Tag Archives: Docuticker.com

Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security

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Homeland Security Affairs, the website of the Journal of the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security in Monterey, California has recently posted:

Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security
By John Mueller and Mark G. Stewart
Abstract:

The cumulative increase in expenditures on U.S. domestic homeland security over the decade since 9/11 exceeds one trillion dollars. It is clearly time to examine these massive expenditures applying risk assessment and cost-benefit approaches that have been standard for decades. Thus far, officials do not seem to have done so and have engaged in various forms of probability neglect by focusing on worst case scenarios; adding, rather than multiplying, the probabilities; assessing relative, rather than absolute, risk; and inflating terrorist capacities and the importance of potential terrorist targets. We find that enhanced expenditures have been excessive. To be deemed cost-effective in analyses that substantially bias the consideration toward the opposite conclusion, the security measures would have to deter, prevent, foil, or protect each year against 1,667 otherwise successful attacks that each inflicted some $100 million in damage (more than four per day) or 167 attacks inflicting $1 billion in damage (nearly one every two days). This is in the range of destruction of what might have happened had the Times-Square bomber of 2010 been successful. Although there are emotional and political pressures on the terrorism issue, this does not relieve politicians and bureaucrats of the fundamental responsibility of informing the public of the limited risk that terrorism presents, of seeking to expend funds wisely, and of bearing in mind opportunity costs. Moreover, political concerns may be over-wrought: restrained reaction has often proved to be entirely acceptable politically. And avoiding overreaction is by far the most cost-effective counterterrorism measure.

Hat tip to DocuTicker.com.

The Mobile Phone: A Near-Ubiquitous Tool for Information-Seeking and Communication in the U.S.

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According to a Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project national survey, “Americans and Their Cell Phones” (August 15, 2011), mobile telephones have become a near-ubiquitous tool for information seeking and communicating in the United States.

The survey shows that 83% of American adults own some kind of cell phone and that these devices have an impact on many aspects of their owners’ daily lives.

Hat tip to DocuTicker.com.

Cross-posted at Law Library Blog.

American Automobile Association (AAA) Digest of Motor Laws

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The American Automobile Association (AAA or “Triple A”) has released its latest edition of the venerable and valuable Digest of Motor Laws.

The digest is “an online compendium of laws and rules related to driving and owning a motor vehicle in the United States and Canada.”

It is possible browse each state’s traffic laws, driver’s license, vehicle titling and registration requirements, and fees and taxes.

It is also possible to compare specific laws or requirements across multiple jurisdictions — see here.

Hat tip to DocuTicker.com.

Cross-posted on Law Library Blog.

Over 90 Percent of College Students are online

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The Pew Internet & American Life Project has recently published an interesting report

College Students and Technology (July 19, 2011)

arguably confirming what one might generally expect about Internet use by college/university-age people:

When it comes to general internet access, young adults of all stripes are much more likely than the general population to go online. Fully 92% of 18-24 year olds who do not attend college are internet users, comparable to the rate for community college students and just slightly lower than the rate for undergraduate and graduate students (nearly 100% of whom access the internet).

Undergraduate and graduate students differentiate themselves more clearly when it comes to home broadband access, as more than nine in ten undergraduate (95%) and graduate students (93%) are home broadband users—well well above the national adult average of 66%.

Community college students (78% of whom are home broadband users) and young non-students (82% of non-students in the 18-24 age cohort are home broadband users) adopt broadband in comparable numbers—both have higher adoption rates than older adults but lower adoption rates than students in undergraduate or graduate institutions.

Hat tip to DocuTicker.com.

Analysis of Large Data Sets (“Big Data”) Will Become More Important in the Future

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Big Data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity

(May 2011)

is an approximately 150-page report by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) and others that finds:

analyzing large data sets—so called big data—will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus as long as the right policies and enablers are in place.

For example, a retailer using big data to the full could increase its operating margin by more than 60 percent. Harnessing big data in the public sector has enormous potential, too. If US health care were to use big data creatively and effectively to drive efficiency and quality, the sector could create more than $300 billion in value every year. Two-thirds of that would be in the form of reducing US health care expenditure by about 8 percent. In the developed economies of Europe, government administrators could save more than €100 billion ($149 billion) in operational efficiency improvements alone by using big data, not including using big data to reduce fraud and errors and boost the collection of tax revenues. And users of services enabled by personal location data could capture $600 billion in consumer surplus….

Drawing on detailed analysis of five domains—health care, retailing, the public sector, manufacturing, and personal location data—the research identifies five broadly applicable ways to leverage big data:

  1. Making big data more accessible in a timely manner. In the public sector, making data more accessible across otherwise separated departments can sharply reduce search and processing time. In manufacturing, integrating data from R&D, engineering, and manufacturing units to enable concurrent engineering can cut time-to-market.
  2. Using data and experimentation to expose variability and improve performance. As they create and store more transactional data in digital form, organizations can collect more accurate and detailed performance data on everything from product inventories to personnel sick days.
  3. Segmenting populations to customize actions. Big data allow organizations to create ever-narrower segmentations and to tailor services precisely to meet customer needs. This approach is well-known in marketing and risk management, but can be revolutionary in places like the public sector.
  4. Replacing and supporting human decision-making with automated algorithms. Sophisticated analytics can substantially improve decision making, minimize risks, and unearth valuable insights that would otherwise remain hidden. Such analytics have applications from tax agencies to retailers.
  5. Innovating new business models, products, and services. Manufacturers are using data obtained from the use of products to improve the development of the next generation of products, and to create innovative after-sales service offerings. The emergence of real-time location data has created a new set of location-based mobile services from navigation to people tracking.

