosgrove, L. (2011, December). National phone survey on distracted driving attitudes and behaviors. (Report No. DOT HS 811 555). Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Eurostat regional yearbook 2011: "Statistical information is an important tool for understanding and quantifying the impact of political decisions on the citizens in a specific territory or region. The Eurostat regional yearbook 2011 gives a detailed picture of a large number of statistical fields in the 27 Member States of the European Union, as well as in EFTA and candidate countries. The text of each chapter has been written by specialists in statistics and is accompanied by maps, figures and tables. A broad set of regional indicators are presented for the following 16 subjects: population, labour market, labour cost, education, health, European cities, gross domestic product, household accounts, structural business statistics, information society, tourism, land cover and land use, coastal regions, transport, science, technology and innovation, and last but not least, a study on trends in densely and thinly populated areas."

BIS Quarterly Review December 2011 - International banking and financial market developments

News release: "A total of 152.3 million persons worked at some point during 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over who worked at some time during 2010 was 63.7 percent, down from 64.9 percent in 2009. The number of persons who experienced some unemployment during 2010 decreased by 894,000 to 25.2 million. These data are based on information collected in the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ASEC collects information on employment and unemployment experienced during the prior calendar year. Highlights from the 2010 data:

• The proportion of workers who worked full time, year round in 2010 was 64.7 percent, up from 64.0 percent in 2009.
  
• The "work-experience unemployment rate"--defined as the number of persons unemployed at some time during the year as a proportion of the number of persons who worked or looked for work during the year--was 15.9 percent in 2010, down from 16.4 percent in 2009.
  
• The number of individuals who looked for a job but did not work at all during 2010 rose by 715,000 over the year to 6.6 million."
  postings on financial system

Mercer Quality of Living Survey - Worldwide Rankings, 2011

Going Global: Chinese Oil and Mining Companies and the Governance of Resource Wealth, Jill Shankleman, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Fiscal policy and its implications for monetary and financial stability by Stephen Cecchetti, Martin Feldstein, Jaime Caruana, José De Gregorio, Peter Diamond and Peter Praet, BIS Papers No 59, December 2011

• Long-term fiscal sustainability in major economies, by Alan J Auerbach, Working Papers No 361, December 2011
• The "Austerity myth": Gain Without Pain?, by Roberto Perotti Working Papers No 362, December 2011
• The Liquidation of Government Debt, by Carmen M. Reinhart and M. Belen Sbrancia, Working Papers No 363, December 2011
• Perceptions and misperceptions of fiscal inflation, by Eric M. Leeper and Todd B. Walker, Working Papers No 364, December 2011
• Was This Time Different?: Fiscal Policy in Commodity, by Luis Felipe Céspedes and Andrés Velasco, Working Papers No 365, December 2011

News release: "Among fathers with a wife in the workforce, 32 percent were a regular source of care for their children under age 15, up from 26 percent in 2002, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. Among these fathers with preschool-age children, one in five fathers was the primary caregiver, meaning their child spent more time in their care than any other type of arrangement. The series of tables titled Who's Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Spring 2010 showed that in a typical week, 12.2 million (61 percent) of the 20 million children under age 5 were in some type of regular child care arrangement. As married women have increasingly moved into the labor force, fathers have become more available for child care while their wives are working."

Breast Cancer and the Environment: A Life Course Approach, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, December 7, 2011

Cost Estimate for H.R. 3630, Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011 - December 9, 2011

• Adult Drug Courts: Studies Show Courts Reduce Recidivism, but DOJ Could Enhance Future Performance Measure Revision Efforts, GAO-12-53, Dec 9, 2011
• Managing for Results: Opportunities for Congress to Address Government Performance Issues, GAO-12-215R, Dec 9, 2011
• Mississippi River: Actions Are Needed to Help Resolve Environmental and Flooding Concerns about the Use of River Training Structures, GAO-12-41, Dec 9, 2011

Estimates Provide Detailed Look at Every Community Nationwide: "The U.S. Census Bureau today released findings from the American Community Survey — the most relied-on source for detailed, up-to-date socio-economic statistics covering every community in the nation every year — for the combined years from 2006 to 2010. Consisting of about 11 billion individual estimates and covering more than 670,000 distinct geographies, the five-year estimates give even the smallest communities timely information on more than 40 topics, such as educational attainment, income, occupation, commuting to work, language spoken at home, nativity, ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs. Visitors to the Census Bureau website can find their community's estimates in the American FactFinder database."

