Congressional Testimony Research Articles

Reading the Candlesticks: An OK Estimator for Volatility

Abstract We propose an Optimal candlesticK (OK) estimator for the spot volatility using high-frequency candlestick observations. Under a standard infill asymptotic setting, we show that the OK estimator is asymptotically unbiased and has minimal asymptotic variance within a class of linear estimators. Its estimation error can be coupled by a Brownian functional, which permits valid inference. Our theoretical and numerical results suggest that the proposed candlestick-based estimator is much more accurate than the conventional spot volatility estimator based on high-frequency returns. An empirical illustration documents the intraday volatility dynamics of various assets during the Fed chairman’s recent congressional testimony.

National ocean policy in the United States: using framing theory to highlight policy priorities between presidential administrations

Coastal and ocean management in the United States is a complex issue requiring an equally complex management policy. Federal policy has historically been carried out in a siloed (sector-by-sector) fashion causing inefficient and bureaucratic management by federal agencies. The Obama administration took a novel approach to coastal and ocean management by signing an executive order that brought together federal agencies and empowered regional stakeholders, creating a first of its kind comprehensive National Ocean Policy. In 2018, former President Donald Trump rescinded the Obama-era policy and enacted his own version of National Ocean Policy that shifted authority to the states and focused on the economic potential of American waters. This research addresses a significant challenge in federal management of a complex natural resource. Here we identify common management strategies between different administrations to provide insights for future attempts at National Ocean Policy. We collect policy documents, press releases, and congressional testimony from high-level stakeholders and identified the most common themes over a 12-year period from 2009-2021. We find three common themes between the administrations even though their policies varied in strategy and scope: 1) the importance of a strong and enduring marine economy, 2) creating a strategic and efficient ocean policy, and 3) devolving authority from the federal government to state and regional decision-makers. We argue that coastal and ocean management via executive order is too easily rescinded to have a lasting impact. These novel findings highlight potential strategies for bipartisan cooperation in future attempts at National Ocean Policy.

How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT

How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT

How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT

How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT

The effects of the Federal Reserve Chair’s testimony on interest rates and stock prices

We study how congressional testimony about monetary policy by the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System affects interest rates and stock prices. First, we study testimony associated with the Federal Reserve’s Monetary Policy Reports (MPRs) to Congress. Testimony for a particular MPR is usually given on two days, one day for each chamber of Congress. We separately study the first day and second day of MPR testimony. We also study testimonies not associated with MPRs but that are still related to monetary policy. We find that first-day MPR testimonies cause the largest movements in interest rates and generate negative co-movement between interest rates and stock prices. Testimonies not associated with MPRs have similar but weaker effects. Second-day MPR testimonies cause the smallest movements in interest rates and generate no co-movement between interest rates and stock prices.

The Effects of the Federal Reserve Chair’s Testimony on Treasury Interest Rates

Communication by the Federal Reserve is important for the conduct of monetary policy. We study how one form of Federal Reserve communication, the congressional testimony by the Chair of the Board of Governors (the Fed Chair), affects interest rates on 2-year and 10-year Treasury Notes. We study three types of Fed Chair testimony: the first day of Monetary Policy Report testimony, the second day of Monetary Policy Report testimony, and testimonies not associated with the Monetary Policy Report but that still relate to monetary policy. We find that the average size of interest rate changes is largest around first-day Monetary Policy Report testimonies and smallest around second-day Monetary Policy Report testimonies. We also document that the sizes of interest rate changes can vary over time and often correspond to the level of the federal funds rate.

To Reply or to Quote: Comparing Conversational Framing Strategies on Twitter

Social media platform affordances allow users to interact with content and with each other in diverse ways. For example, on Twitter, 1 users can like, reply, retweet, or quote another tweet. Though it’s clear that these different features allow various types of interactions, open questions remain about how these different affordances shape the conversations. We examine how two similar, but distinct conversational features on Twitter — specifically reply vs. quote — are used differently. Focusing on the polarized discourse around Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony in July 2019, we look at how these features are employed in conversations between politically aligned and opposed accounts. We use a mixed methods approach, employing grounded qualitative analysis to identify the different conversational and framing strategies salient in that discourse and then quantitatively analyzing how those techniques differed across the different features and political alignments. Our research (1) demonstrates that the quote feature is more often used to broadcast and reply is more often used to reframe the conversation; (2) identifies the different framing strategies that emerge through the use of these features when engaging with politically aligned vs. opposed accounts; (3) discusses how reply and quote features may be re-designed to reduce the adversarial tone of polarized conversations on Twitter-like platforms.

