Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • Ferida’s Wolff’s Backyard: A Nest!

    robin's nest
    A Nest! 

    Remember the robin that was knocking at our window? We had put a light plastic material on the glass to see if it would discourage the bird and it seemed to work but as soon as we took it down, the bird started again. I thought perhaps there was a nest in the bush outside the window, but I didn’t see one.

    Oh, well, Spring is in full swing and there is more to do than worry about an annoying bird;  plant new flowering bushes, weed the vegetable garden, fertilize the cherry trees. And then one day, while trimming the bushes on the other side of the yard, a nest with blue eggs appeared! Was this robin protecting that nest even though it was away from the house? And were these eggs actually the robin’s eggs? Other birds lay blue eggs. Plus, within the bush was a different bird that was warning us to stay away.

    I guess we will have to let nature take its course. If this nest is the robin’s, then when the birds hatch and eventually fly off, the aggressive window banging should stop. After all, parents need to protect their young.

    But wait, did I just see another robin gathering bits of dry grass and bringing them to the bush by the window?  

    Why do robins attack windows?

    http://birding-world.com/robin-attacking-windows/

    Why do robins lay blue eggs? Many birds lay blue eggs:

    https://www.thespruce.com/why-robin-eggs-are-blue-4161031

    Editor’s Note: We did find a (Illinois) US State’s overall instructions for approaching and treating birds: https://dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/environmental-health-protection/structural-pest-control/bird-exclusion-dispersal.html

    ©2022 Ferida Wolff

    Ferida Wolff is author of 19 books for children and three essay books for adults. Her essays appear in anthologies, newspapers and magazines. She is a frequent contributor to the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series. Her picture book IS A WORRY WORRYING YOU? coauthored with Harriet May Savitz (Tanglewood Books) is pertinent to our current times. Her latest book RACHEL’S ROSES is an historical mid-grade novel.

     
     

  • *GAO Report on Pandemic Learning: Less Academic Progress Overall, Student and Teacher Strain, and Implications for the Future GAO-22-105816 Published: Jun 08, 2022. Publicly Released: Jun 08, 2022

    Fast Facts

    This report examines the pandemic‘s effect on academic progress in the 2020-21 school year.

    In our survey, many K-12 public school teachers reported that more of their students started the year behind and made less progress than in a typical year.

    For example, teachers noted that kids started the year behind grade level after closures in spring 2020. Most teachers had students who ended the year behind grade level, as well.

    Some strategies that could help include mental health services, smaller class sizes, and better links between schools and families.

    person using laptop, pencil, and notebook

    What GAO Found

    Compared to a typical school year, teachers reported that more of their students started the 2020-21 school year behind and made less academic progress, according to GAO’s generalizable survey of K-12 public school teachers. Teachers also reported that many students ended the year behind grade level expectations (see figure). Educators and parents also shared their insights and experiences about student struggles and learning loss during the year.

    Academic Progress during School Year 2020-21

    Note: The margin of error for all percentages was less than or equal to +/- 8 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. The survey asked teachers how many of their students were behind grade level or made less academic progress. We did not define “behind” or “academic progress” as we wanted to obtain teachers’ overall observations of their students.

    GAO estimated that about half of teachers (52 percent) had more of their students start the 2020-21 school year behind compared to a typical school year, and that this affected younger students more than older students. Further, nearly two-thirds of teachers (64 percent) had more students make less academic progress than in a typical school year. These issues occurred across all grades and instructional models, and were more pronounced in some than others. For example, between 68 and 72 percent of teachers of older students or in virtual or hybrid environments had students who made less progress than is typical, compared to other grades and learning models. Finally, 45 percent of teachers had at least half of their students end the year behind grade level.

    Educators and parents did note, however, that some students excelled despite the strain of the pandemic. Factors associated with such success included flexibility to work at their own pace, and strong familial support.

