The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents Off the Wall: American Art to Wear, a major exhibition that highlights a distinctive American art movement that emerged in the late 1960s and flourished during the following decades. It examines a generation of pioneering artists who used body-related forms to express a personal vision and frames their work in relation to the cultural, historical and social concerns of their time. Focusing on iconic works made during the three decades between 1967 and 1997, the exhibition features 115 works by 62 artists. Comprised primarily of selections from a promised gift of Julie Schafler Dale, it also includes works from the museum’s collection and loans from private collections. Off the Wall: American Art to Wear is accompanied by a new publication of the same title, co-published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Yale University Press.
Dina Knapp, See It Like a Native: History Kimono #1, 1982. Painted, appliquéd, and Xerox-transferred cotton, polyester, plastic, and paper. Promised gift of Julie Schafler Dale Collection.
Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director and CEO, said: “This exhibition introduces to our visitors an exceptionally creative and adventurous aspect of American art which took the body as a vehicle for its expression. We are not only deeply grateful to Julie Schafler Dale for her extraordinary gifts and support of the museum but also see this as an opportunity to acknowledge the dynamic role she played in nurturing the growth and development of this movement.”
The champions of Art to Wear during the early years were a few forward-thinking museums, among them New York’s Museum of Contemporary Crafts (Museum of Art and Design), collectors, and galleries such as Sandra Sakata’s Obiko, founded in 1972 in San Francisco, and Julie Schafler Dale’s Julie: Artisans Gallery, which opened the following year on Madison Avenue in New York. For over 40 years, Dale’s gallery was a premier destination for presenting one-of-a-kind wearable works by American artists. Through her gallery installations and rotating window displays, she gave visibility to the Art to Wear movement. In 1986, she brought further recognition to the art form by publishing the seminal book Art to Wear — from which the title of this exhibition is taken — which provided in-depth profiles of artists alongside photographs by Brazilian fashion photographer Otta Stupakoff. Dale’s gallery closed in 2013.
Susanna Lewis, 1978, Oz socks, right; Loom-knitted, appliquéd, and crocheted wool, cotton, rayon, nylon, linen, and satin; beads; plastic heels. Promised gift of The Julie Schafler Dale Collection.
Off the Wall is arranged in nine sections; the titles of some are derived from popular music of the ‘60s and ‘70s to suggest the wide-ranging concerns of the artists. The introductory section, The Times They Are A Changin’ (Bob Dylan, 1964), contains works by Lenore Tawney, Dorian Zachai, Claire Zeisler, Ed Rossbach, and Debra Rapoport to illustrate how textile artists in the late ‘50s and ‘60s liberated tapestry weaving from the wall, adapting it to three-dimensional sculptural forms inspired by pre-Columbian weaving. In 1969, a group of five students at Pratt Institute studying painting, sculpture, industrial design, multimedia, and graphic design taught each other how to crochet, leading to remarkable outcomes. Janet Lipkin, Jean Cacicedo, Marika Contompasis, Sharron Hedges, and Dina Knapp all created clothing-related forms that they would describe as wearable sculpture, thus establishing a cornerstone of the Art to Wear movement. Included in this section is a wool crochet and knit Samurai Top, 1972, by Sharron Hedges, modeled by the young Julie Dale for the book Creative Crochet, authored by two of the artist’s friends, Nicki Hitz Edson and Arlene Stimmel.
The Effort That It Takes to Give Someone a Good Death at Home; Hospice Care Can Badly Strain Families
The for-profit hospice industry has grown, allowing more Americans to die at home. But few family members realize that “hospice care” still means they’ll do most of the physical and emotional work. (Maria Fabrizio for WPLN)
This story is part of a partnership that includes Nashville Public Radio, NPR and Kaiser Health News.
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23, 2020
“I’m not anti-hospice at all,” said Joy Johnston, who relocated to New Mexico years ago at age 40 to care for her dying mother.
“But I think people aren’t prepared for all the effort that it takes to give someone a good death at home.”
Surveys show dying at home is what most Americans say they want. But it’s “not all it’s cracked up to be,” said Johnston, a caregiver advocate and writer from Atlanta.
She wrote an essay about her frustrations with the way hospice care often works in the United States. Johnston, like many family caregivers, was surprised that her mother’s hospice provider left most of the physical work to her. She said that during the final weeks of her mother’s life, she felt more like a tired nurse than a devoted daughter.
