The Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates in the United States, meets behind closed doors. Its minutes are “released three weeks after each meeting.” Markets read them closely.
Later, the full record follows. The committee “currently releases the transcripts of its meetings after an interval of about five years.” Nearly every word of the discussion then becomes public.
In 1956 Herbert Simon published “Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment” in Psychological Review. He wrote: “Evidently, organisms adapt well enough to ‘satisfice’; they do not, in general, ‘optimize.'”
The term joins satisfy and suffice. A person who satisfices stops searching when an option meets the need. In 1978 Simon received the Nobel Prize in economics “for his pioneering research into the decision-making process within economic organizations.”
On June 5, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted Regulation Best Interest. Under it, a broker-dealer that is not also registered as an investment adviser is presumed to violate the rule’s disclosure obligation if it uses the word “adviser” or “advisor” in its name or title.
Firms had to comply by June 30, 2020. Brokers and investment advisers must also give retail clients a short form that explains which relationship they are entering.
In July 2015 the Obama White House released a report on occupational licensing. “Today, one-quarter of U.S. workers must have a State license to do their jobs, a five-fold increase since the 1950s.”
The report also named costs. “Licensing requirements vary substantially by State, creating barriers to workers moving across State lines …” It cited research finding that “more restrictive licensing raises prices for goods and services provided by licensed professionals.”
When an American consumer files a complaint about a bank or lender with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the company is expected to respond within 15 calendar days. It then has up to 60 days for a final response.
The complaint goes into a public database when the company responds, or “after 15 calendar days, whichever comes first.”
Wells Fargo built its strategy on selling more products to its existing customers. Its chief executive, John Stumpf, wrote in a 2010 letter to shareholders that the goal was eight products per customer, because “eight ‘rhymed with great.'”
At a Senate hearing on September 20, 2016, Senator Richard Shelby read the line back to him. Employees had opened about 1.5 million deposit accounts and 565,000 credit card accounts that customers may not have authorized. The bank paid $185 million in fines, and about 5,300 employees were fired.
In 2012 New York City started a program for 16- to 18-year-olds at the Rikers Island jail. It was paid for with a social impact bond. Goldman Sachs invested $7.2 million and would be repaid only if reoffending fell by 8.5 percent.
In 2015 the evaluation found that the program had no effect on reoffending. The program ended. Goldman Sachs lost $1.2 million, after a guarantee from Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the city repaid nothing.
Under the Fair Credit Billing Act of 1974, a customer can dispute a billing error on a credit card statement, such as a wrong amount or a charge for goods never delivered. The dispute must be made in writing, no later than 60 days after the statement is issued.
The card issuer must acknowledge the dispute within 30 days. It must resolve it within two billing cycles, and in no event later than 90 days.
Usually each winter, the Congressional Budget Office publishes budget projections for the next ten years, and it generally updates them in August. The ten-year period is the one used in the congressional budget process. CBO states that the projections “are not predictions of budgetary or economic outcomes.” It also reports on how accurate its past projections were.
The U.S. Department of Transportation gives its analysts a dollar value for travel time. The guidance notes that many of its actions “are designed to benefit travelers by reducing the time spent in traveling.”
In the 2016 guidance, an hour of local personal travel was worth $13.60, and an hour of local business travel $25.40, in 2015 dollars. A project that saves travelers hours can count those hours as a benefit in dollars.