    The pandemic continues to take a toll on students’ and teachers’ well-being. The trauma of the last 2 years has profoundly affected many students and teachers, some of whom lost parents or family members. As our teacher survey, educator and parent discussion groups, and other research has shown, this trauma and pandemic-associated schooling disruptions disproportionately harmed vulnerable students and contributed to growing disparities between student populations. Further, after 2 years of challenging working conditions, teachers are confronting burnout and recent surveys indicate that many are thinking of leaving their jobs.

    To help address these ongoing challenges as well as inform thinking about managing future learning disruptions, educators and parents identified strategies such as reducing class sizes or student-teacher ratios to provide more individualized attention to students.

    Why GAO Did This Study

    The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted learning for millions of students, educators, and families. Its effects continue to reverberate across the nation and produce challenges for schools that will likely be felt for years to come. In many respects, the 2020-21 school year offers insights and lessons on the struggles and successes that schools, educators, and parents faced.

    The CARES Act includes a provision for GAO to report on its ongoing COVID-19 monitoring and oversight efforts. This report, the third in a series of three reports, examines (1) the effect on academic progress, and (2) implications, and strategies and resources identified by educators and parents to address ongoing challenges or future learning disruptions.

    To address these objectives, GAO contracted with Gallup to (1) conduct a nationally representative survey of elementary and secondary public school teachers between June 18 and July 9, 2021 and (2) arrange virtual discussion groups with teachers, principals or assistant principals, and parents. The overall response rate was 8.2 percent (using the American Association for Public Opinion Research’s response rate 3, which accounts for the estimated eligibility rate of non-respondents). GAO analyzed the resulting survey data and discussion group information. GAO estimated margins of error at the 95 percent confidence level. To view the first two reports, see GAO-22-104487 and GAO-22- 105815.To view the supplement online, click on http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-22-105817.

    For more information, contact Jacqueline M. Nowicki at 617-788-0580 or nowickij@gao.gov.

    Full Report

    Full Report (24 pages); Published: Jun 08, 2022. Publicly Released: Jun 08, 2022.
     
    “*GAO:  In 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) celebrated 100 years of making the government work better for you. GAO, often called the “congressional watchdog,” is an independent, non-partisan agency that works for Congress. GAO examines how taxpayer dollars are spent and provides Congress and federal agencies with objective, non-partisan, fact-based information to help the government save money and work more efficiently. For example, we identified about $66.2 billion in financial benefits in fiscal year 2021 — for an average return on investment of $158 for every $1 invested in us for the past 5 years. We also identified 1,239 other benefits that led to program and operational improvements across the government. Most recently, GAO has been evaluating the largest response to a national emergency in U.S. history, the $4.8 trillion COVID-19 response legislation, and has made more than 200 recommendations about how to improve its effectiveness in dealing with public health issues and the economy.

  • Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol

    ABOUT                                          image of capital

    Whereas January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days of our democracy, during which insurrectionists attempted to impede Congress’s Constitutional mandate to validate the presidential election and launched an assault on the United States Capitol Complex that resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff, institutional employees, press, and Members;

    Whereas, on January 27, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security issued a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin that due to the “heightened threat environment across the United States,” in which “[S]ome ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence.” The Bulletin also stated that —

    (1) “DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021 and some DVEs [domestic violent extremists] may be emboldened by the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target elected officials and government facilities.”; and

    (2) “Threats of violence against critical infrastructure, including the electric, telecommunications and healthcare sectors, increased in 2020 with violent extremists citing misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID–19 for their actions”;

    Whereas, on September 24, 2020, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Christopher Wray testified before the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives that —

    (1) “[T]he underlying drivers for domestic violent extremism – such as perceptions of government or law enforcement overreach, sociopolitical conditions, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, and reactions to legislative actions – remain constant.”;

    (2) “[W]ithin the domestic terrorism bucket category as a whole, racially-motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within the larger group. And within the racially-motivated violent extremists bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of that.”; and

    (3) “More deaths were caused by DVEs than international terrorists in recent years. In fact, 2019 was the deadliest year for domestic extremist violence since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995”; 