Hospice allows a patient deemed to have fewer than six months to live to change the focus of their medical care — from the goal of curing disease to a new goal of using treatments and medicines to maintain comfort and quality of life. It is a form of palliative care, which also focuses on pain management, but can be provided while a patient continues to seek a cure or receive treatments to prolong life.
According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 7 in 10 Americans say they would prefer to die at home. And that’s the direction the health care system is moving, as part of an effort to avoid unnecessary and expensive treatment at the end of life. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
The home hospice movement has been great for patients and many patients are thrilled with the care they get, said Dr. Parul Goyal, a palliative care physician with Vanderbilt Health.
“I do think that when they are at home, they are in a peaceful environment,” Goyal said. “It is comfortable for them. But,” she noted, “it may not be comfortable for family members watching them taking their last breath.”
When it comes to where we die, the US has reached a tipping point. Home is now the most common place of death, according to new research, and a majority of Medicare patients are turning to hospice services to help make that possible. Fewer Americans these days are dying in a hospital, under the close supervision of doctors and nurses.
Hospice care is usually offered in the home, or sometimes in a nursing home. Since the mid-1990s, Medicare has allowed the hospice benefit to cover more types of diagnoses, and therefore more people. As acceptance grows among physicians and patients, the numbers continue to balloon — from 1.27 million patients in 2012 to 1.49 million in 2017.
According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Association, hospice is now a $19 billion industry, almost entirely funded by taxpayers. But as the business has grown, so has the burden on families, who are often the ones providing most of the care. For example, one intimate task in particular — trying to get her mom’s bowels moving — changed Joy Johnston’s view of what hospice really means. Constipation plagues many dying patients.
“It’s ironically called the ‘comfort care kit’ that you get with home hospice. They include suppositories, and so I had to do that,” she said. “That was the lowest point. And I’m sure it was the lowest point for my mother as well. And it didn’t work.”
Hospice agencies primarily serve in an advisory role and from a distance, even in the final, intense days when family caregivers, or home nurses they’ve hired, must continually adjust morphine doses or deal with typical end-of-life symptoms, such as bleeding or breathing trouble. Those decisive moments can be scary for the family, said Dr. Joan Teno, a physician and leading hospice researcher at Oregon Health and Science University.
“Imagine if you’re the caregiver, and that you’re in the house,” Teno said. “It’s in the middle of the night, 2 o’clock in the morning, and all of a sudden, your family member has a grand mal seizure.”
That’s exactly what happened with Teno’s mother.
“While it was difficult for me to witness, I knew what to do,” she said.
In contrast, Teno said, in her father’s final hours, he was admitted to a hospice residence.
Such residences often resemble a nursing home, with private rooms where family and friends can come and go and with round-the-clock medical attention just down the hall.
Teno called the residence experience of hospice a “godsend.” But an inpatient facility is rarely an option, she said. Patients have to be in bad shape for Medicare to pay the higher inpatient rate that hospice residences charge. And by the time such patients reach their final days, it’s often too much trouble for them and the family to move.
Hospice care is a lucrative business. It is now the most profitable type of health care service that Medicare pays for. According to Medicare data, for-profit hospice agencies now outnumber the nonprofits that pioneered the service in the 1970s. But agencies that need to generate profits for investors aren’t building dedicated hospice units or residences, in general — mostly because such facilities aren’t profitable enough.
Joe Shega is chief medical officer at the for-profit VITAS Healthcare, the largest hospice company in the US He insists it is the patients’ wishes, not a corporate desire to make more money, that drives his firm’s business model.
“Our focus is on what patients want, and 85 to 90% want to be at home,” Shega said. “So, our focus is building programs that help them be there.”
For many families, making hospice work at home means hiring extra help.
On the day I visit her home outside Nashville, hospice patient Jean McCasland is at the kitchen table refusing to eat a spoonful of peach yogurt. Each morning, nurse’s aide Karrie Velez pulverizes McCasland’s medications in a pill crusher and mixes them into her breakfast yogurt.
“If you don’t, she will just spit them out,” Velez said.
