in The case for international civil servants By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 01 Nov 2019 19:28:36 +0000 The notion of an “international” civil service goes back a century, to the establishment of the League of Nations after World War I. Whereas civil servants had until then always served their countries or empires, the League’s small secretariat would facilitate cooperation among member states. The founding of the United Nations following World War II… Full Article
in Measuring growth democratically By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 10 Dec 2019 19:59:37 +0000 Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two of this year’s recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, are the latest among leading economists to remind us that gross domestic product is an imperfect measure of human welfare. The Human Development Index, published by the United Nations Development Programme, aggregates indicators of life expectancy, education,… Full Article
in Getting carbon border taxes right By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 12 Feb 2020 21:41:47 +0000 A time-honored but often problematic practice in basic welfare economics is to separate efficiency considerations from distributional concerns. In an economy with given endowments and a given distribution of them, the argument goes, there exists a set of prices that will guide competitive behavior toward an efficient allocation of resources. If the result is not… Full Article
in What COVID-19 means for international cooperation By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 17:16:37 +0000 Throughout history, crisis and human progress have often gone hand in hand. While the growing COVID-19 pandemic could strengthen nationalism and isolationism and accelerate the retreat from globalization, the outbreak also could spur a new wave of international cooperation of the sort that emerged after World War II. COVID-19 may become not only a huge… Full Article
in A social distancing reading list from Brookings Global Economy and Development By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 27 Mar 2020 15:27:31 +0000 During this unusual time of flexible schedules and more time at home, many of us may have increased opportunities for long-form reading. Below, the scholars and staff from the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings offer their recommendations for books to read during this time. Max Bouchet recommends The Nation City: Why Mayors Are… Full Article
in President Hu Jintao’s Visit: The Economic Challenges and Opportunities By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: On the eve of President Hu Jintao's long-anticipated visit to Washington, critical economic policy issues loom large for both the U.S. and China. Over the past two decades, China has transformed into a major economic power and continues to play a growing role in the global community. Its ascension is likely to be one of… Full Article
in Debunking America’s China Syndrome By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: LONDON After his visit to Washington, President Hu Jintao of China might wish he had stayed home. In all likelihood, he will have encountered an onslaught of accusations of currency manipulation, unfair trade and intellectual property rights violationsThe alarm over China's economic ascension is akin to the China Syndrome, made famous by the 1979 film… Full Article
in People In Transition: Assessing the Economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: After 17 years of transition to market economies in central and eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), are people better off now than they were in 1989? Brookings Global recently hosted a presentation by Senior Fellow and European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) Chief Economist, Erik Berglöf, on the 2007 Transition… Full Article
in Western Banks Must Take Their Own Medicine By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: For decades westerners have lectured central and eastern European policymakers on how to regulate and supervise, balance their budgets and stem credit expansion. Now they must deal with the consequences of a global crisis triggered because the west broke all the rules it preached. Worse, it is a crisis they cannot do much to resolve.… Full Article
in Progress in Emerging Markets is Being Put at Risk By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Finance ministers of the Group of Eight leading economies have commissioned a study on the role of financial market speculation in recent oil price rises. In India, the regulator recently suspended trade in futures markets for several commodities, blaming speculators for price rises. The global credit crisis has made the financial sector vulnerable to populist… Full Article
in Targeted Improvements in Crisis Resolution, Not a New Bretton Woods By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:00:00 +0000 The current crisis reveals two major flaws in the world’s crisis-resolution mechanisms: (i) funds available to launch credible rescue operations are insufficient, and (ii) national crisis responses have negative spillovers. One solution is to emulate the EU’s enhanced cooperation solution at the global level, with the IMF ensuring that the rules are respected. Big global… Full Article
