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Federal Procurement: Smarter Buying Initiatives Can Achieve Additional Savings, but Improved Oversight and Accountability Needed, GAO-17-164: Published: Oct 26, 2016. Publicly Released: Oct 26, 2016. “The federal government saved nearly $500 million over the past 5 years through “smarter buying”—such as leveraging the government’s collective buying power for things like office supplies. But that’s small …
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Report – “We recently estimated that Clinton’s policies would likely add $200 billion to the debt over the next decade, while Trump’s policies would add $5.3 trillion. We also found that the ratio of debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would rise from nearly 77 percent of GDP today to 86 …
Review of the Enterprise E-Mail System Acquisition, September 30, 2016. Reference Number: 2016-20-080. “The IRS purchased subscriptions for an enterprise e-mail system [Microsoft] that, as it turned out, it could not use. The purchase was made without first determining project infrastructure needs, integration requirements, business requirements, security and portal bandwidth, and whether the subscriptions were …
Via FindLaw – Alexander Polonsky, et al. v. Wells Fargo, Los Angeles Superior Court, September 22, 2016. “The lawsuit was filed by two former employees, but seeks compensation for any and all Wells Fargo employees penalized for not meeting sales quotas over the past 10 years. In September, the bank fired over 5,000 employees for …
“New York Times financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin criss-crosses the Atlantic to trace the troubled reputation of bankers over the centuries, in the UK and the USA. With the global economy still recovering from the crash of 2008, the reputation of high finance often appears to be at an all time low. Banks and the …
“In this report, CBO analyzes a policy that would allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase their capital by reducing their payments to the government and discusses the effects that it would have on the budget and the mortgage market…Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that help finance the majority of …
Brookings – “The moment they earn their bachelor’s degrees, black college graduates owe $7,400 more on average than their white peers ($23,400 versus $16,000, including non-borrowers in the averages). But over the next few years, the black-white debt gap more than triples to a whopping $25,000. Differences in interest accrual and graduate school borrowing lead …
NY Fed – Liberty Street Economics – Jason Bram and Joelle Scally – “The 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center left a deep scar on New York City and the nation, most particularly in terms of the human toll. In addition to the lives lost and widespread health problems suffered by many others—in …
News release: “Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a joint majority staff report this week, “Empowering Inspectors General: Supporting the IG Community Could Save Billions for American Taxpayers.” The report is a result of information …
Which countries are most generous to new parents? Oct 18th 2016, by The Data Team – “Consensus is widespread that new parents should receive some form of time off work or financial aid in order to stay at home with their babies. But statutory parental-leave packages vary widely across the OECD, a club of mostly …
Kiplinger report – “We ranked all 50 states on cost of living, taxes, health care and other factors important to retirees. Here are the three states that fared the worst. Finishing dead last is New York. Living expenses in the Empire State are 29% above the national average. More worrisome: The percentage of residents 65 …
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction Corruption in Conflict – Lessons From the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan, September 2016 – “Corruption in Conflict—the first in a series of lessons learned reports by SIGAR—examines how the U.S. government understood the risks of corruption in Afghanistan, how the U.S. response to corruption evolved, and the effectiveness of …
