Ben Ryan: “A dramatic gulf in economic activity separated countries with the highest and lowest percentages of their populations working full time for an employer in 2014. The 10 countries with the highest Payroll to Population (P2P) rates in 2014 all had P2P rates of 44% or more, with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates… Continue Reading
“Shattering previous records, the United States residential solar market grew 76 percent over the first quarter of 2014, installing 437 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaics (PV) in the first three months of 2015. According to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) Q1 U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, released today, the U.S. installed 1.3 gigawatts (GW)… Continue Reading
H.R. 2685 – FY2016 Department of Defense Appropriations 114th Congress Report – House of Representatives – 1st Session 114-139. June 5 2015. “BILL TOTALS – Appropriations for most military functions of the Department of Defense are provided for in the accompanying bill for fiscal year 2016. This bill does not provide appropriations for military con-… Continue Reading
Dorothy Leonard, Walter Swap, Gavin Barton, June 09, 2015: Excerpted from Critical Knowledge Transfer: Tools for Managing Your Company’s Deep Smarts. “A fully realized knowledge transfer initiative requires substantial resources — financial, time and personnel. Yet the need for expertise to be passed on, and the costs of not doing so, must be recognized. Most… Continue Reading
“An Evaluation of the Public Schools of the District of Columbia is a comprehensive five-year summative evaluation report for Phase Two of an initiative to evaluate the District of Columbia’s public schools. Consistent with the recommendations in the 2011 report A Plan for Evaluating the District of Columbia’s Public Schools, this new report describes changes… Continue Reading
Aviation Security: TSA Has Taken Steps to Improve Oversight of Key Programs, but Additional Actions Are Needed, GAO-15-678T: Published: Jun 9, 2015. Publicly Released: Jun 9, 2015: “The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has taken steps to improve oversight of Secure Flight—a passenger prescreening program that matches passenger information against watch lists and assigns each passenger… Continue Reading
News release: “Subaru, recognized for having the first automotive assembly plant in America designated as zero landfill, today announced it will share its knowledge of zero landfill practices with the National Park Service to reduce landfill waste from the parks. In partnership with National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a non-profit national park advocacy group, the… Continue Reading
Washington Post – “Until only a few weeks ago, one of the most devastating outbreaks egg farmers had ever seen in the United States had gone largely unnoticed. The industry, which had to kill off more than 20 million birds in May alone, was well aware, but consumers, who had yet to feel the consequences,… Continue Reading
Liu, Estelle Xue and Mattina, Todd and Poghosyan, Tigran, Correcting “Beyond the Cycle:” Accounting for Asset Prices in Structural Fiscal Balances (May 2015). IMF Working Paper No. 15/109. Available at for download SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2615301 “This paper outlines an operational approach for incorporating the impact of asset price cycles in the calculation of structural fiscal balances… Continue Reading
“Policymakers and the public have given much attention to economic inequality in the past few years. In general terms, inequality refers to the differences between people with the highest levels of wealth, income, or earnings and those with the lowest levels. How big are these differences? Have they grown over time? What other ways do… Continue Reading
Israel: Background and U.S. Relations, Jim Zanotti, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs. June 1, 2015. “Since Israel’s founding in 1948, successive U.S. Presidents and many Members of Congress have demonstrated a commitment to Israel’s security and to maintaining close U.S.-Israel cooperation. Common perceptions of shared democratic values and religious affinities have contributed to the strong… Continue Reading
CRS Legal Sidebar USA FREEDOM Act Reinstates Expired USA PATRIOT Act Provisions but Limits Bulk Collection 6/4/2015: “Following a contentious debate and passagein the Senate, the USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 2048) was signed into law onJune 2, 2015. The new law contains eight titles, spanning a range of national security topics from reauthorizing expired investigative… Continue Reading