in Crisis in Eastern Europe: Manageable – But Needs to Be Managed By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: The leaders of Europe will meet this weekend to respond to the rapid deterioration of the economic situation in Emerging Europe. The situation varies a great deal; some countries have been more prudent in their policies than others. But all are joined, more or less strongly, through the deeply integrated European banking system. Western banks… Full Article
in Financing the Global Infrastructure Gap By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Global infrastructure needs are gigantic, not only for advanced economies but also for emerging ones. In fact, global demand for the funding of infrastructure investments is expected to reach as much as $57 trillion by 2030. New infrastructure investments and the replacement of existing ones can boost global demand and long-term growth at a time… Full Article
in Planetary thinking By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 22 Aug 2019 19:11:56 +0000 The Swedish climate truthsayer Greta Thunberg has set sail for the United States in a zero-emissions racing yacht to generate waves in a different part of the world—including at next month’s United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York. She will arrive in America at a time of growing transatlantic awareness of the threat posed by climate change.… Full Article
in Examining charter schools in America By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 Charter schools, introduced to the U.S. in the 1980s, were conceived as laboratories of experimentation in instruction, integration, and school leadership. Over time, they have become an increasingly popular alternative to traditional public schools. As of this year, charters account for approximately six percent of all public school students, and President Obama’s proposed budget includes… Full Article
in Federal education policy under the Trump administration By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 21 Dec 2016 17:00:04 +0000 The federal government has been involved in public schools for decades. Yet, the relationship between the federal government and the states has evolved and recalibrated regularly over that period. Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election is widely viewed as a signal of change for the federal government’s role in American society generally, and… Full Article
in Disrupting the cycle of gun violence: A candid discussion with young Chicago residents By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 26 Feb 2018 15:30:13 +0000 Watch a video of the event on CSPAN.org » The lives of young people are disrupted, traumatized, and cut short by gun violence every single day in the United States. Despite progress being made in some cities to reduce gun violence, communities in Chicago have recently endured record numbers of homicides and shootings. Over 71 percent… Full Article
in Empowering young people to end Chicago’s gun violence problem By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Fri, 23 Mar 2018 14:36:30 +0000 Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sits down with young men from Chicago CRED (Creating Real Economic Diversity) to discuss the steps they have taken to disrupt the cycle of gun violence in their community and transition into the legal economy. http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/6400344 Also in this episode, meet David M. Rubenstein Fellow Randall Akee in… Full Article
in DOE’s justification for rescinding Gainful Employment rules distorts research By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 08 Jul 2019 14:09:47 +0000 The Department of Education has rescinded the Gainful Employment regulations developed by the Obama administration. These regulations were designed to cut off federal student aid to postsecondary programs that produce earnings too low to support the debt students incur while earning credentials that promise to lead to good jobs. This action is a significant step… Full Article
in The CEA training report: Very wide of the mark By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 16:20:46 +0000 Full Article
in Fund more investments in non-BA workers By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 26 Sep 2019 13:25:29 +0000 September is Workforce Development Month and Congress has until the end of the month to reach an agreement to fund the government, including many workforce and education programs that rely on this investment to help workers prepare for jobs at the backbone of our economy – those that require some postsecondary education but not a… Full Article
in Comments on “How automation and other forms of IT affect the middle class: Assessing the estimates” by Jaimovich and Siu By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 07 Nov 2019 14:00:18 +0000 Nir Jaimovich and Henry Siu have written a very helpful and useful paper that summarizes the empirical literature by labor economists on how automation affect the labor market and the middle class. Their main arguments can be summarized as follows: The labor markets in the US (and other industrialized countries) has become increasingly “polarized” in… Full Article