Like a growing share of hospice patients, McCasland has dementia. She needs a service that hospice rarely provides — a one-on-one health attendant for several hours, so the regular family caregiver can get a break each day. When Velez is not around, John McCasland — Jean’s husband of nearly 50 years — is the person in charge at home.
“I have said from the beginning that was my intention, that she would be at home through the duration, as long as I was able,” John said.
But what hospice provided wasn’t enough help. So he has had to drain the couple’s retirement accounts to hire Velez, a private caregiver, out-of-pocket.
Hospice agencies usually bring in a hospital bed, an oxygen machine or a wheelchair — whatever equipment is needed. Prescriptions show up at the house for pain and anxiety. But hands-on help is scarce. According to Medicare, hospice benefits can include home health aides and homemaker services. But in practice, that in-person help is often limited to a couple of baths a week. Medicare data reveals that, on average, a nurse or aide is only in the patient’s home 30 minutes, or so, per day.
Jean McCasland’s husband hasn’t complained. “I guess I’ve just accepted what’s available and not really thought beyond what could be,” he said. “Because this is what they say they do.”
England’s Information Commissioner’s Office, Publishes Code to Protect Children’s Privacy Online: “We need our laws to protect children in the digital world too”
“There are laws to protect children in the real world. We need our laws to protect children in the digital world too.” – UK Information Commissioner
Today the Information Commissioner’s Office has published its final Age Appropriate Design Code – a set of 15 standards that online services should meet to protect children’s privacy.
The code sets out the standards expected of those responsible for designing, developing or providing online services like apps, connected toys, social media platforms, online games, educational websites and streaming services. It covers services likely to be accessed by children and which process their data.
The code will require digital services to automatically provide children with a built-in baseline of data protection whenever they download a new app, game or visit a website.
That means privacy settings should be set to high by default and nudge techniques should not be used to encourage children to weaken their settings. Location settings that allow the world to see where a child is, should also be switched off by default. Data collection and sharing should be minimised and profiling that can allow children to be served up targeted content should be switched off by default too.
Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner, said:
“Personal data often drives the content that our children are exposed to – what they like, what they search for, when they log on and off and even how they are feeling.
“In an age when children learn how to use an iPad before they ride a bike, it is right that organisations designing and developing online services do so with the best interests of children in mind. Children’s privacy must not be traded in the chase for profit.”
The code says that the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration when designing and developing online services. And it gives practical guidance on data protection safeguards that ensure online services are appropriate for use by children.
Ms Denham said:
“One in five internet users in the UK is a child, but they are using an internet that was not designed for them.
“There are laws to protect children in the real world – film ratings, car seats, age restrictions on drinking and smoking. We need our laws to protect children in the digital world too.
“In a generation from now, we will look back and find it astonishing that online services weren’t always designed with children in mind.”
The standards of the code are rooted in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the code was introduced by the Data Protection Act 2018. The ICO submitted the code to the Secretary of State in November and it must complete a statutory process before it is laid in Parliament for approval. After that, organisations will have 12 months to update their practices before the code comes into full effect. The ICO expects this to be by autumn 2021. This version of the code is the result of wide-ranging consultation and engagement.
The ICO received 450 responses to its initial consultation in April 2019 and followed up with dozens of meetings with individual organisations, trade bodies, industry and sector representatives, and campaigners.
Stay Safe At Protests: “Separate Yourself From Violence” and “Don’t Get Baited by Provocateurs”
Editor’s Note: Living near a university campus does allow us to view various demonstrations — from afar; sometimes we send on to relatives living nearby the warnings issued by our local authorities. Participating also requires informed caution; the following is a previous caution from our city’s about joining those events:
Don’t get baited by provocateurs
Berkeley, California (Wednesday, September 13, 2017) – The presence of a speaker on the … campus on Thursday may generate protests and counter protests. As the city and the university work together to manage any events on September 14, there are a number of things you can do to stay safe.
Mass gatherings of any kind attract a broad variety of people and, inevitably, that means an array of different motives and intentions. The overwhelming majority come with a peaceful purpose.
However, in recent protests, we have seen a small portion who come seeking to hurt others or to destroy property. We have seen individuals who come armed and armored use peaceful protesters as a cover for their violent actions.
If you are at a demonstration and you see violence, separate yourself. Keep a distance from violence. If you can do so safely, report it to police.
