Money and Computing

Each year organized groups of professional shoplifters steal or fraudulently obtain billions of dollars in merchandise to resell in an activity known as organized retail crime (ORC). These stolen goods can also be sold on online marketplaces, a practice known as "e-fencing." more »

Brooksley Born speaks on a re-broadcast of PBS Frontline program, The Warning, about her failed campaign to regulate the secretive, multi-trillion-dollar derivatives market whose crash helped trigger the financial collapse in the fall of 2008. "What was it that was in this market that had to be hidden?" more »

Like all dutiful daughters, I called Dad on Father’s Day. Thanks to the iPhone's 3.0 update that includes the application, Celestial Calls, I was able to reach him with little effort. He wasn’t surprised at my call because ever since he died in 1958, he’s kept his eyes on me. more »

The housing sector typically plays an important role in economic recoveries; the depressed state of housing in the United States is a big reason that the current recovery is less vigorous than we would like... Overall inflation measures reflect these [commodity] price increases: ... over the six months through April, the price index for personal consumption expenditures has risen at an annual rate of about 3-1/2 percent, compared with an average of less than 1 percent over the preceding two years. more »