in FRANCE - 1 Euro = 1.325 U.S. Dollars: The Surprising Stability of the Euro By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:41:00 -0400 Publication: Think Tank 20: New Challenges for the Global Economy, New Uncertainties for the G-20 Full Article
in Think Tank 20 - Growth, Convergence, and Income Distribution: The Road from the Brisbane G-20 Summit By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 00:00:00 -0500 Full Article
in Kurds will be the agent of change in Turkish politics By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 17 Jun 2015 08:00:00 -0400 Real political change in Turkey has been hard to come by in recent years. Establishment parties in Turkey have, time and again, proven unable to change the political system. Now a new hope for reform has emerged in Turkey from an unlikely source: the Kurds. During most of the Cold War—and particularly during the 1980s and 1990s—Turkey had, for lack of a better word, a Kemalist consensus: The military played a major role behind the scenes, and those outside the consensus, especially the Islamists and the Kurds, were essentially excluded from politics. The first wave of democratization in the post-Cold War era in Turkey came from the Islamists—specifically, from the Justice and Development Party (AKP). In 2002, when the AKP came to power, it decided that accession to the European Union should be its main goal and that effort could serve as tool to undermine the political power of the Turkish military that still lurked behind the scenes. So, incredibly, an Islamist party, the AKP, decided to bring about a post-Kemalist system by pushing for membership in the EU’s essentially liberal, democratic project. This strategy explains why Turkish liberals supported the AKP and could hope that the Islamists would push the system in a liberal direction. But then something tragic happened. The AKP became the establishment. After the military was essentially defeated as a political force, the AKP ceased to be an anti-establishment party. Rather, it became a party that started to use the privileges of power, and itself began its own networks of patronage clientelism, and became a victim of this entity called the state. The AKP became the state. Now we're in a situation where the second wave of democratization may also come from an anti-establishment party, this one mostly representing the Kurds. The most democratic, the most liberal, the most progressive narrative that you hear in Turkish politics today is coming from Selahattin Demirtaş of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)—not the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), not the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and not the AKP. There is reason to think that, in Turkey, only anti-establishment parties can actually improve the system. The old AKP was an anti-establishment party. What gives me hope about the HDP is that, even when it enters the parliament—and even if a miracle happens and it enters a coalition government—it will never become the state. By definition, the HDP is a Kurdish political party. The Islamists could become the state, because Turkey is 99 percent Muslim, and people could establish basically a sense of supremacy based on Muslim identity. The Kurds will never be able to represent the majority. They will never be able to become the state. They have vested and permanent interest in the rule of law—indeed their very survival depends on it. Their survival depends on minority rights and on checks and balances. This stark fact gives me hope about the HDP and its agenda. What’s wrong with the rest of the Turkish opposition? The real puzzle is the failure of establishment political parties to challenge the system. It would have been wonderful for a center-right party or a center-left party to have taken Turkey to the post-Kemalist phase, to a post-military, pro-E.U., pro-progressive phase. But the mainstream political parties have failed. The establishment of Turkey has failed. The Kemalist order in Turkey has failed. The agent of change was first the Islamists, and now the agent of change has become the Kurds. What is it that creates this mental block of establishment political parties? Why did it take so many years for the CHP to understand that it can become an agent of change, too? In the absence of a left-wing movement in Turkey, there will never be balance. We need a progressive left. We need something that can challenge the strong coalition on the right. The HDP alone cannot be there. One thing that is not being discussed in Turkey is the possibility of a CHP-HDP coalition, yet this is the most natural coalition. The CHP, if it's a progressive political party, it should be able to get rid of its Kemalist, neo-nationalist baggage and embrace the progress of liberal, democratic agenda of the HDP. One reason that the CHP voters and the CHP itself are unable to really embrace the HDP is because the CHP, deep down, is still the party of Atatürk, still the party of Kemalism, still the party of nationalism. And what the Kurds want in Turkey—make no mistake—what the Kurds want in Turkey is autonomy. They