VietNam protests in October 1967 photographed in Washington DC by Frank Wolfe, Lyndon B. Johnson Library; Wikimedia Commons
This is the best way to keep yourself and others safe. It allows police to focus on and apprehend criminals while keeping bystanders safe. People with cameras who surround violent incidents can complicate the safety of other peaceful bystanders and impede police. When individuals commit violence surrounded by a peaceful crowd, police are always concerned about how the violence might spill over onto those who are not committing any crime whatsoever.
Don’t get baited by provocateurs. The best way to deny them the attention they seek is to not engage and avoid such events entirely.
Language used to announce a protest may be effective at enticing supporters, luring counter-demonstrators or provoking conflict. Others lure people by promoting spectacle. But, if you don’t know the person, groups or source personally, use caution.
It is a challenge for police to ensure the safety of those who are reckless with their safety and that of others. The City …, our police department and our partners will continue to develop strategies focusing on safety for all at demonstrations, each of which has its own unique dynamics. We will work to identify, investigate and arrest anyone who commits crimes in our community. That will not end when the event does.
The event has attracted the interest of other groups on various social media outlets as well as the attention of local media outlets. Our mission is to safeguard our community while facilitating the expression of the first amendment.
Consider whether the approach others advertise is the style and venue for you. Reaching out to organizations or individuals in need is an alternative to conflict. When people at an event act in a way that compromises your values and goals, separate yourself. In an age of social media, there are many ways to assert your values and speak to the causes you support. Stay away from conflict as there are many alternative ways to respond.
Origins and Development, The Senate’s Impeachment Role
Impeachment
If a federal official commits a crime or otherwise acts improperly, the House of Representatives may impeach — formally charge — that official. If the official subsequently is convicted in a Senate impeachment trial, he is removed from office.
Origins and Development
Constitutional Authority Article I, section 2, clause 5 Article I, section 3, clause 6 & 7
Impeachment and Removal (CRS) (pdf)
Impeachment and the Constitution (CRS) (pdf)
Grounds for Impeachment
Process and Rules
Impeachment Trials in the Senate
Cabinet Members
Judicial Impeachments
Presidential Impeachment
Daily Senate Schedule for Tuesday, January 21, 2020 and Pro Forma Date
The Senate will next convene at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 21 after standing in adjournment at 4:00 p.m. Thursday, January 16.
The Senate will conduct a Pro Forma session on Friday, January 17 at 2:00 p.m.
12:3o p.m.
Following the Leaders’ remarks, the Senate will stand in recess subject to the Call of the Chair.
1:0o p.m.
The Senate, sitting as a Court of Impeachment, will resume consideration of the articles of impeachment.
Senators will be notified when VOTES are scheduled.
The president may have until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 18, 2020, to file his answer with the Secretary of the Senate, which will be spread upon the Journal.
The House of Representatives will have until 12:00 noon on Monday, January 20, 2020, to file its replication with the Secretary of the Senate.
If the House of Representatives wishes to file a trial brief, it must be filed with the Secretary of the Senate by 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 18, 2020.
If the president wishes to file a trial brief, it must be filed with the secretary of the Senate by 12:00 noon on Monday, January 20, 2020.
If the House wishes to file a rebuttal brief, must be filed with the Secretary of the Senate by 12:00 noon on Tuesday, January 21, 2020.
One Memorable Friend
Acquaintances come and go, but true friends stay with us, if not in physical proximity, then certainly in memory. At least that’s the way it works for me. I know fairly soon after meeting someone that he or she has the potential of becoming a good friend. Honoring that intuition may be the best way to choose friends, because it almost never fails.
I met one of my most memorable friends at a time when I needed a good friend. I’d just moved to the San Francisco Bay area and, while still unpacking the moving boxes, my husband told me he wanted a divorce. After thirteen years of marriage and four children, we’d drifted apart but still his announcement knocked me off balance.
With only vague notions of how to manage the upheaval, I felt lost and alone. Neither family members nor trusted friends, with whom I could confide, lived near me. It was one of the few times in my life that I lost my appetite. Too distracted to eat, I fought feelings of rejection and tried to focus on helping my young sons through the transition.
Gradually we achieved an amicable separation. He continued to support us financially and to be present in the boys’ lives, giving me time to figure out how to adjust to my new existence as a single mom.