News release: "Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its annual enforcement and compliance results. EPA’s enforcement and compliance program enforces environmental laws that protect our nation’s air, land and water by taking action to cut illegal pollution and protect people’s health and communities. In fiscal year Fiscal Year 2011, EPA enforcement actions led to more than 1.8 billion pounds in pollution reduced, an estimated $19 billion in required pollution controls and approximately $168 million in civil penalties."

Innovation and research strategy for growth, Department for Business Innovation and Skills, December 8, 2011

• Defense Contract Audits: Actions Needed to Improve DCAA's Access to and Use of Defense Company Internal Audit Reports, GAO-12-88, Dec 8, 2011
• Highway Emergency Relief: Strengthened Oversight of Project Eligibility Decisions Needed, GAO-12-45, Nov 8, 2011
• Transportation Security: Actions Needed to Address Limitations in TSA's Transportation Worker Security Threat Assessments and Growing Workload, GAO-12-60, Dec 8, 2011
• Transportation Security Infrastructure Modernization May Enhance DHS Screening Capabilities, but It Is Too Early to Assess Results, GAO-12-192R, Dec 8, 2011

News release: "The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force today released its final strategy for long term ecosystem restoration for the Gulf Coast, following extensive feedback from citizens throughout the region...The strategy is the first restoration blueprint ever developed for the Gulf to include input from states, tribes, federal agencies, local governments and thousands of involved citizens and organizations across the region. The plan represents a commitment by all parties to continue to work together in an unprecedented collaboration to prepare the Gulf region to transition from response to recovery and address the decades-long decline that the Gulf’s ecosystem has endured...With the release of the final strategy today, the Task Force marks the beginning of the implementation phase of the strategy by announcing new initiatives, including $50 million in assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to help agricultural producers in seven Gulf Coast river basins improve water quality, increase water conservation and enhance wildlife habitat."

News release: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released a draft analysis of data from its Pavillion, Wyoming ground water investigation. At the request of Pavillion residents, EPA began investigating water quality concerns in private drinking water wells three years ago. Since that time, in conjunction with the state of Wyoming, the local community, and the owner of the gas field, Encana, EPA has been working to assess ground water quality and identify potential sources of contamination. EPA constructed two deep monitoring wells to sample water in the aquifer. The draft report indicates that ground water in the aquifer contains compounds likely associated with gas production practices, including hydraulic fracturing. EPA also re-tested private and public drinking water wells in the community. The samples were consistent with chemicals identified in earlier EPA results released in 2010 and are generally below established health and safety standards. To ensure a transparent and rigorous analysis, EPA is releasing these findings for public comment and will submit them to an independent scientific review panel. The draft findings announced today are specific to Pavillion, where the fracturing is taking place in and below the drinking water aquifer and in close proximity to drinking water wells – production conditions different from those in many other areas of the country."

The Future of the Electric Grid: "For well over a century, electricity has made vital contributions to the growth of the U.S. economy and the quality of American life. The U.S. electric grid is a remarkable achievement, linking electric generation units reliably and efficiently to millions of residential, commercial, and industrial users of electricity through more than six million miles of lines and associated equipment that are designed and managed by more than 3,000 organizations, many of which are in turn regulated by both federal and state agencies. While this remarkable system of systems will continue to serve us well, it will face serious challenges in the next two decades that will demand the intelligent use of new technologies and the adoption of more appropriate regulatory policies. This report aims to provide a comprehensive, objective portrait of the U.S. electric grid and the challenges and opportunities it is likely to face over the next two decades. It also highlights a number of areas in which policy changes, focused research and demonstration, and the collection and sharing of important data can facilitate meeting the challenges and seizing the opportunities that the grid will face. This study is the sixth in the MIT Energy Initiative's "Future of" series. Its predecessors have shed light on a range of complex and important issues involving energy and the environment. While the previous studies have focused on particular technologies and energy supply, our study of the grid necessarily considers many technologies and multiple overlapping physical and regulatory systems. Because of this breadth, our efforts were focused on integrating and evaluating existing knowledge rather than performing original research and analysis. In addition, this study's predecessors focused on implications of national policies limiting carbon emissions, while we do not make assumptions regarding future carbon policy initiatives. Instead, we mainly consider the implications of a set of ongoing trends and existing policies."

