Primer on Big Data Privacy in United States, Europe

Lawyers and technologists face many challenges from the proliferation of Big Data, and one of the most pressing is data privacy. Governments and businesses collect massive amounts and many types of data in ways seemingly unimaginable just a few years ago.

Consumer Sentiment in the United States Slips

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment slipped to 82.1 in August from 85.1 in July.

The final result did manage to top an initial mid-month reading of 80.0 and beat economists' expectations for a final read of 80.5.

"Most of the late August gain was due to more favorable income expectations, with consumers expecting the largest income gains in nearly five years, although the median expected increase was just 0.9 percent, less than the expected rate of inflation," survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement.

However, households with incomes below $75,000 grew more pessimistic about the future, and all households expected higher interest rates over the next year and slightly slower growth.

That helped drive the gauge of consumer expectations down to 73.7 from 76.5. The survey's barometer of current economic conditions slipped to 95.2 from 98.6 in July.

Long-term interest rates have risen by more than a full percentage point over the last three months on the view that the Federal Reserve will start scaling back as soon as next month its hefty support for the economy.

That has pushed up mortgage rates. Economists fear consumer sentiment could weaken if higher interest rates start to slow momentum in a housing revival that has been one of the brightest spots in the overall U.S. recovery

The one-year inflation expectation fell to 3 percent from 3.1 percent while the five-to-10-year inflation outlook edged up to 2.9 percent from 2.8 percent.

(Reporting By Steven C. Johnson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

The Practical Effect of the Arizona v. United States Decision

The Supreme Court?s recent decision on Arizona?s immigration law, SB 1070, otherwise known as the ?Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,? has done little to quell the attention and conversation that has been prevalent over the past two years since the law was passed. Critics of the legislation say it encourages racial profiling, while supporters say it is intended to reduce the number of illegal aliens in the state.

The Practical Effect of the Arizona v. United States Decision

The Supreme Court?s recent decision on Arizona?s immigration law, SB 1070, otherwise known as the ?Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,? has done little to quell the attention and conversation that has been prevalent over the past two years since the law was passed. Critics of the legislation say it encourages racial profiling, while supporters say it is intended to reduce the number of illegal aliens in the state.

The Practical Effect of the Arizona v. United States Decision

The Supreme Court?s recent decision on Arizona?s immigration law, SB 1070, otherwise known as the ?Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,? has done little to quell the attention and conversation that has been prevalent over the past two years since the law was passed. Critics of the legislation say it encourages racial profiling, while supporters say it is intended to reduce the number of illegal aliens in the state.

Judge Clears United Airlines in a 9/11 Collapse

A federal judge in Manhattan ruled Wednesday that United Airlines was not responsible for the collapse of a third World Trade Center building on Sept. 11, 2001.

The plaintiff in the case, Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the World Trade Center property, claimed that the collapse of 7 World Trade Center stemmed from airport security lapses that allowed hijackers to crash an American Airlines plane into the complex.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein granted a request by United and its parent, United Continental Holdings, to dismiss Mr. Silverstein’s claims. Tower 7 collapsed several hours after being pierced by debris from the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 into the nearby 1 World Trade Center. Two of the Flight 11 hijackers, Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari, began their trip to New York at the Portland International Jetport, in Maine. They boarded a flight to Logan International Airport in Boston, from which they connected to the American Airlines plane.

Mr. Silverstein’s lawyers argued that because United was among the airlines that ran Portland’s only security checkpoint, it was legally responsible for the screening of all passengers and had missed a “clear chance” to prevent the hijacking.

But Judge Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan concluded that United could not have foreseen the events that led to the destruction of Tower 7.

“It was not within United’s range of apprehension that terrorists would slip through the security screening checkpoint, fly to Logan, proceed through another air carrier’s security screening and board that air carrier’s flight, hijack the flight and crash it into 1 World Trade Center, let alone that 1 World Trade Center would therefore collapse and cause Tower 7 to collapse,” Judge Hellerstein wrote.

In 2009, he dismissed claims against other airlines for damages caused by United Flight 175, which also hit the Twin Towers.

Bud Perrone, a spokesman for Silverstein Properties, said it was disappointed in Wednesday’s ruling, but would continue to pursue a negligence case over Flight 175.

The Practical Effect of the Arizona v. United States Decision

The Supreme Court?s recent decision on Arizona?s immigration law, SB 1070, otherwise known as the ?Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,? has done little to quell the attention and conversation that has been prevalent over the past two years since the law was passed. Critics of the legislation say it encourages racial profiling, while supporters say it is intended to reduce the number of illegal aliens in the state.

The Practical Effect of the Arizona v. United States Decision

The Supreme Court?s recent decision on Arizona?s immigration law, SB 1070, otherwise known as the ?Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,? has done little to quell the attention and conversation that has been prevalent over the past two years since the law was passed. Critics of the legislation say it encourages racial profiling, while supporters say it is intended to reduce the number of illegal aliens in the state.