    Whereas, on April 15, 2021, Michael Bolton, the Inspector General for the United States Capitol Police, testified to the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives that—

    (1) “The Department lacked adequate guidance for operational planning. USCP did not have policy and procedures in place that communicated which personnel were responsible for operational planning, what type of operational planning documents its personnel should prepare, nor when its personnel should prepare operational planning documents.”; and

    (2) “USCP failed to disseminate relevant information obtained from outside sources, lacked consensus on interpretation of threat analyses, and disseminated conflicting intelligence information regarding planned events for January 6, 2021.”; and

    Whereas the security leadership of the Congress under-prepared for the events of January 6th, with United States Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton testifying again on June 15, 2021, that—

    (1) “USCP did not have adequate policies and procedures for FRU (First Responder Unit) defining its overall operations. Additionally, FRU lacked resources and training for properly completing its mission.”;

    (2) “The Department did not have adequate policies and procedures for securing ballistic helmets and vests strategically stored around the Capitol Complex.”; and

    (3) “FRU did not have the proper resources to complete its mission.”: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved, 

    SECTION 1. ESTABLISHMENT.

    There is hereby established the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (hereinafter referred to as the “Select Committee”).

    SEC. 2. COMPOSITION.

    (a) Appointment Of Members. — The Speaker shall appoint 13 Members to the Select Committee, 5 of whom shall be appointed after consultation with the minority leader.

    (b) Designation Of Chair. — The Speaker shall designate one Member to serve as chair of the Select Committee.

    (c) Vacancies. — Any vacancy in the Select Committee shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment.

  • GAO, Unemployment Insurance: Transformation Needed to Address Program Design, Infrastructure, and Integrity Risks

     
    Fast Facts

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, historic job losses and demand for benefits worsened existing problems in the unemployment insurance system. Millions of workers faced delays in receiving benefits while the risk of payment errors, including those resulting from fraud, greatly increased.

    The Labor Department estimates that payment errors rose from 9.2% of payments to 18.9% ($78.1 billion) from FYs 2020 to 2021.

    We see an urgent need to address persistent unemployment insurance system issues that were exacerbated in the pandemic. We are adding this area to our High Risk List and recommending that Labor develop a plan for transforming this system.

    Unemployment insurance application

    What GAO Found

    GAO and others have reported that challenges with Unemployment Insurance (UI) administration have affected states’ ability to effectively meet the needs of unemployed workers, both historically and during times of economic downturn—such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Reported challenges with program design and variation in how states administer UI have contributed to declining access and disparities in benefit distribution. In the pandemic, challenges emerged relating to providing customer service, timely processing of claims, and implementing new programs. Moreover, GAO, the Department of Labor (DOL), and the DOL Office of Inspector General have reported on the need to modernize state IT systems.

    The risk of UI improper payments, including from fraud, greatly increased during the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, DOL regularly reported billions of dollars in annual estimated improper payments in UI, and it reported an increase from $8.0 billion (9.2 percent improper payment rate) for fiscal year 2020 to $78.1 billion (18.9 percent improper payment rate) for fiscal year 2021. According to DOL, historically, the primary causes of improper payments related to eligibility determination issues, such as providing benefits to those who had returned to work and failed to report their earnings. However, DOL stated that during the pandemic, increased identity theft was a main cause. Total UI improper payments are not known partly because DOL has not yet reported estimates for certain pandemic UI programs. States have also struggled with incomplete reporting of billions of dollars in identified overpayments. The CARES Act UI programs created new, and increased existing, fraud risks. From March 2020 through January 2022, at least 146 individuals pleaded guilty to federal charges of defrauding UI programs and charges were pending against at least 249 individuals. As a result of the increase in fraud-related cases during the pandemic, federal and state entities continue to investigate UI fraud.

