Since the end of August, the European Central Bank has been drawing on the foreign currency swap line established by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, recently securing $1.8 billion to lend to European banks, most of it over a three-month time period. But the ECB does not name which banks or institutions are receiving these dollars. Who gets the money is anybody's guess.
In the response of worsening economic conditions in Europe, in late June the Fed announced that it was extending authority for such swap arrangements with the European Central Bank (ECB) and three other foreign ...
Continue readingFederal Reserve forced to report which banks benefit from loan programs
It took an act of Congress and a major lawsuit, but the details of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board's emergency loan programs and discount window lending--which peaked at more than a trillion dollars for the nation's biggest banks and other institutions during the recent financial meltdown--finally came into the light.
Created in 1913, the central bank has always kept details of its activities as the “lender of last resort” closely held. The rationale has been that releasing information about which banks and institutions seek temporary assistance from the Fed could cause runs on banks and panic in ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 10/18/2011
- Members of Congress often receive superior customer service and other perks from major companies. Expedited cable and internet service and the ability to book seats on multiple planes while only paying for one flight, are just two examples. (Roll Call$)
- The quickest way to key committee posts and power in Congress may be to raise a lot of money. Members of powerful committees are expected to donate large sums to party organizations and decision makers. (AlterNet/The Washington Spectator)
- The National Archive and Records Administration's Chief Archivist, David Ferriero, has spoken up for open and transparent government. He believes that strong records management is the key to openness. (Fierce Government)
- A new GAO report shows that the average tenure of Federal chief information officers has settled at around two years. Information executives agree that instituting major organizational or policy changes would require 3 to 5 years. (Nextgov)
- Healthcare companies, who are interested in seeing the Super Committee fail, have donated large sums of money to the committee's members. (The Hill)
- Over the past 4 years more than 90 political campaigns have sold or rented their donor contact lists, raising millions of dollars. The lists are primarily rented to other campaigns, PACs, and foundations. Major beneficiaries of the practice include the campaigns of President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. (Roll Call$)
- The National Association of Letter Carriers is building up its team as it works to save the USPS. It has hired President Obama's former "Car Czar", Ron Bloom, and the investment bank Lazard, which specializes in overhauling complex and financially troubled institution. The association wants to innovate and find new ways to build business at the USPS. (Government Executive)
- A law passed decades ago in Wisconsin could have major repercussions on the effort to recall Governor Scott Walker. The law allows public officials subject to a recall to raise unlimited funds during the time that signatures to force the recall are being collected. (Lobby Comply)
- The Torrance, CA City Council is considering an overhaul of its ethics regulations. If adopted, ethics rules would extend to candidates for elected office. (Lobby Comply)
Super committee member Van Hollen doubles campaign cash intake over last quarter
The campaign of super committee member Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., took in more than twice as much money in the third quarter of 2011 as it did in the second, newly released Federal Election Commission records show. Overall, two of the six House members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--popularly known as the "super committee"--reported increased fundraising totals in the third quarter.
Van Hollen and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the other lawmaker whose campaign committee saw an uptick in money coming in, collected $153,278 and $471,259 respectively for the third quarter. Hensarling, the super ...
Continue readingThe Case of the Missing DOT Data
The Department of Transportation has been a leader in complying with recentopen government initiatives, so I decided to use the agency... View Article
Continue readingMeet the first “Corporate” Super PAC
Today came a moment campaign finance watchers have been waiting for: the first corporate "Super PAC"--that is a PAC whose sole source of funding is corporate money--filed its paper work with the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC).
However, the PAC, known as American Phoenix, is not necessarily what people have been fearing after the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Citizens United decision, permitted corporations and unions to give unlimited amounts to Super PACs. As reported by Dan Eggan at The Washington Post, the source of funding is a Florida firm known as Deep Sea Burial Corp., which ...
Continue readingPyCodeConf 2011: Snakes in an Infinity Pool
If there is one thing that I learned from PyCodeConf, it's that all conferences should be in Miami in October. And they should all feature parties at rooftop infinity pools. Aside from the fun, PyCodeConf had a great selection of speakers that showed the breadth of the Python community, from wedding web sites to scientific computing. Read on for an overview of the some of the talks that pulled at my heartstrings.
The slides and audio from all talks can be downloaded from the PyCodeConf site.
What makes Python AWESOME?