Since my teenage years I’d made fleeting attempts to write fiction and poetry, so I decided to nurture that interest by taking a creative writing class. When I first walked into the classroom, I almost turned around and left. From the perspective of my thirty-five-year-old mentality, I saw a roomful of white-haired senior citizens.
Despite my initial hesitation, I resolved to give the class a chance. I soon learned that my classmates’ varying interests and talents offered the challenges I needed as a fledgling writer. Our teacher, Ella Thorp Ellis possessed the enthusiasm and ability to inspire us, bringing the class together in common purpose, despite our widely ranging ages.
A blank piece of paper has the potential to intimidate almost any writer, but Ella assigned regular class exercises to help us overcome that block. Shortly after I came into the class, she asked us to write a few paragraphs about someone in the room we didn’t know. My attention settled on a tall woman with dark hair, cut short and shingled in 1920s flapper style. Already engrossed in writing, she bent to her task with an air of confidence that I decidedly lacked.
When we’d finished writing, we took turns reading our character sketches aloud. That’s how I learned that the woman I’d written about had also chosen me as her subject. At the break, she and I talked about the coincidence, as yet unaware that a meaningful friendship would grow out of that synchronicity.
Forty years separated us in age, but we had similar outlooks on life and an easy rapport. Of my parents’ generation, Fern shared with me the wisdom and stability of her life’s experiences. I offered her the questing, questioning view of my generation, from which she felt isolated in the retirement community where she lived.
My first impression of her as an assured writer proved accurate. G.P. Putnam’s Sons had published three novels she wrote in the 1940s. Information about her, under her maiden name Fern Rives, can be found on the Web. Her books, though no longer in print, are still available through Amazon. Another site shows a sample of her signature.
After an early marriage and divorce, she taught intermediate school English in Los Angeles for many years. In her early 60s, she reconnected with Ed Simpson, whom she’d known when both were students at the University of California at Berkeley. They hadn’t seen each other since graduation in 1917.
Both single and free to act on the unrealized attraction they’d had for each other in college, Fern and Ed got married. They honeymooned in Europe and settled into a new life together in Santa Barbara. When they moved to northern California to be near Ed’s grandchildren, she decided to restart her dormant writing career.
Fern and I saw each other in class regularly, but we also got in the habit of going out for lunch every few months. She suggested that we alternate paying the bill; the person who paid chose the restaurant. She didn’t drive, so I picked her up at her home, coming in with her after lunch to prolong our ruminations about writing. Ed was often around and joined us.
Fern boosted my spirits as I struggled to find my writing voice. I was trying to write short stories, and she offered to read and critique my work. One story featured an elderly couple who meet in a nursing home and fall in love. They want to share a room but are thwarted by administrators who refuse to approve their plan. Ed read it too, and she told me that they had agreed I should put the story aside until I’d gained a clearer idea of what being old felt like. “Know what you write,” rang true in that case.
As Fern neared completion of her new novel, Ed drove her to Ella’s house in Berkeley for private consultations. The story took place in an exclusive residential area in the Santa Barbara hills and involved the murder of one of the main characters. Ella’s housekeeper, who happened to overhear their animated conversation about the murder scene, thought the story was true. Later the housekeeper confided in Ella that she feared the two of them might be involved in the murder.
Fern’s previous three novels had been light-hearted tales of women who worked in southern California during World War II. So this new novel of suspense represented a significant departure from her proven genre. She wrote on a manual typewriter with intense determination to finish the work.
Opening Statement of Marie L. Yovanovitch to the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee on Foreign Affairs, & Committee on Oversight and Reform October 11, 2019
US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, speaks during an opening ceremony marking the official beginning of Exercise Rapid Trident 2017 at the Yavoriv Combat Training Center on the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in Western Ukraine on Sept. 11, 2017
Thank you for the opportunity to start with this statement today. For the last 33 years, it has been my great honor to serve the American people as a Foreign Service Officer, over six Administrations — four Republican, and two Democratic. I have served in seven different countries, five of them hardship posts, and was appointed to serve as an ambassador three times — twice by a Republican President,and once by a Democrat. Throughout my career, I have stayed true to the oath that Foreign Service Officers take and observe every day: “that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;” and “that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” Like all foreign service officers with whom I have been privileged to serve, I have understood that oath as a commitment to serve on a strictly nonpartisan basis, to advance the foreign policy determined by the incumbent President, and to work at all times to strengthen our national security and promote our national interests.
