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Daily Archives: October 22, 2013

The Future of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex

“The mission of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is to ensure a safe, secure, and reliable nuclear arsenal. The complex must be able to extend the life of nuclear warheads, assess their reliability and safety, understand the impact of aging and modifications, and retain employees with essential scientific and technical expertise. Just as important for U.S. security, the complex should dismantle retired weapons in a timely fashion, and develop methods for verifying further reductions in nuclear weapons. The complex must also minimize the security risks entailed in storing, transporting, and disposing of weapons-usable materials. The complex must meet all these challenges with limited resources. Doing so will require making smart choices based on strict attention to priorities. The administration and Congress will make key decisions on the nuclear weapons complex over the next few years. Toward that end, this report examines the essential missions of the complex, considers its key challenges, and suggests critical near-term and long-term steps.”

Updates to ArchiveGrid index

“Recent changes to the OCLC Research ArchiveGrid collection of archival material descriptions have resulted in a better experience for ArchiveGrid users. The latest ArchiveGrid index update puts the number of archival material descriptions in ArchiveGrid over the two million mark, giving users access to more archival descriptions than ever. The ArchiveGrid user interface now utilizes… Continue Reading

Calculating Restitution for Mortgage Fraud

The Arithmetic of Justice: Calculating Restitution for Mortgage Fraud, T. Dietrich Hill, Columbia University – Law School – October 21, 2013. Columbia Law Review, Forthcoming “The Mandatory Victims Restitution Act requires restitution for federal crimes involving property. In particular, the defendant is required to return any property taken, or, if return is impossible, to pay… Continue Reading

Federal Regulators Provide Guidance on Qualified Mortgage Fair Lending Risks

News release: “Five federal regulatory agencies today issued a statement to address industry questions about fair lending risks associated with offering only Qualified Mortgages. Creditors have asked for clarity regarding whether the disparate impact doctrine of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and its implementing regulation, Regulation B, allows them to originate only Qualified Mortgages.… Continue Reading

Student Financial Aid, Academic Year 2011-12

Student Financial Aid, Academic Year 2011–12, First Look (Provisional Data): “This provisional First Look presents fully edited and imputed data findings on student financial aid, including the number of undergraduate students receiving aid and the amount of aid received by those students for the 2011-12 academic year.” See also Degrees of Debt: Student Loan Repayment… Continue Reading

Literacy, Numeracy, and Problem Solving in Technology

“This report presents results of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Results are reported for a representative sample of adults in the United States age 16 to 65 and are compared to an international average of adults in countries/regions that participated in the PIAAC 2012 assessment. The report presents average score… Continue Reading

The Macroeconomic Policy Paradox – Failing by Succeeding

The Macroeconomic Policy Paradox – Failing by Succeeding,  Alan S. Blinder “While objections can be (and have been) raised, the U.S. government’s multifaceted macroeconomic policy responses to the financial crisis after September 2008 appear to have been quite effective. Yet, politically, they are more reviled than admired. The paradox is that economic success—in the sense of… Continue Reading

Le Monde documents NSA PRISM surveillance of citizens

Jacques Follorou and Glenn Greenwald, Le Monde: “According to the documents retrieved from the NSA database by its ex-analyst, telephone communications of French citizens are intercepted on a massive scale. Le Monde has been able to obtain access to documents which describe the techniques used to violate the secrets or simply the private life of… Continue Reading