Day archives: April 2nd, 2014

MENA Women: Opportunities and Obstacles in 2014

“On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2014, the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center invited a cross-section of women activists, politicians, academics, and entrepreneurs to give us their views on the situation for women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This publication, MENA Women: Opportunities and Obstacles in 2014 includes pieces from …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Knowledge Management

BLS Occupational Employment Statistics

“The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program produces employment and wage estimates annually for over 800 occupations. These estimates are available for the nation as a whole, for individual States, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas; national occupational estimates for specific industries are also available. The May 2013 Occupational Employment Statistics data were released on April 1, 2014 and …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

Status Update: Encryption at Yahoo

By Alex Stamos, Chief Information Security Officer: “When I joined Yahoo four weeks ago, we were in the middle of a massive project to protect our users and their data through the deployment of encryption technologies as we discussed in our November 2013 Tumblr. So today, we’re updating you on our progress: Traffic moving between Yahoo data …

Subjects: Cybercrime, E-Mail, Internet, Patriot Act, Privacy, Search Engines

Financial Stability Policies for Shadow Banking

Tobias Adrian, Staff Report No. 664, February 2014: “This paper explores financial stability policies for the shadow banking system. I tie policy options to economic mechanisms for shadow banking that have been documented in the literature. I then illustrate the role of shadow bank policies using three examples: agency mortgage real estate investment trusts, leveraged lending, and captive …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

New GAO Reports – Information Security, Information Technology, Missile Defense, VA Health Care

INFORMATION SECURITY: Federal Agencies Need to Enhance Responses to Data Breaches, GAO-14-487T: Published: Apr 2, 2014. Publicly Released: Apr 2, 2014. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: IRS Needs to Improve the Reliability and Transparency of Reported Investment Information, GAO-14-298: Published: Apr 2, 2014. Publicly Released: Apr 2, 2014. MISSILE DEFENSE: Mixed Progress in Achieving Acquisition Goals and Improving Accountability, GAO-14-481T: Published: Apr 2, 2014. Publicly Released: …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Defense, Government Documents, Health Care

Supreme Court’s 5-4 Ruling on Campaign Finance

McCutcheon v FEC. Apppeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 12-536. Argued October 8, 2013 – Decided April 2, 2014. “The Government has a strong interest, no less critical to our democratic system, in combatting corruption and its appearance. We have, however, held that this interest must be limited to a …

Subjects: Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

LIBOR: Origins, Economics, Crisis, Scandal, and Reform

David Hou, David Skeie – Staff Report No. 667 – March 2014 “The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a widely used indicator of funding conditions in the interbank market. As of 2013, LIBOR underpins more than $300 trillion of financial contracts, including swaps and futures, in addition to trillions more in variable-rate mortgage and student loans. LIBOR’s …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents

Obama’s intel czar confirms targeting U.S. communications

National Journal – How the NSA Used a ‘Loophole’ to Spy on Americans: “Technology Correspondent Brendan Sasso reports that Obama’s intel czar confirmed that they’re targeting U.S. communications: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gives the NSA broad power to listen in on phone calls and access emails. But the law covers only non-Americans located outside of …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Defense, E-Mail, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Patriot Act