Argument analysis of the ethical claims made by the pharmaceutical industry regarding drug pricing

Background: Extreme pharmaceutical prices in the United States, their causes, and their ethical implications have been the subject of extensive research and criticism. What has often been overlooked, however, is that the pharmaceutical industry itself often uses ethics language and concepts when offering explanations for their prices, a framing that has not yet been adequately assessed in the context of industry actions. Methods: We conducted an argument analysis of publicly available pharmaceutical industry reports and U.S. Congressional testimony to extract commonly occurring claims regarding their pricing. Results: Starting with the argument that drug research and development are costly, the claims and justifications made in these reports and testimony often invoke common ethical concepts such as benefit, harm, fairness, and autonomy. The arguments and associated rhetoric are, however, often self-contradictory or poorly reflected in the reality of pharmaceutical companies’ actions and experiences in the marketplace. Conclusions: By delineating companies’ public-facing ethics language and identifying hypocritical discrepancies between industry rhetoric and actions.

Gamestop Investors as an Eng(r)aged Digital Public

The trading app Robinhood proclaims to be “on a mission to democratise finance for all,” but, during the GameStop Revolution of January 2021, Robinhood prohibited its users from selling GME. For a vocal group of users, this restricted access revealed that Robinhood’s democratising mission was a farce, and they took to Reddit to critique the company’s actions. Subsequent regulatory hearings were held, including a series by the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services that included testimony from the CEOs of both Robinhood and Reddit. We contend that participants’ arguments reflect rhetorical strategies used by technological innovators, users, and the institutions that regulate them to manage public engagement in the name of “democracy.” Using discourse from CEOs, policy makers, and redditors, we suggest that understanding the GameStop Revolution as a crisis of public engagement helps to theorise how digital publics form, how they are engaged, and how they negotiate public access and input into online infrastructures. We argue that Congressional testimony reflects critical digital publics that are necessary prerequisites for democratising digital infrastructure. While these arguments centre on the economic and the digital universe, we suggest that the insights can inform broader questions about public engagement.

“The Most Marketable Political Commodity”: Oliver North, Iran-Contra, and American Domestic Politics

From Oliver North's congressional testimony in 1987 to his near-successful Senate run in 1994, this article assesses the significance of the Iran-Contra scandal to the American domestic political landscape. It positions Iran-Contra at a transitional moment in right-wing politics, torn between loyalty to Reagan on one hand and the combativeness of the 1990s’ New Right on the other. In four stages—denial, fame, fundraising, and forgetting—defenders of North set forth a model of how ascendant forces in the New Right would, post-Reagan, transform scandal into political capital. Iran-Contra provided grist for media outlets that demonized the mainstream media, voters and members of Congress who excused criminality, and two White Houses who longed to forgive and forget. Thus can the historiography of American conservatism, currently in full bloom, begin to reckon with Iran-Contra's place in domestic politics.

Bad apples or poisonous tree? Corporate culture’s role in the Wells Fargo scandal