want nothing short of autonomy. The days when you could basically solve the Kurdish question with some cosmetic cultural reforms are over. They want democratic decentralization. And to me, that translates into autonomy. And this is a very difficult step to digest for the CHP. Add to this the fact that the disgruntled CHP voters are voting for the HDP, the fact that people who usually could vote for a central-left progressive party are so disillusioned with the CHP that they're gravitating to the HDP. Therefore, there is also a tactical obstacle, in terms of cooperation between the HDP and the CHP right now. But down the line, I think the best reconciliation between Turkish nationalism and Kurdish nationalism would come from a CHP-HDP coalition. Turkish nationalism needs to reconcile itself to the fact that the Kurdish genie is out of the bottle. The good old days of assimilating the Kurds are over. The Kurds want autonomy. They will probably get it, hopefully in a bloodless way. Authors Ömer Taşpınar Full Article
in Why would Turkey invade Syria? By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 02 Jul 2015 08:00:00 -0400 You were probably just thinking to yourself that the civil war in Syria isn’t complicated enough, that there aren’t enough warring parties, and that the constantly shifting sides have become predictable and tired. Well, don’t despair, there are now rumors emerging out of Turkey that may introduce enough new dimensions to the conflict to keep you confused well into the next decade. The Turkish press is reporting that the Turkish government may be about to invade Syria along a 70-mile stretch of Turkey’s border with Syria to create a 20-mile deep safe zone. This issue is currently the subject of heated speculation and controversy in Ankara, making it quite difficult to figure out what is really happening. But beyond the fevered speculation, why would Turkey want to invade Syria anyway? Syria has long been a threatening mess, but neither Turkey nor anyone else has exactly been lining up to send their national armies into Syria. Sure, foreign fighters are plentiful in Syria and all of the regional powers, as well as the United States and Russia, have supported proxies there. But even after more than four years of bloody, destabilizing warfare, national armies have avoided it like the plague. The reason is quite simple: The complicated Syrian civil war has quagmire written all over it. As hard as it is to send a foreign army into Syria, it would be harder still to get it out. In Turkey, particularly, the idea of military intervention into Syria remains very unpopular among the populace. The possibility that intervention might backfire and unleash Islamic State (or ISIS) terrorism within Turkey, or even reignite the bloody Kurdish insurgency in Turkey’s southeast, remains an ever-present fear. Now, however, the theory goes that Syrian Kurdish advances against ISIS have caused such concern in Turkey that the Kurds will create some sort of state or autonomous region along Turkey’s southern border. To prevent that outcome, the Turkish government, we are told, is finally willing to intervene in Syria. Well, maybe. But, in our view, the reason that Turkey might now finally be contemplating such a step says more about changes in the domestic and international standing of the Turkish government than about the course of events in Syria. Domestically, the outcome of the Turkish election of June 7 has seriously scrambled Turkish politics. After nearly 13 years in power, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its absolute majority in parliament. The AKP, which still holds a plurality of seats in parliament, has 45 days to form a government with at least one of the minority parties. But it seems clear that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has very little interest in coalition government. The leaders of the two main opposition parties, the nationalist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the center-left Republican Peoples Party (CHP), have both demanded the re-opening of corruption cases against the AKP. Erdoğan may fear that those corruption cases may eventually touch even his family. Erdoğan would undoubtedly prefer an early election to subjecting his party or even his family to the indignities of prying prosecutors. But to achieve a better outcome than the AKP managed in June, he needs to demonstrate to the population the pitfalls of weak, coalition governments. As the possibility of intervention in Syria increases, as the markets spooks on the prospects of war, and even if a few bombs were to go off in the Kurdish areas, the growing sense of national insecurity would only serve to make Erdoğan’s case that the country needs the firm hand of one-party leadership. With a big enough victory, it might even serve to bring back prospects of constitutional change to increase the powers of the presidency. At that point, an early election would be worth having. Insecurity works Internationally, Turkey may be driven by the sense the White House now prefers their Kurdish partners in Syria to Turkey. The Turkish government is extremely angry about the emerging alliance between the United States and the Syrian Kurds, especially