Word: standardize
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...Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) came out a month ago with their first estimate of how fast the economy shrank in the fourth quarter, economists and investors were surprised that it was at a mere 3.8% annual rate. Now, after some of the updates and revisions that are a standard part of the process of estimating gross domestic product (GDP), the number is a far more dramatic...
...difficult task to generate the complex representation that an issue such as sexual identity seems to require. “It’s easy to take a stereotype and turn it into a commodified tool that is bite-sized and easy to digest rather than necessarily challenge the standard notions people have,” says Caroline Light, lecturer and director of studies in the Women, Gender and Sexuality department. “It’s a tough question: how do we incorporate everyone and not just treat everyone like little commodified pieces of diversity, particularly when...
...effort to make food labels more useful, the Food and Drug Administration is considering a new standard that would give consumers a better sense of how much cross-contamination may have actually occurred. After holding hearings on these advisory labels last fall, the agency is now studying systems like Australia's VITAL program, in which companies voluntarily rank the risk of cross-contamination on a scale of low to moderate to high. Meanwhile, Massachusetts last year became the first state to pass legislation requiring training for restaurant staff in safe food-allergy practices to avoid cross-contamination in the kitchen...
...FDIC has taken over--nationalized, if you will--14 smallish banks so far this year. The tough questions have to do with the banking giants. Regulators deem them too big to be sold off or shut down according to standard FDIC procedures without risking another market breakdown like the one that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The Obama Administration has already said it will buy shares in banks that need more help, and is negotiating a deal that would give it a big minority stake in Citigroup. But it has so far dismissed suggestions that it should take full...
...honest, nobody knows for sure how exacting they should be. Judged by liquidation value--what they could get for selling their assets on the open market today--most major banks in the U.S. are probably insolvent and due for a total government takeover. But that isn't the standard banks are judged by. In a panic, markets for certain assets simply stop functioning, and relying on the market to determine the health of banks means succumbing to panic. Then again, relying on bank execs to price their assets is no good either. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner hopes to get around...