The Practical Effect of the Arizona v. United States Decision

The Supreme Court?s recent decision on Arizona?s immigration law, SB 1070, otherwise known as the ?Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act,? has done little to quell the attention and conversation that has been prevalent over the past two years since the law was passed. Critics of the legislation say it encourages racial profiling, while supporters say it is intended to reduce the number of illegal aliens in the state.

United States Economy Still Weak, but More Feel Secure

Despite months of disappointing-to-dismal economic reports — capped by a Commerce Department release Thursday showing the economy had expanded at an annual pace of just 1.3 percent in the second quarter, barely above stall speed — a closely watched measure of consumer confidence surged to its highest level since February.

Economic experts pointed to several trends to explain how Americans were feeling better about the economy even though growth in jobs and the overall economy had weakened. First, the election is having a strong effect on economic perceptions. Second, though the recovery is weak, it has persisted, with employment and wages rising and some households feeling more secure.

Though the unemployment rate has been stuck between 8.1 and 8.3 percent all year, employers have continued to add workers to their payrolls. Wages and consumer spending have strengthened.

The housing sector’s nascent recovery foretells rising employment in the construction, real estate and mortgage finance sectors, as well as rising household wealth.

“There is a recovery. There are jobs. There is more income. There is some improvement,” said Lawrence Mishel, a labor market expert at and president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “But the improvement is obviously disappointing,” he added, a sentiment that many economists echoed.

Moreover, Labor Department data released on Thursday suggested that job growth in the 12 months through March 2012 might have been significantly stronger than government economists first expected.

In a standard revision of its jobs numbers, the department said that the economy added nearly 400,000 more jobs during that period than originally thought.

“The pattern of revisions suggest that the recession that began at the end of 2007 was deeper than initially reported, and the jobs recovery over the last 2.5 years has been a bit stronger than initially reported, although much work remains to be done to return to full employment,” Alan B. Krueger, the head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers said in a statement.

In the first quarter of the year, the economy added, on average, 134,000 jobs a month. Over the last three months, the rate of job growth has fallen to 79,000 a month. Similarly, economic growth was 2 percent in the first quarter before dropping to 1.3 percent in the second, largely because of the effects of the nation’s worst drought in 50 years.

According to Macroeconomic Advisers, a widely respected forecasting firm, growth is tracking at 1.7 percent for the third quarter. Moreover, rising gas and food prices have cut into workers’ wallets.

The economic data has grown so dismal that Federal Reserve this month announced a major new bond-buying effort to resuscitate the recovery once more. “The Federal Reserve is basically saying that we don’t have a recovery,” said Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, Mitt Romney’s running mate. “Obamanomics didn’t work.”

Earlier this year, the conventional wisdom held that numbers like these should have meant trouble for the Obama campaign. Yet, even as job growth has fallen far below 100,000 a month, the American people appear to be growing more confident in both the economy and the president.

On Tuesday, the Conference Board’s measure of consumer confidence surged to a seven-month high, trouncing economists’ expectations. Respondents in particular had a more favorable view of the job market going forward — with more consumers expecting employers to add positions in the coming months.

The recovery seems to have jelled with voters, too. A recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that 40 percent of respondents think the country is on the right track, up from 23 percent a year ago. Moreover, 31 percent of respondents described the economy as very or fairly good, up from 14 percent a year ago.

Just as opinions about the economy have driven opinions about the campaign, it seems that opinions about the campaign are driving opinions about the economy.

Democrats have become much more optimistic, pulling the national numbers up with them. A new Pew poll, for instance, shows that just 15 percent of Democrats say that recent economic news is mostly bad, while 60 percent of Republicans say the same. A year ago, they held similar opinions.

“Right now, politics is playing an inordinately large role in the behavioral economic data,” wrote Lydia Saad and Dennis Jacobe, of Gallup, in an analysis of the surge in consumer confidence. “This suggests that the period between now and the election is a particularly hazardous time to apply traditional behavioral economic and political interpretations to key economic measures.”

Economists and political experts described the recovery as a “Rorschach test,” with both sides’ arguments compelling to voters.

“It’s a challenging messaging environment,” said Lynn Vavreck, a political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “President Obama is in this strange situation of wanting to go out there and own this growth when people are saying, ‘That’s nothing to be proud of!’ ”

“If it were just the economy, the president would be in a lot of trouble based on how voters have reacted to numbers like the ones we’re seeing now,” said Nigel Gault, the chief United States economist at IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm.

Mr. Gault said he believed that Mr. Obama’s significantly higher likability and favorability numbers — and the Romney campaign’s recent decision to talk about other things besides the economy — helped to explain Mr. Obama’s lead in the polls.

Professor Vavreck, though, said that the fact that the economy was growing gave Mr. Obama a powerful leg up, even given voters’ queasiness about the economy.

“Incumbents in growing economies, even slow ones, are hard to beat,” she said.

Others noted that the time for Mr. Romney to make his case and have it sink in had grown short.

“The economy’s not going to change much between now and the election,” said Mr. Gault of IHS Global Insight. “The economy is what it is. And if the economy hasn’t tilted the race in favor of Romney by now, you wonder whether it ever will.”