the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Syrian affiliate of the Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). They attribute Kurdish success against ISIS to the American willingness to support Syrian Kurdish forces with air power and supplies. In the Turkish view, the PYD is simply a branch of the PKK, which both Turkey and the United States have branded a terrorist group. Allowing the PYD to unite the Kurdish areas of Syria would therefore represent an existential threat to Turkey. By threatening to intervene in Syria, the Turkish government seeks to change a U.S. policy that it finds potentially very damaging to Turkish interests. As Erdoğan no doubt reminded Vice President Biden when they talked the other day, Turkey has the ability to have a far greater impact on the fight against ISIS than the Kurds do. (The Turkish government might tell their domestic audiences that a prospective intervention in Syria is to stop the Kurds, but they will tell international audiences that it is to fight ISIS.) Interestingly, to achieve both these international and domestic advantages, it is not necessary or even wise to actually go through with the intervention. Domestically, all that is necessary is to convince the population that the situation is sufficiently insecure to require firm, one-party leadership. Internationally, it just requires using the prospect of intervention to gain U.S. attention and convince the U.S. government to reduce its support of the PYD. At the current moment, the prospect of intervention is very useful for the Turkish government. Actual intervention, with all of the attendant risks of quagmire, is significantly less appealing. So that means that it is probably not strictly necessary to spend your time trying to understand how the myriad factions within Syria will respond to the presence of the Turkish military on Syrian soil. On the bright side, you now have some really good reasons to enter into the nearly as confusing realm of Turkish domestic politics. Maybe start with our Turkish election series. For another take on this issue, see the post from Kemal Kirisci and Sinan Ekim. Authors Jeremy ShapiroÖmer Taşpınar Full Article
in Physician Social Networks and Geographic Variation in Medical Care By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 CSED Working Paper No. 33: Physician Social Networks and Geographic Variation in Medical Care Full Article
in What’s the government done to relieve student loan borrowers of their burden during the corona crisis? By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 20:00:43 +0000 Forty-two million Americans, or one in every eight, have student loans, and they owe a total of $1.6 trillion, the second largest pool of consumer credit after mortgages. According to the Federal Reserve, 20 percent of adult borrowers who borrowed for their own educations were behind on their payments in 2018. Of those who are… Full Article
in Hutchins Roundup: Medical billing, young firms, and more By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 23 Apr 2020 15:00:34 +0000 Studies in this week’s Hutchins Roundup find that collecting payments from insurers is highly costly for health care providers, superstar firms account for less of productivity growth than previously thought, and more. Want to receive the Hutchins Roundup as an email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday. Costly billing hassles… Full Article
in Webinar: Reopening the coronavirus-closed economy — Principles and tradeoffs By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:55:02 +0000 In an extraordinary response to an extraordinary public health challenge, the U.S. government has forced much of the economy to shut down. We now face the challenge of deciding when and how to reopen it. This is both vital and complicated. Wait too long—maintain the lockdown until we have a vaccine, for instance—and we’ll have another Great Depression. Move too soon, and we… Full Article
in Hutchins Center Fiscal Impact Measure By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 14:00:15 +0000 The Hutchins Center Fiscal Impact Measure shows how much local, state, and federal tax and spending policy adds to or subtracts from overall economic growth, and provides a near-term forecast of fiscal policies’ effects on economic activity. Editor’s Note: Due to significant uncertainty about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the outlook for GDP… Full Article
in Hutchins Roundup: Consumer spending, salary history bans, and more. By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 15:42:07 +0000 Studies in this week’s Hutchins Roundup find that consumer spending has fallen sharply because of COVID-19, salary history bans have increased women’s earnings relative to men’s, and more. Want to receive the Hutchins Roundup as an email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday. Consumer spending falls sharply because of COVID-19… Full Article
in What’s the Fed doing in response to the COVID-19 crisis? What more could it do? By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 20:40:30 +0000 The coronavirus crisis in the United States—and the associated business closures, event cancellations, and work-from-home policies—has triggered a deep economic downturn of uncertain duration. The Federal Reserve has stepped in with a broad array of actions to limit the economic damage from the pandemic, including up to $2.3 trillion in lending to support households, employers, financial… Full Article
