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Daily Archives: February 6, 2014

Federal Reserve Board – The Interest Rate Elasticity of Mortgage Demand

Report – In Developing World, A Push to Bring E-Waste Out of Shadows

Mike Ives: “For decades, hazardous electronic waste from around the world has been processed in unsafe backyard recycling operations in Asia and Africa. Now, a small but growing movement is seeking to provide these informal collectors with incentives to sell e-waste to advanced recycling facilities…Researchers say printed circuit boards, which often contain gold and other valuable… Continue Reading

Cognitive Ability and Post-Retirement Asset Decumulation

Browning, Chris and Huston, Sandra J. and Finke, Michael S., Cognitive Ability and Post-Retirement Asset Decumulation (February 4, 2014). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2390862 “There is evidence that retirees are decumulating their assets very slowly or not at all. This behavior does not follow the normative framework of the life-cycle hypothesis (LCH). Decumulating in a manner… Continue Reading

Bipartisan Policy Center Releases Three Commissioned Papers Related to the Renewable Fuel Standard

[February 4,, 2014] the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Energy Project published three of five commissioned background papers on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The remaining two, which are two separate law firms’ perspectives on the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to amend the RFS, will be released by the end of February. Throughout the course of this year, BPC… Continue Reading

Payment System Improvement – Public Consultation Paper and Industry Response

On September 10, 2013, the Federal Reserve Banks released the Payment System Improvement – Public Consultation Paper. The paper shares Federal Reserve perspectives on the key gaps and opportunities in the current U.S. payment system and identifies the desired outcomes that close these gaps and capture these opportunities. “The U.S. payment system is undergoing a remarkable period… Continue Reading

2013 was a record-breaking year for exonerations in the United States

“The National Registry of Exonerations is a joint project of the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. We provide detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989—cases in which a person was wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new… Continue Reading

Report – US: For-Profit Probation Tramples Rights of Poor

Human Rights Watch – “Every year, US courts sentence several hundred thousand misdemeanor offenders to probation overseen by private companies that charge their fees directly to the probationers. Often, the poorest people wind up paying the most in fees over time, in what amounts to a discriminatory penalty. And when they can’t pay, companies can… Continue Reading

Report – Tree roots in the mountains ‘acted like a thermostat’ for millions of years

University of Oxford: “For the first time, scientists have discovered how tree roots in the mountains may play an important role in controlling long-term global temperatures. Researchers from Oxford and Sheffield Universities have found that temperatures affect the thickness of the leaf litter and organic soil layers, as well as the rate at which the… Continue Reading

New GAO Reports – Border Security, Economic Development Admin., Entrepreneurial Assistance, Medicaid Prescription Drugs, TARP, USPS

BORDER SECURITY: DHS Needs to Strengthen Its Efforts to Modernize Key Enforcement Systems, GAO-14-342T:  Published: Feb 6, 2014. Publicly Released: Feb 6, 2014. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION: Documentation of Award Selection Decisions Could Be Improved, GAO-14-131: Published: Feb 6, 2014. Publicly Released: Feb 6, 2014. ENTREPRENEURIAL ASSISTANCE: Opportunities Exist to Improve Collaboration and Performance Management for Financial Assistance Programs, GAO-14-335T: Published: Feb 6, 2014.… Continue Reading