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News release: “Debt collection, identity theft and imposter scams were the most common categories of consumer complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network in 2015, according to the agency’s new data book. While debt collection complaints rose to the top spot among complaint categories, the report notes that this was due in …
Re/Code: “News broke in early January that Snapchat users were racking up seven billion video views per day. That number is now at eight billion, according to a source who heard Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel speak with bankers and analysts Monday afternoon at Morgan Stanley’s Tech, Media & Telecom conference in San Francisco. Snapchat was …
Investment Company Institute: “Americans continue saving for retirement through defined contribution (DC) plans, according to ICI’s latest study of retirement plan savers’ actions. The study, “Defined Contribution Plan Participants’ Activities, First Three Quarters of 2015,” includes data from January through September 2015 and is based on DC plan recordkeeper data covering more than 26 million …
PwC Global Economic Crime Survey 2016: “More than one in three organisations (36%) experienced economic crime in the last two years, with cybercrime affecting almost a third (32%), the highest ever level in PwC’s biennial survey of Global Economic Crime. The PwC Global Economic Crime Survey 2016 interviewed over 6000 participants in 115 countries. Despite …
News from theguardian.com: “France has become the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food, forcing them instead to donate it to charities and food banks. Under a law passed unanimously by the French senate, as of Wednesday large shops will no longer bin good quality food approaching …
“It’s a fiscal Sword of Damocles hanging over America’s future: If no changes are made to the way we operate and finance the Social Security system, its trust fund will run dry around 2033, after which the program will have to pay for itself through ongoing payroll taxes. Those will only be sufficient to cover …
Feldman, David and Li, Jiaming and Saxena, Konark, Politically Motivated Corporate Decisions: Evidence from China (February 26, 2016). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2738946 “Two conflicting hypotheses assess the effect of political tournaments on corporate decisions: 1) uncertainty regarding outcomes reduces economic activity, and 2) agency-driven incentives increase economic activity. Further assertions suggest that under …
Liberty Street Economics – Jason Bram, Nicole Dussault and Maxim Pinkovskiy: “Since the 1940s, employers that provide health insurance for their employees can deduct the cost as a business expense, but the government does not treat the value of that coverage as taxable income. This exclusion of employer-provided health insurance from taxable income—$248 billion in …
“U.S. merchant wholesalers experienced a 3.0 percent increase in sales in 2014, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Annual Wholesale Trade Survey. U.S. merchant wholesalers had sales of $7.7 trillion for the year, up from $7.5 trillion in 2013. E-commerce sales for merchant wholesalers increased 5.3 percent to $2.1 trillion from …
“In advance of the March 5 primaries and caucuses, the U.S. Census Bureau presents a variety of statistics that give an overall profile of each participating state’s voting-age population and industries. Statistics include: Voting-age population and estimate of eligible voters (i.e., citizens age 18 and older). Breakdown of voting-age population by race and Hispanic origin. …
Credit Reform: Current Method to Estimate Credit Subsidy Costs Is More Appropriate for Budget Estimates Than a Fair Value Approach, GAO-16-41: Published: Jan 29, 2016. Publicly Released: Feb 29, 2016. Federal Health Care Center: VA and DOD Need to Address Ongoing Difficulties and Better Prepare for Future Integrations, GAO-16-280: Published: Feb 29, 2016. Publicly Released: …
“In honor of Women’s History Month in March, the U.S. Census Bureau released today a new table showing median earnings by detailed occupation from the 2014 American Community Survey. The table shows ratios indicating the percentage of women in an occupation, as well as the male-to-female earnings ratio in the occupation for full-time, year-round workers in …
