Monday, December 22, 2008

"At Siemens, Bribery Was Just a Line Item "

The New York Times recently ran an article discussing the global bribery case of German- based corporate giant Siemens AG. The breadth and depth of the bribery is astounding:
"....In Argentina, a different Siemens subsidiary paid at least $40 million in bribes to win a $1 billion contract to produce national identity cards. In Israel, the company provided $20 million to senior government officials to build power plants. In Venezuela, it was $16 million for urban rail lines. In China, $14 million for medical equipment. And in Iraq, $1.7 million to Saddam Hussein and his cronies...."
More astounding is how bribery is seen as commonplace for doing business globally:

"For his part, Mr. Siekaczek is uncertain about the impact of the Siemens case. After all, he said, bribery and corruption are still widespread.

“People will only say about Siemens that they were unlucky and that they broke the 11th Commandment,” he said. “The 11th Commandment is: ‘Don’t get caught.’ ” "
According to the article byline: "This article is a joint report by ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization, PBS’s "Frontline" and The New York Times. A related documentary will be broadcast on “Frontline” on April 7."

Thursday, December 18, 2008

2009 U.S. Statistical Abstract

The new 2009 edition of the U.S. Statistical Abstract is now available, in print and electronically. This U.S. Census Bureau publication is arguably the #1 starting point for statistical information of any type. If you remember no other statistical resource, let this be the one. Here's the write-up from the Census Bureau:

The Statistical Abstract of the United States is the standard summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. It is also designed to serve as a guide to other statistical publications and sources. The latter function is served by the introductory text to each section, the source note appearing below each table, and Appendix I, which comprises the Guide to Sources of Statistics, the Guide to State Statistical Abstracts, and the Guide to Foreign Statistical Abstracts.

A press release included some sample statistics:
... the average length of stay for patients at community hospitals declined from 7.2 days in 1990 to 5.5 days in 2006. Yet over the same period, the average cost per patient stay climbed 81 percent, from $4,947 to $8,970....

Lottery sales increased from $51.6 billion in 2006 to $52.4 billion in 2007, with $29.7 billion in sales for instant scratch-off tickets. (Table 432)....

Violent crime per 100,000 people decreased from a rate of 597 in 1980 to
474 in 2006. The property crime rate in 1990, 5,353 per 100,000, decreased to 3,335 in 2006. (Table 295)....

IMF International Monetary Fund databases

The USF Libraries recently acquired subscriptions to 3 IMF/International Monetary Fund databases that might be of particular interest to USFSP COB faculty and students. Here is the announcement we received:
International Financial Statistics Online is a standard source of international statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance. It reports, for most countries of the world, current data needed in the analysis of problems of international payments and of inflation and deflation, i.e., data on exchange rates, international liquidity, international banking, money and banking, interest rates, prices, production, international transactions, government accounts, and national accounts. This database contains time series data from 1948 and contains approximately 32,000 time series covering more than 200 countries. One can browse the database, select series of interest, and display and save the selected series in a spreadsheet format, such as Microsoft Excel.

The Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) present, for most member countries of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), current figures on the value of exports and imports with the most important trading partners, providing current figures for about 158 countries. Smaller countries appear in the area and world tables. The information on exports and imports by trading partners that countries report to the IMF varies in terms of frequency and currency. Reported data, including total imports and exports reported for publication in the IMF International Financial Statistics (IFS), are the basis of all estimates in DOTS. The entire DOTS database is continuously supplemented with estimates.

Balance of Payments Statistics summarizes, for a specific period, the economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world. It reports total goods, services, factor income, and current transfers an economy receives from or provides to the rest of the world. The database contains time series data from 1948 and approximately 100,000 time series covering more than 170 countries and areas.

For these databases and other library resources visit http://www.lib.usf.edu. Click on Databases by Title/Subject to begin.

Monday, December 15, 2008

"The Future of the Internet" report from Pew Internet

The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently released its third annual forecast of "The Future of the Internet”. "A survey of experts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, and the structure of the Internet itself improves. They disagree about whether this will lead to more social tolerance, more forgiving human relations, or better home lives."

Some of the findings include the following:

* "The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the Internet for most people in the world in 2020.
* The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.
* The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who’s connected, and the results will be mixed in terms of social relations."

See the full 138-page report for more details.

Friday, December 12, 2008

American Community Survey data from Census Bureau

This month, the Census Bureau, through the American Community Survey program, released its first multi-year estimates (2005-07) for geographic areas with a population of 20,000 or more. The American Community Survey is an ongoing demographic survey conducted nationwide by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2000. The idea is to supplement the data provided by the decennial census with more current data, including data for smaller geographic areas.

So, for example, you can now find official 2005-07 population estimates for places such as Tarpon Springs, FL (23,074), that are more current than the 2000 census figures (21,003).

You can access the American Community Survey directly or through the American Factfinder database, which is also linked through the USF databases page. The USFSP library also has an online tutorial on using the American Factfinder database.

Monday, December 8, 2008

New Books in Business and Economics, USFSP, Nov 24 - Dec 5, 2008

New BUSINESS and ECONOMICS books in the Poynter Library, USF-St Petersburg
(in LC Call Number order, HB-HJ only)
November 24 – December 5, 2008

The following new business and economics books are kept on the “New Books” cart on the first floor in the library for a few weeks, and then moved to the circulating collection on the second floor, unless checked out…

Reflections of a political economist : selected articles on government policies and political processes / William A. Niskanen.
HC106.83 .N57 2008

Economic policy options for a prosperous Nigeria / edited by Paul Collier, Chukwuma C. Soludo and Catherine Pattillo.
HC1055 .E2814 2008

Ethics of global development : agency, capability, and deliberative democracy / David A. Crocker.
HD75 .C76 2008

Cuba's sugar industry / José Alvarez and Lázaro Peña Castellanos ; foreword by John M. Kirk.
HD9114.C89 A6288 2001

The business of wine : a global perspective / Per V. Jenster ... [et al.].
HD9370.5 .B87 2008

Al-Jazeera : the inside story of the Arab news channel that is challenging the West / Hugh Miles.
HE8700.9.Q22 M55 2005

Africa rising : how 900 million African consumers offer more than you think / Vijay Mahajan ; with Robert E. Gunther.
HF3876.5 .M34 2009

Working world : careers in international education, exchange, and development / Sherry L. Mueller, Mark Overmann.
HF5382.7 .M84 2008

Ethics in finance / John R. Boatright.
HF5387 .B63 2008

The snowball : Warren Buffett and the business of life / Alice Schroeder.
HG172.B84 S37 2008

Beyond greed and fear : understanding behavioral finance and the psychology of investing / Hersh Shefrin.
HG4515.15 .S53 2002

Understanding government budgets : a practical guide / R. Mark Musell.
HJ2051 .M87 2009


A more complete list of new books at the Poynter Library can be found here.

Please let me know if there are any particular publications that you would like to see in the library collection. Thanks,

Monday, December 1, 2008

Google, free speech, technology....

An article in today's NY Times entitled "Google's Gatekeepers" provides a good starting point for discussions about not only free speech, censorship, and new technologies, but also international business, cross-cultural concerns, privacy, and business and society. The article is focused on Nicole Wong and other key Google executives who make global public policy decisions:
"Given their clashing and sometimes self-contradictory missions — to obey local laws, repressive or not, and to ensure that information knows no bounds; to do no evil and to be everywhere in a sometimes evil world — Wong and her colleagues at Google seem to be working impressively to put the company’s long-term commitment to free expression above its short-term financial interests....."