Completion of 2012 Economic Census Geographic Area Series: Finance and Insurance

The 2012 Economic Census concludes the Geographic Area Series for the finance and insurance sector. This series includes statistics for monetary authorities; credit intermediation and related activities; securities, commodity contracts and other financial investments; and insurance carriers. The files provide statistics on the number of establishments, revenue, payroll, number of employees and other data items by industry. 

The Geographic Area Series provides data at a U.S. summary level as well as an economic place level; other geographies included are states, combined statistical areas, metropolitan statistical areas and counties.

Per Pupil Spending Varies Heavily Across the United States

Census Bureau Releases New Public Education Finance Data June 2, 2015 — Per pupil spending for the nation was $10,700 during fiscal year 2013, a 0.9 percent increase from 2012, but varied heavily among states with a high of $19,818 in New York and a low of $6,555 in Utah.  Today’s findings come from Public Education Finances: 2013, which provides figures on revenues, expenditures, debt and assets (cash and security holdings) for the nation’s elementary and secondary public school systems. The report and tables, released annually, include detailed statistics on spending — such as instruction, student transportation, salaries and employee benefits — at the national, state and school district levels.

United Nations metadata

UN data sets include:

The United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) stores more than 1 billion trade data records from 1962.

The Energy Statistics Database contains comprehensive energy statistics on the production, trade, conversion and final consumption of primary and secondary; conventional and non-conventional; and new and renewable sources of energy.

The Environment Statistics Database contains selected water and waste statistics by country.

FAOSTAT provides access to over 3 million time-series and cross sectional data relating to food and agriculture.

The United Nations Industrial Commodity Statistics Database provides annual statistics on the production of major industrial commodities by country.

International Financial Statistics (IFS) is a standard source of international statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance.

The LABORSTA is an International Labour Office database operated by the ILO Department of Statistics which has data and metadata on labour statistics for over 200 countries or territories.

Other entities address health, marriage and fertility, population, telecommunication, tourism, weather, and other statistical information.

Special issue on financial activities of purported terrorists

Here is the release of Volume VII, Issue 4 (August 2013) of Perspectives on Terrorism at www.terrorismanalysts.com. This is a special "single theme" issue, offering insights and analyses about the financial activities of terrorists, with a particular emphasis on one of the world's most powerful and well-financed groups-the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah. In the first piece, Michael Freeman and Moyara Reuhsen offer a brief tour through the complex world of terrorist strategies for raising and moving funds. Then Matthew Levitt offers a case study of Hezbollah's European criminal enterprises. Joel Hernandez follows him with a detailed case study of the intersections between Hezbollah and global trafficking networks, including the infamous Mexican cartel Los Zetas.

Contents

Terrorism Financing Methods: An Overview by Michael Freeman and Moyara Reuhsen

Hezbollah's Organized Criminal Enterprises in Europe by Matthew Levitt

Terrorism, Drug Trafficking and the Globalization of Supply by Joel Hernández

Draining the Ocean to Catch one Type of Fish: Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Global Counter-Terrorism Financing Regime by Aimen Dean, Edwina Thompson, & Tom Keatinge

The Art of Searching: How to Find Terrorism Literature in the Digital Age by Judith Tinnes

Literature and Online Resources on the Financing of Terrorism, Compiled and selected by Eric Price

Measuring Financial Inclusion: The Global Findex Database

This paper (PDF) provides the first analysis of the Global Financial Inclusion (Global Findex) Database, a new set of indicators that measure how adults in 148 economies save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk. The data show that 50 percent of adults worldwide have an account at a formal financial institution, though account penetration varies widely across regions, income groups and individual characteristics. In addition, 22 percent of adults report having saved at a formal financial institution in the past 12 months, and 9 percent report having taken out a new loan from a bank, credit union or microfinance institution in the past year. Although half of adults around the world remain unbanked, at least 35 percent of them report barriers to account use that might be addressed by public policy. Among the most commonly reported barriers are high cost, physical distance, and lack of proper documentation, though there are significant differences across regions and individual characteristics.

Link to publication website for Accounts and Payments and Savings, Borrowing, and Risk Management.

What 15 Financial Experts Want You to Know About College Expenses

There’s no shortage of information about college expenses: scholarships, loans, savings plans, the rising cost of college tuition, and more. Nearly everyone has advice for saving on or somehow managing to make college expenses work. But what do the experts have to say? We’ve found sound college advice from some of the top financial experts today, whether you’re wondering about 529s or raiding your retirement fund for college. Read on to find out what the experts know about saving and paying for college.

Small Business Quarterly Bulletin

The Small Business Quarterly Bulletin [PDF] from Advocacy's Office of Economic Research is a brochure-style publication that contains commentary and analysis on the current employment and financing trends of small businesses.

Top 10 Financial Blogs for College Students

Criminal Justice Degrees Guide recently published an article, Top 10 Financial Blogs for College Students that dovetails well with articles published recently here.

This was sent to me by a representative of the organization. Which reminds me: if you come across some interesting or intriguing or insane data that you think others might be interested in, please e-mail me. The contact info is at the bottom of the sidebar.

NEW: Transportation and finance

Data for the state(s) and Economic Census Sector(s) listed below have recently been released on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder web site.
• NAICS sector 48-49, Transportation and warehousing Get Data
o New York (Released 07/09/2010)
• NAICS sector 52, Finance and insurance Get Data
o New York (Released 07/09/2010)
To access selected key data for these states/sectors in the Economy-Wide Key Statistics data file, click here.