News release: "The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) today issued a second set of regulatory violations arising from operations conducted in connection with the Macondo well. The violations were issued as Incidents of Non-Compliance (INC). A total of five INCs were issued by faxed letter to BP; four of the INCs were violations of one regulation in different sections of the well...The following is a listing of the federal regulations and INCs issued today to BP: One violation of 30 CFR 250.427 – BP failed to conduct an accurate pressure integrity test at the 13-5/8” liner shoe. Four violations of 30 CFR 250.427(b) – BP failed to suspend drilling operations at the Macondo well when the safe drilling margin identified in the approved application for permit to drill was not maintained...More information regarding the initial INCs issued to BP, Transocean and Halliburton can be found here."

• Fraud Detection Systems: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Needs to Expand Efforts to Support Program Integrity Initiatives, GAO-12-292T, Dec 7, 2011
• Homeland Defense and Weapons of Mass Destruction: Additional Steps Could Enhance the Effectiveness of the National Guard's Life-Saving Response Forces, GAO-12-114, Dec 7, 2011
• IT Dashboard: Accuracy Has Improved, and Additional Efforts Are Under Way to Better Inform Decision Making, GAO-12-210, Nov 7, 2011
• Medicaid Program Integrity: Expanded Federal Role Presents Challenges to and Opportunities for Assisting States, GAO-12-288T, Dec 7, 2011
• National Capital Region: 2010 Strategic Plan is Generally Consistent with Characteristics of Effective Strategies, GAO-12-276T, Dec 7, 2011
• Postsecondary Education: Student Outcomes Vary at For-Profit, Nonprofit, and Public Schools, GAO-12-143, Dec 7, 2011
• State Small Business Credit Initiative: Opportunities Exist to Improve Program Oversight, GAO-12-173, Dec 7, 2011
• Visa Waiver Program: Additional Actions Needed to Address Risks and Strengthen Overstay Enforcement, GAO-12-287T, Dec 7, 2011
• Vacant Properties: Growing Number Increases Communities' Costs and Challenges, GAO-12-34, Nov 4, 2011

"A comprehensive new study that profiles 265 consistently profitable Fortune 500 companies finds that 68 of them paid no state corporate income tax in at least one of the last three years and 20 of them averaged a tax rate of zero or less during the 2008-2010 period. These are among the findings in Corporate Tax Dodging in the Fifty States, 2008-2010 released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ). “Our report shows these corporations raked in a combined $1.33 trillion in profits in the last three years, and far too many have managed to shelter half or more of their profits from state taxes,” said Matthew Gardner, Executive Director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the report’s co-author. “They’re so busy avoiding taxes, it’s no wonder they’re not creating any new jobs.” Among the 20 corporations who paid zero or less in state corporate income taxes over the three year period are: Utility provider Pepco Holdings (DC); pharmaceutical giant Baxter International (IL); chemical maker DuPont (DE); fast food behemoth Yum Brands (KY); high tech manufacturer Intel (CA). All 265 corporations, headquartered in 36 states, are listed in the report."

News release: "November and the September-November autumn season were warmer than average across the contiguous U.S., according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, N.C. Precipitation totals across the country were also above average during November, but near the long-term average for the autumn season. The average U.S. temperature in November was 44.3 degrees F, or 1.8 degrees F above the 1901-2000 long term average, while the average autumn temperature was 55.5 degrees F or 1.3 degrees F above average. Precipitation averaged across the nation during November, was 2.33 inches or 0.21 inch above average. The severity of drought conditions lessened across northern Texas, where near-normal precipitation was observed for the month, but in other locations throughout the state, drier-than-normal conditions meant drought conditions remained unchanged."