Hat tip to Docuticker.com.

 

 

An Analysis by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of the President’s Budgetary Proposals for Fiscal Year 2012

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The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has issued an analysis of President Barack Obama’s budgetary proposals for fiscal year 2012.

Please see here.

From the abstract:

At the request of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has prepared an analysis of the President’s budgetary proposals for fiscal year 2012, which were released on February 14, 2011. The analysis uses CBO’s economic assumptions and estimating techniques, rather than the Administration’s, to project how the proposals in the President’s budget would affect federal revenues and outlays and the U.S. economy. For tax provisions, the analysis incorporates estimates prepared by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation.

This analysis follows and supplements CBO’s “Preliminary Analysis of the President’s Budget for 2012,” which was released on March 18, 2011, as an attachment to a letter to the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. CBO has not changed its estimates from the ones presented there. Chapter 1 of this report reiterates that document, with additional figures and details about the differences between CBO’s and the Administration’s budget estimates. Chapter 2 presents CBO’s analysis of how the President’s proposals would affect the overall economy (relative to what would occur under current law) and, in turn, indirectly affect the budget.

Hat tip to Docuticker.com.

2010 Lobbying Disclosure: Observations on Lobbyists’ Compliance with Disclosure Requirements

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The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has new report out on 2010 lobbying disclosure:

2010_Lobbying_Disclosure_(US_GAO_Apr_2011)

From the report (see page 2):

Lobbyists were generally able to provide documentation to support the amount of income and expenses reported; however, less documentation was provided to support other items in their disclosure reports. This finding is similar to GAO’s results from prior reviews. There are no specific requirements for lobbyists to create or maintain documentation related to disclosure reports they file under the LDA. For income and expenses, two key elements of the reports, GAO estimates that lobbyists could provide documentation for approximately 97 percent of the disclosure reports for the fourth quarter 2009 and the first three quarters of 2010. According to the documentation lobbyists provided for income and expenses, we estimate the amount disclosed was supported for 68 percent of disclosure reports. After GAO’s review, 21 lobbyists stated that they planned to amend their disclosure reports to make corrections on one or more data elements. As of March 2011, 12 of the 21 amended their disclosure reports.

For political contributions reports, GAO estimates that a minimum of 2 percent of reports failed to disclose political contributions that were documented in the Federal Election Commission database.

The majority of lobbyists who newly registered with the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Representatives in the last quarter of 2009 and first three quarters of 2010 filed required disclosure reports for that period. GAO could identify corresponding reports on file for lobbying activity for 90 percent of registrants.

The majority of lobbyists felt that the terms associated with disclosure reporting were clear and understandable. For the few lobbyists who stated that disclosure reporting terminology remained a challenge, areas of potential inconsistency and confusion in applying the terms associated with disclosure reporting requirements have been highlighted. Some lobbyists reported a lack of clarity in determining lobbying activities versus non-lobbying activities. A few lobbyists stated that they misreported on their disclosure reports because they carried information from old reports to new reports without properly updating information.

Hat tip to DocuTicker.com.

Cross-posted on Law Library Blog.

The State of Sentencing 2010: Developments in Policy and Practice

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A February 2011 report of The Sentencing Project — “a national organization [founded in 1986] working for a fair and effective criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing law and practice, and alternatives to incarceration” — titled ” The State of Sentencing 2010: Developments in Policy and Practice,” by Nicole D. Porter, is available here.

The first paragraph of the report states soberingly (and staggeringly):

Today, 7.2 million men and women are under correctional supervision. Of this total, five million are monitored in the community on probation or parole and 2.3 million are incarcerated in prisons or jails. As a result, the nation [i.e., the United States] maintains the highest rate of incarceration in the world at 743 per 100,000 population.

Areas of focus include:

A number of policy recommendations are also included.

Hat tip to DocuTicker.com.

Lessons Learned from U.S. Government Law Enforcement in International Operations

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The Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania has recently published a 183-page paper:

Lessons Learned from U.S. Government Law Enforcement in International Operations

The paper, which — among other things — considers 3 case studies — of Panama, Columbia and Kosovo –  is available for free download.

Its brief synopsis states:

Law enforcement (LE) aspects have been an increasingly prominent feature within the U.S. Government’s (USG’s) commitment to international operations. Beyond the deployment of police personnel to interim policing missions, LE agencies may also be involved in international operations to enforce U.S. domestic law; for capacity building; and/or in support of U.S. military forces. This analysis examines lessons from three operations: Panama (1989-99), Colombia (1989-Present), and Kosovo (1998-Present). This analysis was supported by an extensive range of interviews and in-country field research in Colombia and Kosovo. The lessons learned were developed and validated in a series of workshops with subject matter experts. The results show the pervasive and complex role that law enforcement and related issues have played in contemporary international operations. Despite the unique circumstances and history of each operation, there were key findings that are common to all operations considered and have implications for broader USG law enforcement efforts in support of current and future international operations.

Hat tip to DocuTicker.com.