Money and Computing
Jo Freeman Reviews Charlayne Hunter-Gault's My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives
Jo Freeman reviews My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives by Charlayne Hunter-Gault; nine republished pieces are about Africa and another nine are about different aspects of her personal life in the US – a stay in Harlem when she was five, returning to U.Ga nine years after she integrated it, vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard. Eleven are on women. She interviewed the famous (e.g. Nelson Mandela), the infamous (e.g. the Black Panthers) and the not famous (her grandmother). more »
GAO, Financial Services Industry: Overview of Representation of Minorities and Women and Practices to Promote Diversity
"EEOC data (for 2018 – 2020) showed representation for both minorities and women was relatively flat or marginally increased. Black and Hispanic representation remained at about 3 and 4 percent, respectively. Female representation increased from 31 to 32 percent in that period. Representatives of financial services firms and other stakeholders with whom GAO spoke for the November 2017 report (GAO-18-64) described challenges in recruiting and retaining members of minority groups and women. They also identified practices that could help address the challenges, including recruiting students from a broad group of schools and academic disciplines and establishing management-level accountability to achieve diversity goals." more »
The Beige Book Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions By Federal Reserve District Wednesday November 30, 2022
Overall Economic Activity: Economic activity was about flat or up slightly since the previous report, down from the modest average pace of growth in the prior Beige Book period...Interest rates and inflation continued to weigh on activity, and many contacts expressed greater uncertainty or increased pessimism concerning the outlook...Inflation pushed low-to-moderate income consumers to substitute increasingly to lower-priced goods. Travel and tourism contacts, by contrast, reported moderate gains in activity, as restaurants and high-end hospitality venues enjoyed robust demand. Higher interest rates further dented home sales, which declined at a moderate pace overall but fell steeply in some districts; apartment leasing started to slow, as well. more »
Continuous Challenges: Dr. Anthony Fauci Reflects On the Perpetual Challenge of Infectious Diseases
Dr. Anthony Fauci notes that the emergence of HIV/AIDS in 1981 led to a sharp increase in interest in infectious diseases among people entering the field of medicine. Since then, infectious disease specialists have faced numerous medical challenges, including the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Ebola, Zika, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and COVID-19, he writes. Dr. Fauci notes that one success of the response was the rapid development, testing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines thanks to years of research and investment in new and highly adaptable vaccine platforms and structural biology tools to design vaccine immunogens. more »