"This report summarizes the first three months of the CFPB’s Consumer Response complaint system and its work on credit card complaints.1 Going forward, the Bureau plans to provide similar credit card complaint data reports as part of a formal credit card complaint data disclosure policy. The Bureau is publishing a proposal for that data disclosure at the same time as this interim report. As the complaint system matures and a formal policy is developed, future reports may present more detailed information. In the CFPB’s first three months, less than half of the calls that Consumer Response handled resulted in the filing of a credit card complaint. Instead, most of the calls resulted in taking general feedback from consumers or directing consumers to credit card informational resources or just answering general questions about credit card processes."

Monthly Budget Review December 2011: "The federal budget deficit was close to $240 billion for the first two months of fiscal year 2012, more than $50 billion below the deficit recorded through November of last year, CBO estimates. Much of that difference occurred because roughly $30 billion in payments that would ordinarily have been made on October 1, 2011 (that is, in fiscal year 2012), were made instead in September (that is, in fiscal year 2011) because October 1 fell on a weekend. Without those shifts in the timing of payments, the decline in the deficit for the two-month period would have been about $20 billion."

Health Spending by State of Residence, 1991–2009. Medicare & Medicaid Research Review 2011: Volume 1, Number 4

Improving American's Financial Security: "..one of the most important components of Wall Street reform is putting in place a Director of the new CFPB. It is only with a Director that the CFPB can exercise its full authorities and make good on the consumer protection goals of Wall Street Reform. Without a Director, the CFPB cannot fully supervise1 non‐bank financial institutions such as independent payday lenders, non‐bank mortgage lenders, non‐bank mortgage servicers, debt collectors, credit reporting agencies and private student lenders. Without a Director, Americans will not be protected from falling prey to many of the harmful practices that contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. CFPB’s inability to exercise its full authority while it awaits a Director affects the lives and financial security of tens of millions of American families who rely on non‐bank financial institutions for their financial needs. Indeed, whether it is shopping for a mortgage or private student loan, or having one’s credit report used in a lending decision, many middle class families are reliant upon non‐bank financial actors."

Emerging East Asia - A Regional Economic Update, December 2011. Asian Development Bank. "Outlook and Risks:

• Since mid-2011, the external environment for emerging
  East Asia has worsened; no resolution of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis is in sight and the US recovery remains fragile.
  
• Aggregate GDP in emerging East Asia is expected to grow 7.2% in 2012 after expanding 7.5% this year.
  
• The cautiously optimistic outlook for emerging East Asia is subject to major downside risks: (i) a deep recession in both the eurozone and US; (ii) protectionism or tight trade finance; (iii) destabilizing capital flows; and (iv) persistent or resurgent inflation."

Matt Leichter: "Two weeks ago, I used U.S. News and Official Guide data to show that in 2010, 44,245 ABA law school graduates took on $3.6 billion in student loans, a sum that increased from $3.1 billion in 2008. The increases occur because Congress allows law students to fully finance their legal educations (and living expenses!) with a combination of $20,500 in Federal Direct Stafford Loans and Graduate PLUS loans that cover the remaining cost. Consequently, the amount of debt law students will take on will increase exponentially into the future to pay for rampant tuition increases, leaving Congress with no alternatives involving 199 J.D.-conferring law schools employing 22,000 people at their current salaries. Indeed, the solution will not be pretty for the profession's reputation—or for taxpayers. While the available U.S. News data only cover three years, the American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education's Web site provides an almost insignificant PDF titled, "Average Amount Borrowed for Law School," which begins in the 2001-2002 school year and ends in 2009-2010. While the available U.S. News data only cover three years, the American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education's Web site provides an almost insignificant PDF titled, Average Amount Borrowed for Law School, which begins in the 2001-2002 school year and ends in 2009-2010."