    These extensive challenges pose significant risk to UI service delivery and expose the UI system to significant financial losses. Based on GAO’s findings—including many open recommendations in this area—GAO has determined that the UI system should be added to GAO’s High-Risk List. DOL has some activities planned and underway for the UI system, such as creating a UI modernization office and implementing strategies aimed at reducing risk; however, many long-standing issues remain unaddressed. Leaving these issues unaddressed will heighten the risk of the UI system not meeting fundamental program expectations of serving workers and the broader economy, and may undermine public confidence in the responsible stewardship of government funds.

    Participants in stakeholder panels GAO convened identified various options for transforming the UI system. Options include changes to program design to better target support, improvements to infrastructure, and enhancements to program integrity—e.g., tightening federal standards for state UI implementation, such as those for eligibility, benefit amounts, and duration; improving and modernizing IT systems; and obtaining additional data sources to identify fraudulent claims. In addition, GAO identified broad considerations to help policymakers and others assess key aspects of different options for transforming UI programs and addressing related risks. Such considerations include the comprehensiveness and flexibility of potential transformations. (more…)

  • Congressional Bills, Schedule and SNAP: Authorizing Assistance to Train and Retain Obstetrician-gynecologists and Sub-specialists in Urogynecology

    Bills Introduced: May 23-27, 2022Ayanna Presley

    International 

    Right, Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) / Twitter, mobile.twitter.com

     

    H.R. 7864 — Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)/Foreign Affairs (5/24/22) — A bill to authorize assistance to train and retain obstetrician-gynecologists and sub-specialists in urogynecology and to help improve the quality of care to meet the health care needs of women in the least developed countries, and for other purposes. 

    H.R. 7869 — Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY)/Foreign Affairs (5/24/22) — A bill to authorize assistance to aid in the prevention and treatment of obstetric fistula in foreign countries, and for other purposes.

     

    Miscellaneous 

    H. Res. 1138 — Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY)/Energy and Commerce (5/24/22) — A resolution expressing support for the designation of September 2022 as “National Leading Entertainment and Arts through Diversity Month” or “National LEAD Month,” and empowering underrepresented communities to take the lead within the entertainment industry.

     

    Reproductive Health 

    S. 4347 — Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)/Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (5/26/22) — A bill to require group health plans and group or individual health insurance coverage to provide coverage for over-the-counter contraceptives.

    H.R. 7894 — Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)/Energy and Commerce; Education and Labor; Ways and Means (5/27/22) — A bill to require group health plans and group or individual health insurance coverage to provide coverage for over-the-counter contraceptives.

    H. Res. 1145 — Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY)/Foreign Affairs; Energy and Commerce (5/27/22) — A resolution recognizing Menstrual Hygiene Day.

    Tax Policy 

     H.R. 7875 — Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA)/Ways and Means; Energy and Commerce (5/24/22) — A bill to provide for the expedited and duty-free importation of infant formula that may be lawfully marketed in the European Union, Canada, Japan, or the United Kingdom, and for other purposes.

     

    May 27, 2022
    Number in list Bill number Bill title
    1. H.R.8 [117th] Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021
    2. H.R.350 [117th] Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022
    3. H.R.1446 [117th] Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021
    4. H.R.7790 [117th] Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022
    5. S.111 [117th] Luke and Alex School Safety Act of 2021
    6. H.R.127 [117th] Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act
    7. H.R.7791 [117th] Access to Baby Formula Act of 2022
    8. S.2070 [101st] Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990
    9. H.R.1280 [117th] George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021
    10. H.R.3617 [117th] Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act

    CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE: JUNE 6-10, 2022

    Floor Action: 

    The House and Senate are in session this week. 

    Small Business/Entrepreneurship – On Tuesday, the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 7670, the Women-Owned Small Business Program Transparency Act. 

    Mark-Ups: 

    Military –  On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel will mark up H.R. 7900, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2023. 

    On Thursday, the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness will mark up H.R. 7900, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2023. 

    Hearings:

    Family Support – On Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing, “A 2022 Review of the Farm Bill: Stakeholder Perspectives on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).” 