My Background:
I come by these beliefs honestly and through personal experience. My parents fled Communist and Nazi regimes. Having seen, first hand, the war, poverty and displacement common to totalitarian regimes, they valued the freedom and democracy the U.S. represents. And they raised me to cherish these values as well. Their sacrifices allowed me to attend Princeton University, where I focused my studies on the Soviet Union. Given my upbringing, it has been the honor of a lifetime to help to foster those principles as a career Foreign Service Officer. From August 2016 until May 2019, I served as the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine. Our policy, fully embraced by Democrats and Republicans alike, was to help Ukraine become a stable and independent democratic state, with a market economy integrated into Europe.
Recent Ukrainian History Ukraine is a sovereign country, whose borders are inviolate and whose people have the right to determine their own destiny. These are the bedrock principles of our policy. Because of Ukraine’s geostrategic position bordering Russia on its east, the warm waters of the oil-rich Black Sea to its south, and four NATO allies to its west, it is critical to the security of the United States that Ukraine remain free and democratic and that it continue to resist Russian expansionism.
Russia’s purported annexation of Crimea, its invasion of Eastern Ukraine, and its de facto control over the Sea of Azov, make clear Russia’s malign intentions towards Ukraine. If we allow Russia’s actions to stand, we will set a precedent that the United States will regret for decades to come.
Supporting Ukraine’s integration into Europe and combatting Russia’s efforts to destabilize Ukraine have anchored US policy since the Ukrainian people protested on the Maidan in 2014 and demanded to be a part of Europe and live according to the rule of law. That was US policy when I was appointed Ambassador in August 2016, and it was reaffirmed as the policy of the current administration in early 2017. The Fight Against Corruption The Revolution of Dignity, and the Ukrainian people’s demand to end corruption, forced the new Ukrainian government to take measures to fight the rampant corruption that long permeated that country’s political and economic systems. We have long understood that strong anti-corruption efforts must form an essential part of our policy in Ukraine; now there was a window of opportunity to do just that.
Why is this important? Put simply: anti-corruption efforts serve Ukraine’s interests. They serve ours as well. Corrupt leaders are inherently less trustworthy, while an honest and accountable Ukrainian leadership makes a U.S.- Ukraine partnership more reliable and more valuable to the U.S. A level playing field in this strategically located country — one with a European landmass exceeded only by Russia and with one of the largest populations in Europe — creates an environment in which U.S. business can more easily trade, invest and profit. Corruption is a security issue as well, because corrupt officials are vulnerable to Moscow. In short, it is in our national security interest to help Ukraine transform into a country where the rule of law governs and corruption is held in check.
The Outlook for Housing: Federal Reserve Governor Michelle W. Bowman at the 2020 Economic Forecast Breakfast
At the 2020 Economic Forecast Breakfast, Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri
Few sectors are as central to the success of our economy and the lives of American families as housing. If we include the amount families spend on shelter each month as well as the construction of new houses and apartments, housing generates about 15 cents out of every dollar of economic activity. As homebuilders, you set the foundation that supports the work of architects, bankers, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, furniture makers, and many others. In our time together today, I’d like to discuss the outlook for housing at the national level and also look at the labor force and credit challenges facing your industry.1
Home buyers in Minnesota can now get a peek under the siding. (Photo by Amy Doran via Creative Commons)
Let me start with just a few words about the overall economic picture. I’m pleased to say that the US economy is currently in a good place, and the baseline outlook of participants on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is for continued moderate growth in gross domestic product (GDP) over the next few years. Unemployment is the lowest it has been in 50 years, and FOMC participants expect it to remain low. Inflation has been muted and is expected to rise gradually to the FOMC’s 2 percent objective.
