Category «Economy»

No one wants to pay $200 for a textbook

EdScoop -“No one wants to pay $200 for a textbook, and soon no one will have to, because the $200 textbook may be disappearing. Like other technological trends that were plodding along before COVID-19, the use of digital resources and freely licensed learning materials — known as open educational resources, or OER — exploded in 2020. …

Subjects: Economy, Education

The Return to Public Library Investment

The Returns to Public Library Investment – Gregory Gilpin, Ezra Karger, and Peter Nencka, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, April 2021. “Local governments spend over 12 billion dollars annually funding the operation of 15,000 public libraries in the United States. This funding supports widespread library use: more than 50% of Americans visit public libraries each …

Subjects: Economy, Education, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

The Library’s Furniture

Library Barbarian – Discourses in Academic Librarianship and Higher Ed – The Library’s Furniture – “…It is a not-so well-hidden truth that many makers of institutional furniture–including that which will replace the destroyed and vandalized desks of congress from the January 6 attack–comes from the underpaid and coerced labor of inmates in prison facilities. The …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Legal Research, Libraries

Climate Change Risk Disclosures and the Securities and Exchange Commission

CRS report – Climate Change Risk Disclosures and the Securities and Exchange Commission, April 20 2021: “Potential risks to the U.S. financial system from climate change have attracted growing attention in government, academia, and media, raising questions about the roles of financial regulators in addressing such risks. Scientific assessments have concluded that human activities—and particularly …

Subjects: Climate Change, Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

Stuck in the Suez Canal – What are the Legal Implications?

In Custodia Legis – Stuck in the Suez Canal – What are the Legal Implications? – “The following is a joint guest post by Elizabeth Boomer, an international law consultant, and George Sadek, a foreign law specialist, from the Global Legal Research Directorate of the Law Library of Congress. On March 29, 2021, the engineers of the Suez …

Subjects: Economy, Legal Research, Libraries, Transportation

King Cotton, the Munificent Slavery and (Under)development in the United States, 1789-1865

King Cotton, the Munificent Slavery and (Under)development in the United States, 1789-1865. Joseph A. Francis. Working Paper. April 2021. “Slavery made an important contribution to the development of the United States up to the Civil War. Slaves were were necessary for the country’s cotton boom because cotton was not sufficiently remunerative to attract yeoman farmers. …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Education, Financial System

The Coming AI Hackers

The Coming AI Hackers – Bruce Schneier – “Artificial intelligence—AI—is an information technology. It consists of software. It runs on computers. And it is already deeply embedded into our social fabric, both in ways we understand and in ways we don’t. It will hack our society to a degree and effect unlike anything that’s come before. …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Internet, Knowledge Management, Privacy, Social Media

IMF Launches Climate Change Indicators Dashboard

“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) launched a new Climate Change Indicators Dashboard—an international statistical initiative to address the growing need for data in macroeconomic and financial policy analysis to facilitate climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Dashboard is a single platform that brings together experimental climate change indicators that allows comparison across countries. The indicators …

Subjects: Climate Change, Economy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

FTC – Protecting Consumers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Year in Review

Protecting Consumers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Year in Review – “The Federal Trade Commission is a bipartisan independent agency that protects consumers and promotes competition. The COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant economic fallout touch on the full breadth of the Commission’s mandate. The FTC has applied its resources to investigate and respond to issues …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Privacy

Policing and ‘Bluelining’

Gruber, Aya, Policing and ‘Bluelining’ (December 11, 2020). Houston Law Review, Vol. 58, No. 2, 2021, U of Colorado Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-1, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3746717 “In this essay written for the Frankel Lecture symposium on police killings of Black Americans, I explore the increasingly popular claim that racialized brutality is …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Government Documents, Legal Research