in Making sense of the monthly jobs report during the COVID-19 pandemic By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 18:43:02 +0000 The monthly jobs report—the unemployment rate from one survey and the change in employer payrolls from another survey—is one of the most closely watched economic indicators, particularly at a time of an economic crisis like today. Here’s a look at how these data are collected and how to interpret them during the COVID-19 pandemic. What… Full Article
in Hutchins Roundup: Stimulus checks, team players, and more. By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 15:00:15 +0000 Studies in this week’s Hutchins Roundup find that households with low liquidity are more likely to spend their stimulus checks, social skills predict group performance as well as IQ, and more. Want to receive the Hutchins Roundup as an email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday. Households with low liquidity… Full Article
in Artificial intelligence and bias: Four key challenges By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 03 Jan 2019 19:00:04 +0000 It is not news that, for all its promised benefits, artificial intelligence has a bias problem. Concerns regarding racial or gender bias in AI have arisen in applications as varied as hiring, policing, judicial sentencing, and financial services. If this extraordinary technology is going to reach its full potential, addressing bias will need to be… Full Article
in Artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and the uncertain future of truth By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 14 Feb 2019 16:03:36 +0000 Deepfakes are videos that have been constructed to make a person appear to say or do something that they never said or did. With artificial intelligence-based methods for creating deepfakes becoming increasingly sophisticated and accessible, deepfakes are raising a set of challenging policy, technology, and legal issues. Deepfakes can be used in ways that are… Full Article
in Algorithms and sentencing: What does due process require? By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:00:31 +0000 There are significant potential benefits to using data-driven risk assessments in criminal sentencing. For example, risk assessments have rightly been endorsed as a mechanism to enable courts to reduce or waive prison sentences for offenders who are very unlikely to reoffend. Multiple states have recently enacted laws requiring the use of risk assessment instruments. And… Full Article
in Ways to mitigate artificial intelligence problems By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Wed, 16 Oct 2019 14:34:57 +0000 The world is experiencing extraordinary advances in artificial intelligence, with applications being deployed in finance, health care, education, e-commerce, criminal justice, and national defense, among other areas. As AI technology advances across industries and into everyday use around the world, important questions must be addressed regarding transparency, fairness, privacy, ethics, and human safety. What are… Full Article
in Artificial intelligence, geopolitics, and information integrity By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 30 Jan 2020 05:01:06 +0000 Much has been written, and rightly so, about the potential that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to create and promote misinformation. But there is a less well-recognized but equally important application for AI in helping to detect misinformation and limit its spread. This dual role will be particularly important in geopolitics, which is closely… Full Article
in How well-intentioned privacy laws can contribute to wrongful convictions By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 11 Feb 2020 16:37:41 +0000 In 2019, an innocent man was jailed in New York City after the complaining witness showed police screenshots of harassing text messages and recordings of threatening voicemails that the man allegedly sent in violation of a protective order. The man’s Legal Aid Society defense attorney subpoenaed records from SpoofCard, a company that lets people send… Full Article
in Why a proposed HUD rule could worsen algorithm-driven housing discrimination By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 17:28:58 +0000 In 1968 Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson then signed into law the Fair Housing Act (FHA), which prohibits housing-related discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin. Administrative rulemaking and court cases in the decades since the FHA’s enactment have helped shape a framework that, for… Full Article