One of the most remarkable features of the current economic expansion has been the vitality and resilience of the U.S. job market. More than 22 million jobs have been created since the low point for employment at the end of the last downturn, and the pace of job gains has been amazingly consistent. Until this expansion, even in good times, scarcely a year went by without at least one month when payrolls shrank. Yet during the past 10 years, we haven’t had a single month with a decline in the overall number of jobs. I should note that I would not necessarily consider a single month of job losses as saying much about the direction of the economy. But the unbroken string of job gains that we have experienced during this recovery highlights how our economy has kept humming along during this past decade, weathering the occasional lull. Let me also add here that, as good as the national numbers for the job market look, things seem even better here in the area, where job growth has been steady and the unemployment rate has consistently run around 1 percentage point below the national average — at last count, it was 2.8 percent.
Let me now turn to the main topic of my talk today. My colleagues and I at the Federal Reserve pay close attention to developments in the housing sector, in part because it has historically been such an important driver of economic growth. In the national economic data, the part of GDP that includes homebuilding activity is referred to as residential fixed investment. This measure summarizes a variety of housing-related activities, including spending on the construction of new single-family and multifamily structures, residential remodeling, real estate brokers’ fees, and a few other smaller components. (Below, Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman)
If we look at the growth of residential fixed investment in periods since World War II that are defined as economic expansions, we see that this broad category has increased at an average rate of around 7 percent per year, faster than the roughly 4 percent pace of GDP growth in those same periods. And, as many of you know from experience, the opposite is true as well — that housing activity tends to experience relatively large declines in economic downturns. In particular, residential fixed investment declined an average of about 15 percent annually during periods defined as recessions, compared with an average annual rate of decline in GDP of just 2 percent in those same periods.
These numbers illustrate that residential fixed investment is particularly sensitive to where we are in the business cycle. The strong economy we are experiencing now has an obvious upside for the housing sector: A robust job market translates into higher incomes, greater confidence, and more people looking to buy a new home or considering whether to make a change from their current home.
Yet even though the financial crisis and the bursting of the real estate bubble occurred more than a decade ago, all of us here are no doubt aware of the lasting imprint that those developments left on the housing market. On an annual basis, both new and existing home sales did not increase again until 2012, and they remained at modest levels for several years thereafter. Given the large and persistent inventory overhang of unsold homes in the aftermath of the crisis, the construction of new homes was also sluggish for many years into the recovery.
Part of the weak recovery in the housing market during the first few years of this expansion can be traced to extremely tight mortgage credit conditions. Despite the fact that the Fed slashed interest rates and kept them low for many years, many households were underwater on their existing mortgages, with more owed on their housing than their homes were worth, while others were unable to obtain a loan to finance a new purchase. As a result, housing demand remained very weak for an extended period.
Another factor that played a role in the slow housing recovery was the low rate of household formation, which dropped significantly during the recession and remained low for most of the following decade. Much of this drop was due to a larger share of young people continuing to live with their parents, though this is not unusual when the economy is weak and jobs are hard to find.2
In the past few years, though, we have seen some encouraging signs that the broader strength in the economy has eased these housing market headwinds. Along with ongoing improvements in households’ balance sheet conditions, mortgage credit conditions appear to be less of a constraint for creditworthy borrowers. I should add that housing activity is also being supported by interest rates that remain quite low by historical standards, with the fixed rate charged on a 30-year mortgage now below 4 percent, substantially lower than the rates observed just before the last recession. As you well know, activity in the housing sector is highly sensitive to interest rates and other factors that have a powerful effect on the overall cost of owning a home.
Vera C. Rubin Observatory: In Honor of the Carnegie Astronomer Whose Research Confirmed Existence of Dark Matter
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and its joint funding agencies, the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, announced Monday that it will be renamed the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in honor of the late Carnegie astronomer whose research confirmed the existence of dark matter.
Vera Rubin and a telescope at Vassar College in 1947. Carnegie Institution for Science, DTM Archives
Rubin received the National Medal of Science in 1993 for her “significant contributions to the realization that the universe is more complex and more mysterious than had been imagined.” She died in 2016.
Rubin revealed that stars at varying distances from the center of a spiral galaxy orbit at the same speed, rather than at slower speeds farther from the center and at faster speeds closer to it, as was expected. This surprising discovery confirmed the theory that each galaxy is embedded in a halo of dark matter.
“Vera challenged conventional thinking and transformed our understanding of the universe,” said Carnegie Science President Eric D. Isaacs. “We are proud that this next-generation observatory will be named in recognition of her contributions 50 years after she and her Carnegie colleague Kent Ford first published their landmark work on the rotation curves of galaxies, providing clear evidence for the existence of dark matter.”