This talk by Python core developer Raymond Hettinger was one of my favorites. When working with a language on a day-to-day basis, it is easy to take features for granted. Iterators, generators, and comprehensions are things that seem simple at first, but allow you to do very complex operations in very little code. The new-ish with statement provides an elegant interface for resource management and separation of common set up and tear down code.
Physics is renowned for the beauty and elegance of it's theories and equations. It's these same principles that made me love Python. While the language is slower in gaining new features, you can be guaranteed that the implementation will be incredibly clean and consistent with the principles of the language.
Embracing the GIL
I was fortunate to see David Beazley give a GIL thrashing talk at PyCon and this talk was just as good. The GIL is a very controversial part of Python which has both FUD and actual issues surrounding it. David has done a lot of research into how the GIL works and demonstrates how it behaves under various conditions. The summary: Python 2.7 is okay, Python 3 needs work, and a basic implementation of thread priorities in Python 3 puts it on par with 2.7.
API Design and Pragmatic Python
Kenneth Reitz is best known for his wonderful packages such as requests, envoy, tablib, and clint. If you've used any of Kenneth's projects you'll have noticed that he values creating sensible APIs that insulate users from the messier parts of Python. He takes a very conservative approach to his cause; no need to actually replace messy packages, just create wrappers that make them easier to use.
Kenneth also announced the release of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python. His goal is to create a central repository for Python best practices covering everything from installation and editors to coding style and app layout.
PyPy
The one common theme of nearly everything at the conference was PyPy, famed alterna-interpreter. The team has come a long way and everyone was eager to show the areas in which it excels over CPython and point out the parts that need some work.
The general consensus seems to be that over the next few years PyPy will become the interpreter of choice for running Python. The team is currently accepting donations on their site for general development, Python 3 support, and a port of NumPY. I've donated, you should too!
Who's coming with me next year?
I highly recommend checking out out each of the talks. Even though I only highlighted a few here, they were all quite excellent. Thanks to GitHub for putting on such a great conference and all of the sponsors that allowed it to happen (free mojitos).
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 10/17/2011
Jump into Monday with a look at the week's transparency-related news items, congressional committee hearings, transparency-related bills introduced in Congress, and transparency-related events. News Roundup:
- Dave Camp (R-MI) has raised more than $475,000 since joining the Super Committee. Among industries facing cuts, healthcare interests paid him the most attention. He also received sizable amounts from the petroleum and agriculture lobbies. (The Hill)
- Members of the Super Committee have opened up to praise the relationship between co-chairs Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). Their amicable relationship could bode well for the committee's chances at success. (Politico)
- The White House is refusing to hand over internal communications about Solyndria, including President Obama's BlackBerry messages, to House investigators. (Politico)
- San Francisco has a new public financing fund for mayoral elections. It is intended to help minor candidates compete and limit the influence of large donors. Unfortunately, it may also encourage hopeless candidates and waste taxpayer money. (New York Times)
- Many government agencies are taking to social media, especially Facebook, but some have been more successful than others. (Government Technology)
- Maps and GIS data should be an important part of government transparency and accountability efforts. (govfresh)
- House Democrats are fighting efforts by Republicans to phase out the Election Assistance Commission. Democrats claim that shuttering the EAC would increase the cost of elections and decrease transparency, while Republicans argue that the commission has fulfilled its purpose. (The Hill)
- Herman Cain is refusing to name his economic or foreign policy advisers. He claims that he doesn't want them exposed to criticism. (National Journal)
What happens in Vegas helps determine the Republican presidential nominee
Texas Gov. Rick Perry may be slipping in the polls, but his fundraising prowess is keeping him among those to watch at Tuesday night's Republican debate in Las Vegas.
Perry raised $17 million during the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, beating frontrunners Mitt Romney and Herman Cain. Romney, the former governor of Massachussetts, raised $14 million, while Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, raked in $2.8 million.
Those three will take the stage Tuesday night during a debate sponsored by CNN and the Western Republican ...
Continue readingLongtime lobbying campaign pays off for South Korea with recent trade deal
Trade agreements stem from long-winded talks, some heavy handed diplomacy and, as it turns out, a substantial amount of lobbying. The newest trade deal between South Korea and the U.S. was a massive operation which cost the Koreans $39.9 million in lobbying and PR fees in 2010 alone.
The Department of Justice shows nineteen international contracts currently operating with South Korean entities. Four of those contracts are primarily for lobbying. Four deal with public relations. Three promote trade. Another three offer policy consultation. Other firms provide tourism promotions and distribute broadcast material. In 2009, the Korea lobby spent ...
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