Privatization and the Public Interest: The Need for Transparency and Accountability in Chicago's Public Asset Lease Deals

Examines the appeal and risks of infrastructure privatization and Chicago's history with privatization deals. Recommends public interest principles for future deals, rules and processes for vetting proposals, and a commitment to government transparency

Pay as You Go: A Generic Crypto Tolling Architecture

The imminent pervasive adoption of vehicular communication, based on dedicated short-range technology (ETSI ITS G5 or IEEE WAVE), 5G, or both, will foster a richer service ecosystem for vehicular applications. The appearance of new cryptography based solutions envisaging digital identity and currency exchange are set to stem new approaches for existing and future challenges. This paper presents a novel tolling architecture that harnesses the availability of 5G C-V2X connectivity for open road tolling using smartphones, IOTA as the digital currency and Hyperledger Indy for identity validation. An experimental feasibility analysis is used to validate the proposed architecture for secure, private and convenient electronic toll payment

Vulnerabilities in first-generation RFID-enabled credit cards

Credit cards ; Radio frequency identification systems

Too Expensive to Meter: The influence of transaction costs in transportation and communication

Technology appears to be making fine-scale charging (as in tolls on roads that depend on time of day or even on current and anticipated levels of congestion) increasingly feasible. And such charging appears to be increasingly desirable, as traffic on roads continues to grow, and costs and public opposition limit new construction. Similar incentives towards fine-scale charging also appear to be operating in communications and other areas, such as electricity usage. Standard economic theory supports such measures, and technology is being developed and deployed to implement them. But their spread is not very rapid, and prospects for the future are uncertain. This paper presents a collection of sketches, some from ancient history, some from current developments, that illustrate the costs that charging imposes. Some of those costs are explicit (in terms of the monetary costs to users, and the costs of implementing the charging mechanisms). Others are implicit, such as the time or the mental processing costs of users. These argue that the case for fine-scale charging is not unambiguous, and that in many cases may be inappropriate.transportation, communication, transaction costs, collection costs

After the hype: e-commerce payments grow up

On June 18, 2003, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Electronic Commerce Payments Council (eCPC) of the Electronic Funds Transfer Association co-hosted a workshop forum to explore areas of mutual interest related to the proliferation of e-commerce payments. This was the second event jointly sponsored by the groups. ; The first forum, “The Future of e-Commerce Payments,” which was held in June 2002, focused on the possibilities ahead, as various electronic payment channels displace paper checks as a primary payment form. The more recent forum, “After the Hype: e-Commerce Payments Grow Up,” continued the dialog, emphasizing recent economic and marketplace realities that impact ecommerce payments innovation, acceptance, and maturation. ; Participants and speakers included Federal Reserve staff and industry leaders.Electronic commerce

Assesment of Blockchain-Based P2P (Pear to Pear) Transactions in International Trade with Swot Analysis

Blockchain is known as a digitalized, decentralized online computer network on which a public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions stored and it attempts to create and share all transactions that are verified by using a peer-to-peer (P2P) connected computer network. From the point of production to the truncating the international trade finance process or recording the customs procedures control, many companies are taking the advantages of blockchain technology day by day. The development of peer-to-peer payment systems make the crypto-currencies capable of dealing with not only the individual money transfers but also with the international trade activities. Expected result of this development is an increase the international trade volume in the short run. There are both threats and opportunities in terms of blockchain-based peer-to-peer commercial transactions. And also, some strengths and weaknesses due to the internal structure of the blockchain system. In this study, we are analyzing online peer-to-peer commercial activities via SWOT analysis from the perspective of institutions. It is expected that this study will enable to analyze the major factors of the peer-to-peer transactions in international trade facilities by applying "SWOT analysis". Even though there are a lot of research about blockchain in the local literature, institutional dimension in terms of the state-of-the-art cases of the adoption of blockchain in transport and logistics are studied scarcely in Turkey and hopefully will guide the academicians who want to work in this field

Doing Business in Argentina

[Excerpt] Foreign investors enjoy the same rights and undertake the same duties as domestic investors when investing in financial or productive activities. Generally, Argentine Law does not set any restrictions or prohibitions on foreign investments. They are no longer subject to prior government approval beyond those applicable to any domestic or foreign investor in each particular activity. The Ley de Inversiones Extranjeras (Foreign Investment Law) (hereinafter referred to as the “FIL”) (Law No. 21,382/76) was amended several times for the purpose of achieving a liberalization and deregulation of said investments. It was recently amended by Law No. 23,697 and Executive Order No. 1,853/93. The FIL sets forth that foreign investors shall be treated as local investors, provided they invest in productive activities. (i.e., industrial, mining, agricultural, commercial, service or financial activities, or any other activities related to the production or exchange of goods or services). Investments may be made in: (i) foreign currency; (ii) capital assets, (iii) profits from other investments; (iii) repatriable capital resulting from other investments made in the country; (iv) capitalization of foreign credits; (vi) certain intangible assets; (vi) other forms acceptable to the foreign investment authorities or contemplated by special legislation