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The Guardian: “Entire board resigns over actions of academic publisher whose profit margins outstrip even Google and Amazon More than 40 leading scientists have resigned en masse from the editorial board of a top science journal in protest at what they describe as the “greed” of publishing giant Elsevier. The entire academic board of the …
The Economist [no fee link]: “Over the past 20 years, Britain’s capital was so welcoming to oligarchs that it became known as “Londongrad”. Many bought mansions from Highgate to Hyde Park; a couple bought into football clubs. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, 48 oligarchs were placed under Western sanctions. The immense wealth …
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued the following statement in response to the letter he received from an attorney representing billionaire Republican activist Harlan Crow: “I was disappointed but unsurprised by billionaire Republican activist Harlan Crow’s refusal to respond to my questions about the gifts he’s lavished on Justice Clarence Thomas and his …
“In order to preserve the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas must resign. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington today sent a letter to Thomas calling on him to resign and outlining why his resignation is a necessity. “This is not something we do lightly,” CREW President Noah Bookbinder said. “This is …
inma: “…TikTok is not merely for teenagers. About 75% of its users in Britain are aged 18 to 44, and about 60% are female. The overwhelming majority consume it as a single-screen activity: they are glued to the app for an average of around an hour per day. The Economist launched on TikTok in July …
“The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) today released its Review of DFPI’s Oversight and Regulation of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The report summarizes DFPI’s supervision of SVB and reviews the circumstances that led to the failure of the bank. Findings include: SVB was slow to remediate regulator-identified deficiencies; and regulators did not …
“Historical Debt Outstanding is a dataset that provides a summary of the U.S. government’s total outstanding debt at the end of each fiscal year from 1789 to the current year. Between 1789 and 1842, the fiscal year began in January. From January 1842 until 1977, the fiscal year began in July. From July 1977 onwards, …
NBER: “Between March 7, 2022, and March 6, 2023, the Federal Reserve increased the federal funds rate by nearly 4.5 percentage points. This led to a $2.2 trillion aggregate decline in the market value of long-term bank assets such as government bonds, mortgages, and corporate loans. These decreases are not fully reflected in banks’ book …
NPR: “Lately, it’s felt like technological change has entered warp speed. Companies like OpenAI and Google have unveiled new Artificial Intelligence systems with incredible capabilities, making what once seemed like science fiction an everyday reality. It’s an era that is posing big, existential questions for us all, about everything from literally the future of human …
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Turn Toward Tyranny. May 4, 2023 by Heidi Li Feldman. Keynote for the Ontario Bar Association Legal Conference, “Cross Borders.” Lecture notes prepared by Heidi Li Feldman Part One: Outline of Remarks [snipped] 1. Overview of the current state of U.S. Supreme Court A. Composition of the current Supreme Court bench …
Wired – “Recycling was already a mess. Now a study finds that one facility may emit 3 million pounds of microplastics a year. The plastics industry has long hyped recycling, even though it is well aware that it’s been a failure. Worldwide, only 9 percent of plastic waste actually gets recycled. In the United States, the rate …
Brookings: “Recent revelations of Justice Clarence Thomas’s rocky relationship with gift and income reporting rules have heightened attention to the arcane and often misunderstood federal judicial ethics regime and quickened the drumbeat for a Supreme Court code of conduct. My goal in this post is to (1) summarize the statutes and rules that govern federal …
