Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
National Center for Children in Poverty Report January 2017 – “Among all children under 18 years in the U.S., 43 percent live in low-income families and 21 percent—approximately one in five—lives in a poor family. This means that children are overrepresented among our nation’s poor; they represent 23 percent of the population but comprise 33 …
“Access to good-quality affordable housing is a fundamental need and key to achieving a number of social policy objectives, including reducing poverty and enhancing equality of opportunity, social inclusion and mobility. Housing needs are frequently unmet, and today a significant number of people across the OECD are homeless and too many households live in low-quality …
Follow up to previous posting – Executive Order on Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs – via the National Resources Defense Council – “The order goes beyond the president’s authority under the Constitution, rewriting laws by personal fiat rather than through a constitutional process. It would require federal agencies to violate both their legal obligations to …
Via FAS – CRS report – Social Security: The Lump-Sum Death Benefit, Wayne Liou Analyst in Social Policy. February 2, 2017. “When a worker who is insured by Social Security and living with a spouse dies, the spouse is entitled to a lump-sum death benefit of $255. If there is no such spouse, the payment …
Employee Benefit Research Institute – Savings Medicare Beneficiaries Need for Health Expenses: Some Couples Could Need as Much as $350,000: “This EBRI Notes article examines the amount of savings Medicare beneficiaries are projected to need to cover program deductibles, premiums and other health expenses in retirement. For the purposes of this study, health expenses include …
White House prress release, February 8, 2017 reflects a cabinet with designees still awaiting confirmation: President Donald J. Trump today formally announced the 24 people who will be serving with him on his Cabinet. Unfilled positions – Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, EPA, HUD, Interior, Labor, Small Business, Veterans Affairs, OMB, Director of National Intelligence and the …
“Manufacturing was the nation’s leading investor in capital expenditures in 2015 with $239.6 billion spent for structures and equipment, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 Annual Capital Expenditures Survey. Businesses invested $1,638.6 billion in new and used buildings, structures, machinery and equipment (including computer software), up $40.7 billion (2.5 percent) from 2014. This is …
Pew Report – Algorithms are aimed at optimizing everything. They can save lives, make things easier and conquer chaos. Still, experts worry they can also put too much control in the hands of corporations and governments, perpetuate bias, create filter bubbles, cut choices, creativity and serendipity, and could result in greater unemployment. “Algorithms are instructions for …
CRS report via FAS – What Is Manufacturing? Why Does the Definition Matter? Marc Levinson, Section Research Manager, February 6, 2017. “Numerous provisions in federal law are intended to support manufacturing in the United States. Almost without exception, these provisions define manufacturing as the process of physically transforming goods. Physical transformation involves what might be …
“Today the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis issued full year 2016 U.S. international trade in goods and services data. The top five countries based on trade in goods in 2016 were China, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Germany. Trade in goods with China was $578.6 billion. Exports were $115.8 billion and imports …
Lin, Li-Wen, A Network Anatomy of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (February 2017). Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Research Paper No. RSCAS 2017/07. Available for download at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2912818 “This Article provides an anatomy of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by unpacking their various relations with different types of state organs. It shows that Chinese SOEs are …
As the U.S. labor force crests again, a new complex of problems locks many Americans out of the workplace. By Jeanna Smialek and Patricia Laya, Photographs by William Mebane. “Even at so-called full employment, some 20 million Americans are left behind. They’re looking for work, out of the labor force but unhappy about it, or …
