The Federal Reserve currently has two legislated goals: price stability and full employment. The original Federal Reserve Act of 1913 contained no macroeconomic goals. Rather it instructed the Fed to prevent financial panics and bank runs by providing loans to the banking system. In the aftermath of the Great Depression, the Employment Act of 1946 required the Fed to pursue "conditions under wh...

A vast literature has examined the economic progress of African Americans during the 20th century. Most of these studies have focused on income-or even narrower measures of economic well-being, such as earnings-and have sought to assess the extent to which any gains that were made relative to other racial groups can be attributed to factors such as affirmative action policies, declining race di...

to achieve a breakthrough in the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round. Their goal is to get an agreement by the end of 2008. Developing countries should pull the plug on this moribund round until rich countries can agree to a new framework that lives up to Doha’s promise to be a “Development Round” that favours poorer countries. As rich country leaders try to rally negotiators for yet another ...

Many difficulties plague the effort to implement the Kyoto Protocol negotiated in November 1997, and the other steps necessary to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases in an effort to check global climate change. Probably the most difficult chasm that needs to be bridged is between the United States and developing countries regarding the necessity of participation by the latter in any wor...

There is a growing sense of crisis associated with the cost of health care services as reflected in rapidly increasing insurance premiums, larger out of pocket expenditures for consumers, and expanding shortfalls in the State's budget. The impact of this crisis has included a reduction in the number of insurance companies providing health insurance in Maine, an increase in the number of busines...

injection is one of the most common medical procedures in the health sector. annually up to 16 billion injections are prescribed in low- and middle-income countries (lmics), many of them are not necessary for the patients, increase the healthcare costs and may result in side effects. currently over 40% of outpatient prescriptions in iran contain at least one injectable medicine. to address the ...

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:  identify two types of policy briefs (advocacy and objective);  describe the characteristics of a policy brief;  describe the structure and contents of a policy brief; and  conceptualize a policy brief about a food security issue. Introduction In this lesson we will take a close look at policy briefs and learn how to produce them. A policy bri...

This brief commentary discusses a recent paper by Speed and Mannion that explores “The Rise of post truth populism in liberal democracies: challenges for health policy.” It considers their assertion that through meaningful democratic engagement in health policy, some of the risks brought about by an exclusionary populist politics can be mediated. With an overview of what participation means in ...