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Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As the U.S. workforce has become increasingly diverse, many private and public sector organizations have recognized the importance of recruiting and retaining minority and women candidates for key positions. However, previous congressional hearings have raised concerns about a lack of diversity at the management level in the financial services industry, which provides services that are essential to the continued growth and economic recovery of the country. The recent financial crisis has renewed concerns about the financial services industry's commitment to workforce diversity. This testimony discusses findings from a June 2006 GAO report (GAO-06-617), February 2008 testimony (GAO-08-445T), and more recent work on diversity in the financial services industry. Specifically, GAO assesses (1) what the available data show about diversity at the management level from 1993 through 2008 and (2) steps that the industry has taken to promote workforce diversity and the challenges involved. To address the testimony's objectives, GAO analyzed data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); reviewed select studies; and interviewed officials from financial services firms, trade organizations, and organizations that represent minority and women professionals. To the extent possible, key statistics have been updated."

This paper presents and discusses new data on employment protection legislation (EPL) in the successor states of the former USSR - the CIS and Baltic states - over 25 years from 1985 to 2009. We use the OECD methodology (OECD EPL, version II) for assessing the strictness of national labor laws with respect to employers' firing costs. In addition to the overall OECD EPL index, we present detailed statistics for 18(22) sub-indicators used for its computation. The new data allow us to make several important observations. In particular, the data do not support the widely held view that labor regulations in the former USSR with respect to firing costs were extremely rigid and were subsequently liberalized by the 15 successor states over the course of transition to a market economy. Rather, the dynamics of the EPL index in the region resembles an inverted U-shaped pattern with the peak of labor market rigidity occurring in the mid-1990s in the CIS countries and a decade later in the Baltic States. In terms of major sub-indicators, we observe a rather unusual pattern: gradual liberalization of permanent contracts on the background of increasing regulation of temporary contracts and collective dismissals. This is in sharp contrast with the OECD economies, where liberalization of temporary contracts has been the major trend in the recent decades. By now, the ex-USSR states as a group do not differ that much from the EU-15 and OECD countries in terms of the overall EPL index, although they differ considerably in terms of contributions to the overall EPL of its thee major components, namely, regulation of permanent contracts, temporary contracts, and collective dismissals. We also show that our EPL data are correlated with a number of variables characterizing economic development, progress in market-oriented reforms, and political regimes prevailing in the countries studied, which suggests potential of using the new dataset in further politico-economic research.

Persoalan budaya dan karakter bangsa kini menjadi sorotan tajam masyarakat. Sorotan itu mengenai berbagai aspek kehidupan, tertuang dalam berbagai tulisan di media cetak, wawancara, dialog, dan gelar wicara di media elektronik. Selain di media massa, para pemuka masyarakat, para ahli, dan para pengamat pendidikan, dan pengamat sosial berbicara mengenai persoalan budaya dan karakter bangsa di berbagai forum seminar, baik pada tingkat lokal, nasional, maupun internasional. Persoalan yang muncul di masyarakat seperti korupsi, kekerasan, kejahatan seksual, perusakan, perkelahian massa, kehidupan ekonomi yang konsumtif, kehidupan politik yang tidak produktif, dan sebagainya menjadi topik pembahasan hangat di media massa, seminar, dan di berbagai kesempatan.

Communications traffic data is a legal data concept that can be explained by the example of traditional, non-digital mail: For a letter to be sent by post it must be enclosed in an envelope. On the envelope the name of the addressee, his address and some information about the sender are noted. Furthermore, on the envelope a postage stamp or payment stamp is placed. The enclosed letter forms the content of the communication. The data on the envelope stands for the traffic data; these are needed in the service provider's business operations. This data distinction can be recognized on postcards as well: the content of the communication is situated on the left half of the card, while the traffic data are located on the right. Moreover, the postcard example makes clear that the distinction between communication content and traffic data is, in essence, a legal question rather than a technical question: the service provider is able to take note of the communication content, but is simply not supposed to do so. However, certain technical characteristics of the communication can help in making the distinction in practice. Traffic data can be clearly recognized in conventional telecommunications, but on the internet the distinction between content and traffic data is quite problematic. The actions performed by the internet service provider involving the digital data in his network are significantly more diverse and complex than what is the case with conventional telecommunications. Because the protection status of the communication content differs from that of related traffic data, it is important that this legal distinction can actually be made in the 'digital cloud' of the provider network. The research on traffic data is conducted in three parts. Part I concerns the data demarcation issue. There is a need for a legal 'litmus test' with which personal data from the digital data cloud can be tested as to whether or not they constitute traffic data. Such a legal litmus test for traffic data is designed from its legal origins and the test is finally performed on three major communication technologies: fixed telephony, mobile telephony and the internet. Traffic data are then sorted in two groups of privacy sensitivity: Type I traffic data, which have a regular personal sensitivity, and Type II traffic data with an increased personal sensitivity. Part II concerns the service provider's secondary uses of traffic data. Three issues are studied: · The provider's use of traffic data in direct marketing; · The provider's use of traffic data in maintaining Acceptable Use Policies; · The provider's application of traffic data in Automatic Number Identification. Part III concerns the function of traffic data in criminal investigations. Central to this part is the current EU Directive on the retention of traffic data. This part analyzes the legal framework regulating the collection of traffic data from providers by criminal investigation authorities. Traffic data retention and the requirements for the disclosure of traffic data are examined in the context of the two traffic data sensitivity categories, as established in research Part I. A number of open issues are identified and further examined. These concern the following: · Which providers will be affected by traffic data retention? · How should traffic data under retention be stored? · What are the legal options for linking and searching traffic data files?

There are dramatic differences in average happiness across nations ranging from 3.24 in Togo to 8.00 in Denmark on a 0–10-points scale. These differences are an indication that collective conditions in nations are important for happiness. Can governments play a role in the creation of such conditions? This question is addressed in an analysis of average happiness in 131 nations in 2006. The following sub-questions are considered. (1) Is there a positive correlation between average happiness in nations and the quality or the size of governments? (2) Can we explain a positive correlation in terms of causality? (3) Can we specify causality by discerning direct and indirect effects? (4) What about governments and inequality in happiness? (5) What can governments do to increase happiness intentionally? The conclusion is that the technical quality of governments is an important cause for average happiness in nations, and this causality can be specified to some extent. Good governments also reduce inequality of happiness in nations eventually. The implication is that governments can increase average happiness, and in due time reduce inequality in happiness, and that they have some non-controversial options to do so on purpose. Keywords Happiness Utilitarianism Good governance Democratic quality Technical quality Size of governments

This paper examines the relationship between differences in civil society development under communism and the political, economic and institutional change and transformation after 1989. We collected a unique dataset on nature and intensity of dissident activities in 27 former communist countries during the years immediately preceding the collapse of communism. We use the resulting data to explain the subsequent political, economic and institutional developments in the post-communist countries. Both extent of political opposition and severity of government reaction help explain the choice of political regime after 1989, the concentration of power government and the nature and pace of economic reforms.