The renaming initiative was spearheaded last June by the Chairwoman of the House Committee on Science, Space, & Technology, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, and Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón, R-Puerto Rico, and was signed into law by the president on December 20.
The facility was designed to probe dark matter and dark energy, as well as the structure of our own Milky Way, among other pressing science questions, making it a perfect choice to bear Rubin’s name.
House Reps Eddie Bernice Johnson (lower right) and Jenniffer González-Colón (upper left) sponsored the legislation
“Vera was not only a brilliant scientist whose groundbreaking discoveries are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago, she was also a tireless advocate for women in astronomy.” added Richard Carlson, Director of Carnegie Earth and Planets, where Rubin worked. “She mentored several generations of women in science. This honor will ensure that her legacy inspires many more.”
US National Institutes of Health: Understanding Allergic Reactions to Skin Care Products
At a Glance
- A laboratory study gave new insight into how skin creams, cosmetics, and fragrances may cause immune responses that lead to rashes in some people.
- Understanding how certain compounds in personal care products trigger an immune response could help lead to new ways to prevent or treat allergic contact dermatitis.
Skin breaks out in an itchy red rash when exposed to something that causes an allergic reaction, like poison ivy. Personal care products like makeup, skin cream, and fragrances also commonly cause rashes. It’s not well understood how chemical compounds in personal care products trigger these rashes, called allergic contact dermatitis.
Many allergic reactions start when immune system cells known as T cells detect a foreign substance, called an antigen, and attempt to neutralize it. A common mechanism for allergic reactions involves T cells recognizing parts of proteins, or peptides. However, personal care products contain other types of compounds that were believed to go undetected by T cells. They were thought to be too small and lacking the necessary chemical groups.
Researchers set out to uncover how such chemical compounds in personal care products could trigger a T cell reaction. The research team was led by Drs. Annemieke de Jong of Columbia University, D. Branch Moody of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Jamie Rossjohn of Monash University and Cardiff University School of Medicine.
The research was funded in part by NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS). Findings appeared in Science Immunology on January 3, 2020.
The researchers suspected that a protein called CD1a, found on the surface of immune cells in the skin’s outer layer, might play an important role in explaining how personal care products could trigger contact dermatitis. To investigate the molecule’s role, they exposed human cells in tissue culture to potential allergens in personal care products. This was done using skin patch testing kits used by allergists. The allergen patches were cut and placed directly into wells containing T cells. The researchers then measured T cell activation.
The research team found that several chemicals caused an immune reaction, including balsam of Peru, a tree oil often used in cosmetics and toothpaste. Further analysis of balsam of Peru revealed that the chemicals benzyl benzoate and benzyl cinnamate were responsible for stimulating the T cell response.
The scientists found that the compound farnesol, often used as a fragrance in personal care products, also triggered an allergic reaction. Using X-ray crystallography, they were able to determine how CD1a binds with compounds like farnesol to elicit an immune response.
Farnesol buries deep within CD1a’s tunnel-like interior, displacing the larger lipid molecules usually found there. These lipids protrude onto the surface of the CD1a protein. Without them, parts of the molecule that are normally hidden interact with T cells and trigger an immune response.
These findings explain how common chemicals in personal care products can directly trigger T cells. The next step will be to confirm whether these T cells cause allergic contact dermatitis in patients.
“What we present here is a molecular missing link,” says Moody. “We questioned the prevailing paradigm that T cell-mediated allergic reaction is only triggered when T cells respond to proteins or peptide antigens. We find a mechanism through which fragrance can initiate a T cell response through a protein called CD1a.”
— by Erin Bryant
Related Links
References: Human T cell response to CD1a and contact dermatitis allergens in botanical extracts and commercial skin care products. Nicolai S, Wegrecki M, Cheng TY, Bourgeois EA, Cotton RN, Mayfield JA, Monnot GC, Le Nours J, Van Rhijn I, Rossjohn J, Moody DB, de Jong A. Sci Immunol. 2020 Jan 3;5(43). pii: eaax5430. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.aax5430. Epub 2020 Jan 3. PMID: 31901073.
Funding: NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Office of the Director (OD); Wellcome Trust; National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia; Australian Research Council.