in Toward a Containment Strategy for Smallpox Bioterror: An Individual-Based Computational Approach By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Sun, 01 Dec 2002 00:00:00 -0500 Abstract An individual-based computational model of smallpox epidemics in a two-town county is presented and used to develop strategies for bioterror containment. A powerful and feasible combination of preemptive and reactive vaccination and isolation strategies is developed which achieves epidemic quenching while minimizing risks of adverse side effects. Calibration of the model to historical data is described. Various model extensions and applications to other public health problems are noted. Downloads Download Authors Derek CummingsDonald S. BurkeJoshua M. EpsteinRamesh M. SingaShubha Chakravarty Full Article
in Toward a Containment Strategy for Smallpox Bioterror : An Individual-Based Computational Approach By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400 Brookings Institution Press 2004 55pp. In the United States, routine smallpox vaccination ended in 1972. The level of immunity remaining in the U.S. population is uncertain, but is generally assumed to be quite low. Smallpox is a deadly and infectious pathogen with a fatality rate of 30 percent. If smallpox were successfully deployed as an agent of bioterrorism today, the public health and economic consequences could be devastating. Toward a Containment Strategy for Smallpox Bioterror describes the scientific results and policy implications of a simulation of a smallpox epidemic in a two-town county. The model was developed by an interdisicplinary team from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Brookings Institution Center on Social and Economic Dynamics, employing agent-based and other advanced computational techniques. Such models are playing a critical role in the crafting of a national strategy for the containment of smallpox by providing public health policymakers with a variety of novel and feasible approaches to vaccination and isolation under different circumstances. The extension of these techniques to the containment of emerging pathogens, such as SARS, is discussed. About the Authors: Joshua M. Epstein and Shubha Chakravarty are with the Brookings Institution. Derek A. T. Cummings, Ramesh M. Singha, and Donald S. Burke are with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Derek Cummings Donald S. Burke Joshua M. Epstein Ramesh M. Singa Shubha Chakravarty Downloads Sample Chapter Ordering Information: {9ABF977A-E4A6-41C8-B030-0FD655E07DBF}, 978-0-8157-2455-1, $19.95 Add to Cart Full Article
in Urbanization and Land Reform under China’s Current Growth Model: Facts, Challenges and Directions for Future Reform By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 In the first installment of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center Policy Series, Nonresident Senior Fellow Tao Ran explores how China’s growth model since the mid-1990’s has led to a series of distortions in the country’s urban land use, housing price and migration patterns.The report further argues for a coordinated reform package in China’s land, household registration and… Full Article
in China’s Land Grab is Undermining Grassroots Democracy By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 After continuous confrontation between villagers and local officials for almost four months, the land grab in the fishing village of Wukan, in Guandong province, China, has now led to the death of one of the elected village leaders in police custody, and further escalated into a violent "mass incident" with tens of thousands of farmers… Full Article
in Challenges and Opportunities for a Growing China By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 On March 26 the Brookings-Tsinghua Center, a joint venture of Tsinghua University and the Brookings Institution, hosted a public forum exploring the challenges and opportunities that China will face in the next five years.In the first panel, speakers discussed the opportunities and challenges that China faces in its continued economic growth and social transformations. In… Full Article
in Reviving China’s Growth: A Roadmap for Reform By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 After a peaceful power transition in the 18th Party Congress, the new leadership in China is again under the limelight. The world is watching how it tackles the many challenges facing the nation: rising inequality, worsening pollution, rampant corruption, restless society, to name just a few. Most policy analysts therefore, believe that the top priority… Full Article Uncategorized
in China’s Reform and Rebalancing By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 Almost a year and a half after the Communist Party of China’s 18th Party Congress and one year into the term of the new government, China and the world are waiting for the new leadership’s plans to further transform China’s economy and to improve governance. What new reform measures should be the focus? Why are… Full Article
in The Chinese Financial System: Challenges and Reform By webfeeds.brookings.edu Published On :: Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 Douglas J. Elliott, fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, delivered a public speech at Brookings-Tsinghua Center (BTC) on December 11, moderated by Tao Ran, nonresident senior fellow of the BTC. International Monetary Fund resident representative to Hong Kong Shaun Roache also joined as a guest commentator. The discussion was warmly received by students,… Full Article
