Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
Opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel January 20, 2017 – “Section 105(a) of title 3, U.S. Code, which authorizes the President to appoint employees in the White House Office “without regard to any other provision of law regulating the employment or compensation of persons in the Government service,” exempts positions in the White House …
“How statistics lost their power – and why we should fear what comes next,” by William Davies, The Guardian: “The ability of statistics to accurately represent the world is declining. In its wake, a new age of big data controlled by private companies is taking over – and putting democracy in peril…In theory, statistics should …
Follow-up to to previous posting – Brookings Paper – The Emoluments Clause: Its Text, Meaning, and Application to Donald J. Trump – this news release dated 1/2//2017: “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is bringing a federal lawsuit to stop President Trump from violating the Constitution by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments. …
GAO: Summary of Performance and Financial Information Fiscal Year 2016 – Budget, Performance, and Financial Snapshot 2016. “In fiscal year 2016, we documented $63.4 billion in financial benefits for the government—a return of about $112 for every dollar invested in us. Key examples of our work that contributed to these benefits included (1) reducing improper …
Politico, 1/20/17: “A few hours after taking the oath of office, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order that encourages federal agencies to dismantle large parts of Obamacare, possibly including the hugely unpopular mandate requiring most Americans to purchase insurance. While only Congress can repeal the law, the nine-paragraph order effectively tells the federal …
Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility. Raj Chetty, Stanford University and NBER; John N. Friedman, Brown University and NBER; Emmanuel Saez, UC-Berkeley and NBER; Nicholas Turner, US Treasury; Danny Yagan, UC-Berkeley and NBER. January 2017. “We characterize rates of intergenerational income mobility at each college in the United States using administrative …
Via Treasury – By: Adam Looney 1/19/2017 – “In 2015, the Department of Education launched the College Scorecard, a vast database of student outcomes at specific colleges and universities developed from a variety of administrative data sources. The Scorecard provides the most comprehensive and accurate information available on the post-enrollment outcomes of students, like whether …
Bird, Andrew and Karolyi, Stephen A. and Ruchti, Thomas G., Regulating Information (October 18, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2901650 “The SEC regulates and standardizes information production in financial markets through financial reporting standards. With a novel dataset exploiting institutional features of the standard setting process. On average, standards increase aggregate market value by …
“As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, the public has starkly different expectations about which groups in society will gain influence – and those that will lose influence – under his administration. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) say wealthy people will gain influence in Washington when Trump takes office. Just 8% say they will …
Overall Economic Activity – “Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicated that the economy continued to expand at a modest pace across most regions from late November through the end of the year. Manufacturers in most Districts reported increased sales with several citing a turnaround versus earlier in 2016. Growth in the energy industry …
Pilot City Health Dashboard Launched by NYU School of Medicine’s Department of Population Health, NYU Wagner, the National Resource Network & the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Over 80 percent of the United States population lives in urban areas. Yet city leaders seeking to make health improvements have lacked a standardized tool to understand and benchmark …
Kaiser Family Foundation: “Repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a top priority of the Trump Administration and the Republican leadership, and is a prominent issue on the agenda of the 115th Congress. The ACA includes many provisions affecting the Medicare program, and lawmakers have taken different approaches to the ACA’s Medicare provisions. …