     

  • Jo Freeman’s Review of Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath

    FREEZING ORDER: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath

    by Bill Browder

    New York: Simon & Schuster, xii + 313 pages with scattered photographsfreezing order
     
     
    Bill Browder has written a political thriller.  Covering roughly the decade ending in 2018, he traces his efforts to sanction corrupt Russian officials who had murdered his friend and Moscow lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.  In turn, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin sought to put Browder into a Russian jail and destroy everyone connected to him.
     
    Receiving his Stanford MBA in 1989, Browder founded Hermitage Capital Management (HCM) in 1996 to invest in Russia as it was privatizing after the fall of the Soviet Union.  A little background explains his interest in Russia.  His grandfather lived in the Soviet Union and married a Russian woman, before returning to the United States to head the US Communist Party for 15 years. Born in New Jersey, Bill Browder became a UK citizen in 1999 out of disgust at how his grandparents were treated by the US government.
     
    HCM made a lot of money investing in Russia, but also exposed a lot of corruption. Putin expelled Browder and put his lawyer in jail, where he was beaten to death in 2009.  Browder’s revenge was to pass Magnitsky Acts, in order to punish Russian human rights violators.  The US version became law in 2012.  Browder lobbied for Magnitsky Acts in Canada and the EU, as well as enforcement worldwide.  In 2016 Congress passed a Global Magnitsky Act which expanded the foreign government officials who could be sanctioned for human rights violations.
     
    Russia responded by putting Browder on trial in absentia and Magnitsky posthumously.  After the usual automatic conviction, Russia asked Interpol to arrest Browder and send him back to Russia.  It did so in Spain in 2018, but he was released.  Russia also banned the adoption of Russian orphans by Americans.  In subsequent discussions with American candidates for office “adoptions” became code for the Magnitsky Acts.  Russia also promulgated disinformation campaigns to make its claims appear to be legitimate.
     
    Since Putin and the oligarchs moved their money out of Russia by buying and selling assets all over the world, Browder asked numerous prosecutors to freeze them.  Hence the title.  A freezing order is a legal procedure that prevents defendants from moving their assets beyond the reach of a court.

  • Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau: Further Strengthening Our Gun Control Laws

     

    Prime Minister of CanadaPM of Canada Trudeau
    Justin Trudeau
     

    Further strengthening our gun control laws

    May 30, 2022
    Ottawa, Ontario
     
     

    Keeping Canadians safe is the Government of Canada’s top priority. We know that one Canadian killed by gun violence is one too many, which is why, two years ago, we banned over 1,500 types of military-style assault firearms. We also strengthened our gun control laws to expand background checks and keep firearms out of the wrong hands. These measures are helping to keep our children and communities safe.

    The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the introduction of new legislation to further strengthen gun control in Canada and keep Canadians safe from gun violence. Bill C-21 puts forward some of the strongest gun control measures in over 40 years.

    These new measures include:

    • Implementing a national freeze on handguns to prevent individuals from bringing newly acquired handguns into Canada and from buying, selling, and transferring handguns within the country.
    • Taking away the firearms licenses of those involved in acts of domestic violence or criminal harassment, such as stalking.
    • Fighting gun smuggling and trafficking by increasing criminal penalties, providing more tools for law enforcement to investigate firearms crimes, and strengthening border security measures.
    • Addressing intimate partner violence, gender-based violence, and self-harm involving firearms by creating a new “red flag” law that would enable courts to require that individuals considered a danger to themselves or others surrender their firearms to law enforcement, while protecting the safety of the individual applying to the red flag process, including by protecting their identity. In addition, the government will invest $6.6 million to help raise awareness of the new law and provide supports to vulnerable and marginalized groups to navigate the provisions.

    In addition to this new legislation, the Government of Canada will require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered so they can never hold more than five rounds and will ban the sale and transfer of large capacity magazines under the Criminal Code.