Research methodology This case investigation used firsthand statements, reports, testimony and regulatory records. While widely publicized in the popular press, this case is based on primary documents. On their website, many documents were obtained from Wells Fargo’s Corporate newsroom, such as the internal audit report shared with shareholders and press releases. Most other sources were from US regulatory websites (.gov) or congressional testimony. In a few places, quotes and comments came from reliable journalistic sites that cite their sources and follow a journalist’s code of ethics and conduct, ensuring that the reported remarks and data were verified. Case overview/synopsis Since 2016, Wells Fargo Bank has faced multiple customer mistreatment investigations and resultant fines. Public outcry and distrust resulted from Wells Fargo employees creating hidden accounts and enrolling people in bank services without their knowledge to meet desired levels of sustained shareholder growth. Over the past five years, Wells Fargo has been fined and returned to customers and stockholders over $3bn. Wells Fargo executives spent the first year of the scandal citing improper behavior by employees. Leadership did not take responsibility for setting the organizational goals, which led to employee misbehavior. Even after admitting some culpability in creating the extreme sales culture, executives and the Board of Directors tried to distance themselves from blame for the unethical behavior. They cited the organizations’ decentralized structure as a reason the board was not quicker in seeing and correcting the negative behaviors of these ‘bad apple’ employees. Wells Fargo faced multiple concurrent scandals, such as upselling services to retirees, inappropriately repossessing service members’ vehicles, adding insurance and extra fees to mortgages and other accounts and engaging in securities fraud. As time has passed, the early versions of a handful of “bad apples” seem to be only a part of the overall “poison tree.”The dilemma, in this case, is who is responsible for the misbehavior and the inappropriate sales of products and services (often without the customer’s knowledge)? Is strategic growth year-over-year with no allowances for environmental and economic factors a realistic and reasonable goal for corporations? This case is appropriate for undergraduates and graduate students in finance, human resources, management, accounting and investments. Complexity academic level An active case-based learning pedagogical approach is suggested. The materials include a short podcast, video and other materials to allow the faculty to assign pre-class work or to use in the classroom before a case discussion.

Representation, participation, and influence: Comparing Native American advocacy with organized interests at the federal level

ABSTRACT American Indians occupy a unique space in U.S. politics because they act as governments, businesses, and citizen groups. Yet studies of organized interests and intergovernmental lobbies rarely mention them. This study draws on original research on reported lobbying, reported lobbying expenditures, and advocacy efforts by tribal governments and organizations at the congressional hearing level. It compsares lobbying, lobbying expenditures, and congressional testimony by American Indians to that of organized interests and state and local governments to determine how well represented and successful Natives are in the legislative process. It finds that tribal governments and Native organizations lobby extensively on Indian affairs but constitute only a small portion of all lobbying, spend considerably less on lobbying than businesses and trade associations, and experience the most success in the legislative process when they unify in opposition to federal legislation.

The Importance of Fed Chair Speeches as a Monetary Policy Tool

I estimate the effects of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcements, post-FOMC press conferences, and speeches and Congressional testimony by the Fed chair on stock prices, Treasury yields, and interest rate futures from 1988 to 2019. I show that for all but the very shortest-maturity interest rate futures, Fed chair speeches are more important than FOMC announcements. My results suggest that the previous literature's focus on FOMC announcements has ignored the most important source of variation in US monetary policy.

Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics by Darieck Scott (review)

