Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay asserted his Fifth Amendment rights before the Senate Commerce Committee today, “respectfully declining to answer” any of the committee’s questions. What is the history behind, and rationale for, the Fifth Amendment right not to testify against oneself?
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that “no person … shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” The right was created in reaction to the excesses of the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission—British courts of equity that operated from 1487-1641. These courts utilized the inquisitorial method of truth-seeking as opposed to the prosecutorial, meaning that prosecutors did not bear the burden of proving a case, but that sufficient “proof” came from browbeating confessions out of the accused.
- Forget the zero headline; core inflation takes a dive last month, coming in at an annualized 3%, driven by a decrease in services. Compare it to the ~5% average it's been at since October 2021. One month doesn't make a trend, but the most encouraging print I could have imagined.
- Breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have led to substantial concern that large-scale job losses are imminent. Selected occupations are often cited as illustrations of technological displacement that is or will become a more general problem, but these discussions are often impressionistic. This article compiles a list of specific occupations cited in the automation literature and examines the occupations’ employment trends since 1999 and projected employment to 2029. There is little support in U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data or projections for the idea of a general acceleration of job loss or a structural break with trends pre-dating the AI revolution with respect to the occupations cited as examples. Offsetting factors and other limitations of the automation thesis are discussed.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the bipartisan infrastructure bill, will increase federal spending on infrastructure by about $550 billion over the next decade, nearly all through grants to state and local governments, which own much of the nation’s infrastructure. At our annual Municipal Finance Conference in July 2022, four experts addressed several questions about the IIJA: Ryan Berni, senior advisor to Mitch Landrieu, the infrastructure implementation coordinator in the White House; D.J. Gribbin, former special assistant to President Trump for infrastructure; Shoshana Lew, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation; and Eden Perry, head of the U.S. Public Finance Operation and S&P Global Ratings.
A video of the panel is posted here. Here are some highlights.
- $10 billion that would cover five years of costs to help create 20 “Regional Technology Hubs,” which would seek to broaden U.S. technology centers beyond the current dominant regions, such as Silicon Valley, Seattle, Boston and San Diego. $1 billion for five years of costs of a pilot version of the Recompete Act, which will assist 10 distressed communities with significantly below average employment-to-population ratios.
- Median one- and three-year-ahead inflation expectations both declined sharply in July, from 6.8 percent and 3.6 percent in June to 6.2 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. Both decreases were broad-based across income groups, but largest among respondents with annual household incomes under $50,000 and respondents with no more than a high school education. Median five-year ahead inflation expectations, which have been elicited in the monthly SCE core survey on an ad-hoc basis since the beginning of this year, also declined to 2.3 percent from 2.8 percent in June. Expectations about year-ahead price increases for gas and food fell sharply. Home price growth expectations and year-ahead spending growth expectations continued to pull back from recent series highs. Households’ income growth expectations improved. Note: The newly released series for median five-year ahead inflation expectations is now included as the last tab in the “Chart Data” excel...
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The Treasury Department will step up its push to build global support for a price cap on Russian oil this week, as Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Rosenberg travels to Indonesia and Singapore to pitch her international counterparts and industry executives on the plan.
Rosenberg, Treasury’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, is among the top sanctions experts in the government leading a shuttle diplomacy effort to bring more countries on board with the two-pronged proposal, which aims to knee-cap Russia’s oil revenue (a key source of funding for the war in Ukraine) while avoiding a disastrous drop in global...
For fans of professional sports, the insistent overtures from the crypto industry have become almost impossible to miss: The names of exchanges and blockchain companies are emblazoned on team jerseys, plastered on stadiums, and beckoning from halftime TV commercials. They’re talked up by prominent players who enjoy lucrative endorsement deals.
This nascent band of businesses has moved aggressively since last year to match the advertising muscle of beer brands, carmakers, telecom service providers, and other stalwart sports sponsors.
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