    These are the measures that chiefs of police, families of survivors, doctors, and advocates have been asking us to take, and they build on the many concrete actions we have already taken. The Government of Canada will work with provinces, territories, Indigenous communities, and municipalities to implement these measures, and will continue to do whatever it takes to keep guns out of our communities and make Canada a safer country for everyone.

    Quotes

    “One Canadian killed by gun violence is one too many. I’ve seen all too well the tragic cost that gun violence has in our communities across the country. Today, we’re proposing some of the strongest measures in Canadian history to keep guns out of our communities and build a safer future for everyone.”

    The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

    “We made a commitment to Canadians to tackle gun violence. The legislation we introduced today is part of our comprehensive strategy to promote safe and responsible gun laws, invest in law enforcement to stop organized crime and illegal gun smuggling at the border, and to invest in communities to address root causes and prevent gun crime from occurring in the first place. This legislation will help to reduce gun violence and keep Canadians safe.”

    The Hon. Marco E. L. Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety

    “Violent crime involving firearms has devastating impacts on communities across the country. This bill combines evidence-based policies and tougher Criminal Code penalties, among other measures, to better protect our communities. This includes people who are vulnerable to intimate partner violence and gender-based violence, and those who are at risk of hurting themselves. That is what we promised we would do, and that is what we are doing with this bill.”

    The Hon. David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

    Quick Facts

    • To ensure the national freeze on handguns can be implemented swiftly, the Minister of Public Safety has already tabled regulatory amendments in both the House of Commons and the Senate. These regulations will help stop the growth of personally owned handguns in Canada and are expected to come into force in Fall 2022.
    • In 2020, the Prime Minister announced the ban of over 1,500 models and variants of assault-style firearms. A buyback program will be introduced to offer fair compensation to affected owners and businesses.
    • Going forward, we will also ensure military-style assault weapons are automatically prohibited when they enter the market. We will continue working to ensure any new weapons that fit the definition of assault-style weapon are captured.
    • Earlier this year, the government announced an investment of $250 million through the Building Safer Communities Fund (BSCF) to help communities across the country prevent gun and gang violence by tackling its root causes, particularly for at-risk children.
    • Budget 2021 provided more than $312 million in new funding to increase firearms tracing capacity and implement stronger border control measures to fight gun smuggling and trafficking. Law enforcement agencies seized more than double the number of firearms at the border in 2021, compared to 2020, which is also the highest number of firearms seized in recent years. 
    • The number of registered handguns in Canada increased by 71 per cent between 2010 and 2020, reaching approximately 1.1 million. Handguns were the most serious weapon present in the majority of firearm-related violent crimes (59 per cent) between 2009 and 2020.
    • In 2018, firearms were present in over 600 intimate partner violence incidents in Canada. Victims of intimate partner violence are approximately five times more likely to be killed when a firearm is present in the home.

    Associated Links

  • Federal Reserve: Responding to High Inflation, with Some Thoughts on a Soft Landing; What Is Slide Four We Ask?

    Governor Christopher J. WallerFrankfurt Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS)

    At the Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS) Distinguished Lecture, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

    Watch Live

    Thank you, Professor Wieland, for the introduction, and thank you to the Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability for the opportunity to speak to you today.1 I come here at a moment of great challenge for Germany and Europe, and a moment in which it has never been more evident that the interests of Europe and the United States are closely aligned. America stands with Europe in defending Ukraine because we all understand that an assault on democracy in Europe is a threat to democracy everywhere. We also face the common challenge of excessive inflation, which is no coincidence, since Germany and other countries are dealing with many of the same forces driving up inflation in the United States.

    Fortunately, in response to this moment of common challenges and interests, Europe and the United States have strengthened our ties and I believe we are more unified today than we have been for decades. We see that in the deepening and possible broadening of our security commitments, and we also see it in the strong commitment that central banks in Europe and elsewhere have made to fight inflation.

    In today’s distinguished lecture I will deal with two distinct topics, both of which I believe will be of interest. First, I will provide my outlook for the U.S. economy and how the Federal Reserve plans to reduce inflation and achieve our 2 percent target. Then I will pivot to a more academic discussion of the labor market and the possibility of a soft landing in which taming inflation does not harm employment.

    Let me start with the economic outlook for the United States. Despite a pause early this year in the growth of real gross domestic product (GDP), the U.S. economy continues to power along at a healthy pace. The contraction in output reported in the first quarter was due to swings in two volatile categories, inventories and net exports, and I don’t expect them to be repeated. Consumer spending and business investment, which are the bedrock of GDP, were both strong, and more recent data point toward solid demand and continuing momentum in the economy that will sustain output growth in the months ahead.

    Another sign of strength is the labor market, which has created 2 million jobs in the first four months of 2022 at a remarkably steady pace that is down only slightly from the 562,000 a month last year. Unemployment is near a 50-year low, and both the low numbers of people filing for unemployment benefits and the high number of job openings indicate that the slowdown in the economy from the fast pace of last year isn’t yet weighing on the job market. Some look at labor force participation, which is below its pre-COVID-19 level, as leaving a lot of room for improvement. However, there are underlying factors that explain why participation is depressed, including early retirements and individual choices associated with COVID concerns. Whatever the cause, low participation has contributed to the fact that there are two job vacancies for every one person counted looking for a job, a record high. Before the pandemic, when the labor market was in very solid shape, there was one vacancy for every two unemployed people. As I will explain, this very tight labor market has implications for inflation and the Fed’s plans for reducing inflation. But on its own terms, we need to recognize that robust job creation is an underlying strength of the U.S. economy, which is expanding its productive capacity and supporting personal income and ongoing economic growth, in the face of other challenges.

  • Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Commencement Address to the Harvard Classes of 2020 and 2021 Cambridge, MA ~ Sunday, May 29, 2022

     “A democracy cannot survive if its citizens forsake the rule of law in favor of violence or threats of violence. We are all in this together. We must protect each other.” … So, for me, public service is a way to repay the debt my family owes to this country for our very lives. ” “These are our fellow citizens — who administer our elections, ensure our safe travel, treat the sick, teach the children, report the news, represent their constituents, ensure the rule of law, and keep our communities safe.”

    “And it is a great comfort to see all of you in your robes. You look like little judges. I feel right at home. (Laughter.)”
     
    Atty General Merrick Garland
    Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Commencement Address to the Harvard Classes of 2020 and 2021, Cambridge, MA; The Harvard Crimson
     ~ 

    Sunday, May 29, 2022

    Remarks as Delivered 

    Thank you, President Bacow, for this extraordinary honor. And for your kind, but overly generous introduction.

    And thank you to my wife, Lynn, Harvard Class of 1982 (Applause), for listening to President Bacow’s introduction without laughing out loud at the overly generous parts.

    It truly is an honor to be here today to offer my own “welcome back” to the patient and indomitable Classes of 2020 and 2021.

    And it is an honor to be here with your families and loved ones to celebrate with you.

    I know it must be a little strange to be back here: not as soon-to-be graduates anxious about the future, but as actual graduates – anxious about the future. (Laughter.)

    It does relieve the pressure on me, though, knowing that today I am speaking at your 10-year reunion instead of your graduation. Yes, 2020 through 2021 was a long decade for all of us. (Laughter and Applause.)

    And it is a great comfort to see all of you in your robes. You look like little judges. I feel right at home. (Laughter.)

    I know that because of the pandemic, your experience was not entirely what you had expected. Life does not always turn out the way you expect. Trust me on that. (Laughter.)

    But it is a great honor to recognize the extraordinary resilience you have shown. We are all very, very proud of you.

    I also want to acknowledge an additional, impossible kind of resilience that your generation has been asked to weather.

    As we gather today to celebrate this milestone in your life, we are also holding onto an enormous amount of grief because of yet another mass shooting at another school in our country.

    An unspeakable act of violence has devastated families and an entire community in Uvalde, Texas. I know I speak for all of us here that our hearts are broken.

    Before that horrific attack – and before the horrific attack in Laguna Woods and the horrific attack in Buffalo – I had decided I wanted to make this speech about public service. About what each of us owes to each other, and about what we all owe as residents of a democracy.

    I still want to talk about public service today because these tragedies only underscore how urgent the call to public service for your generation truly is. And because of a promise I made when I first came to Harvard.

    Standing on this stage today would have been a great surprise to the 17-year-old me who first set foot on this campus. In my mind, I am still the scholarship kid whose parents drove him all the way to Cambridge from Illinois in a car bulging with suitcases and excitement.

    I had no idea what a Final Club was. (Laughter.) I assumed it was a group of students who got together to study for final exams. (Laughter.)

    When I arrived at Harvard, I hoped to become a doctor because I saw it as the best way to help people directly.

    I had a pre-med scholarship provided by a company in my hometown, which the University generously supplemented.

    But despite many personal tutorials by my roommate and best friend, it eventually became clear that the pre-med prerequisites were not my forte. (Laughter.)

    So, I went to my scholarship advisor to say I was switching fields and would have to give up the scholarship. I was sorry I had let him down, I said. Sorry that I did not know how I would be able to continue without the financial support.

  • A Short Poetry Book Review By Diane Girard: Stars In the Junkyard by Sharon Berg: “The poems in Stars in the Junkyard have depth, intensity glimpses of brightness that encourage rereading”

    Stars in the Junkyard

    Sharon Bergoceanview writers retreat

    cyberwit.net    ©2020

    124 pages Paperback $16.00

    Stars in the Junkyard is a collection of poems by Canadian writer, Sharon Berg.  Her work digs into the kinds of loss, abuse, and betrayal that she, like many other women has suffered and yet, there is hope and sometimes an unexpected tenderness. Her poems are intensely personal, but there is a universality to them. They are layered, intricate, intimate and non-pretentious. Much of what she writes is about how families interact. This short poem speaks to her desire to be heard.

    Difficult

    I am difficult.

    You are right in that, brother.

    I am as difficult to love as you are to love

    with your shifting moods

    and world-blaming pains.

    I am the family truth-teller no matter your idea of private.

    That makes me painful for anyone in my family

    or closely associated

    To love.

     

    Listen, I do not write

    to deliver beatifications

    for the sake of family or lovers.

    I do not write to assuage

    your conscience or mine

    by blaming others.

    I write to understand

    truth in the development

     of human relations.

    I speak to my own

    Experience.

     

    Allow me my voice.

     

    © Sharon Berg 2020


    In some of her work, Berg delves into her family history and skewers it with needle-like precision. This quote is from Coming of Age, “Inch by inch, I banish hairy shadows,/ every closet revealing family bones./ One shadow builds on another, the face/ over breakfast the same, yet unlike/ the nightmare skeleton that wore his desires. The roles in our home reversed, child/ giving the parent comfort.”

    In other poems an homage to lovemaking is found as in these lines from Spellbound: “the heart whispers lyrical/ ventricles pounding/ flesh surrounding / a dangerous phrasing/ that admits us vulnerable/ the mind leaping/ in acrobatic musing/ I rise as blue dawn/ cracks the black opaline/ sky still swinging/ on the pendulum/ of our passions”.

    Her long poem Anthems for the Homeland, is a response to the Oka crisis (also called the Kanesatake Resistance) that took place in Quebec in 1990 when the Mohawk protested because the bones of their ancestors were threatened by the expansion of a golf course into their ancestral lands.

    The poems in Stars in the Junkyard have depth, intensity glimpses of brightness that encourage rereading. Many of them have been published in periodicals in Canada, the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, India and Australia. 

    Sharon Berg is a poet, a fiction author, and a historian of First Nations education in Canada. She lives in Charlottetown,  Newfoundland and Labrador where she operates Oceanview Writers Retreat.

    Diane Girard © 2022