Reviewed by: Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics by Darieck Scott D’Arcee Charington Neal (bio) Scott, Darieck. Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics. New York University Press, 2022. 280 pp, $89.00, $29.00. In his introduction to Keeping It Unreal: Black Queer Fantasy and Superhero Comics, Darieck Scott considers how rhetorical Blackness in various forms (whether visual, ideological, or fantastical) operates through the lens of the comic book. Asking the critical question of why the collective imagination seems unable to accurately capture the nuance of what it is to be Black, Scott “examine[s] representations of blackness in fantasy-infused genres . . . to theorize how fantasies of black power and triumph fashion theoretical, political, and aesthetic challenges to—and respite from—white supremacy and antiblackness” (2). Through Frantz Fanon’s articulation of fantasy as an abject impossibility for Black people throughout the book, Scott utilizes Fanon’s Afro-pessimistic observations as a thread throughout the text. Later, he argues against the influential linguistic psychoanalyses of Fredric Wertham, Jean LaPlanche and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis in order to construct a societal understanding of what comic books do both to and for their audiences. In Keeping It Unreal, the audience-specific focus takes up much of the space in the book as the central weapon that is stylistically wielded against Black imaginative power. As a result, Scott expertly weaves through a dizzying number of critics, artists, fanatical reports, essays, and Congressional testimony to showcase both the immense power and the masculine fragility of the readers who were consuming 100 million issues per month during the so-called Golden Age. Though that number has dropped significantly, the issues that came with it have not. Wertham’s argument is entertainingly remixed through the idea of what Scott calls “fantasy-acts,” refocusing fantasy’s supposed passivity toward the very real, accountable weight it carries through speculative actions and/or power (30). Scott points out that many of these acts are responsible for the censorship and rabid calls of homosexuality that loom throughout superhero comics’ criticisms. He is also adamant [End Page 93] in pointing out that although they are rarely considered for their subjective additions to literary canons, superhero comics exist as untapped libraries of creative ideals, further arguing that these considerations exist in comics at the intersection of masculine identity, feminine sensuality, and ableist assumptions of whole (and largely white) bodies. For Scott, paradigmatic constructions of fantasy or “phantasy . . . [as] the creative activity of imagination, rather than the reduction to whimsy and triviality that often occurs with the English word ‘fantasy,’” exist not as the sole property of whiteness but, instead, as the unexamined-yet-hugely-influential moments of Black characterization that are under the surface (72). This mantra is the singular track that Scott stays tethered to throughout the book as he examines the way that Black super-heroes—both male and female—have carved out a landscape assumed to be entirely white and straight, and why this is completely wrong. In the first chapter, he makes use of Wonder Woman’s Black sister Nubia and positions his own life story as a queer Black child through Dick Giordano’s 1973 cover of Wonder Woman #206. On it, as Nubia, in a tight leopard print outfit, battles Diana Prince, Scott recontextualizes Wertham’s incendiary argument about homosexuality to highlight how even negative patriarchal views leave no space for women (68). Bringing up various discussions of lesbianism, he points out that these are swept aside in favor of an overt sexuality that is essentially cloaked in two-dimensional fantasies of 1970s Black power. Curiously, Scott makes reference to the fact that DC Comics perhaps recognized the unsubtle racism suggested through Nubia’s initial artwork, citing the fact that her subsequent appearances are redesigned as either fully clothed and/or armored. Regardless, the core issue of identification that Nubia represents remains a staple for Scott, bolstered by Freudian comparisons to a suggestive Oedipal complex. This is represented in Jonathan Dollimore’s update to Wertham’s hetero-to- homosexual lens, which goes from “I desire you” to “I desire (to be like) you” (71, emphasis original). In the character of...

Review: The Reed Smoot Hearings: The Investigation of a Mormon Senator and the Transformation of an American Religion, edited by Michael Harold Paulos and Konden Smith Hansen

Reed Smoot (1862–1941) was a Republican senator from Utah who served in Congress from 1903 to 1933. The fact that Smoot was a high-ranking apostle in the Quorum of Twelve in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) caused controversy when Smoot was first seated, resulting in nearly six years of Congressional hearings to determine whether a member of this widely despised new religion was worthy of office. Largely in conversation with Kathleen Flake’s The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle (2004), editors Michael Harold Paulos and Konden Smith Hansen have assembled eight essays in The Reed Smoot Hearings to reconsider various aspects of the Smoot case, both in terms of its implications for the evolution of American secularism and the twentieth-century trajectory of the LDS Church.After an introduction by Smith Hansen that lays out the historical background behind the Smoot controversy and previous scholarship on the subject, the first part of the book consists of four essays addressing the national context of the hearings. Smith Hansen’s discussion of the hearings shows how “the expanding notion of religious pluralism and secularity…during the Progressive Era” (25) provided a space for Mormons to achieve greater acceptance on the national stage. Such acceptance, however, came with a price, since it was predicated on the LDS Church making radical changes to conform to the “new secular–Protestant definition” (26) of what a legitimate religion should be. Specifically, this meant suppressing plural marriage and demonstrating subordination to the federal government. Paulos, in “Justice is Never Permanently Defeated Anywhere,” focuses on the secularizing strategy of Smoot’s defenders who argued that a citizen’s religious beliefs were private and therefore off-limits to determining fitness for national office, a position enshrined in the Constitution, but largely flouted in the nineteenth century. Bryan W. Daynes and Kathryn M. Daynes rehearse the long history of proposed constitutional amendments banning polygamy and their impact on the course of the hearings, while Kenneth L. Cannon II details the on-going anti-Mormon crusade of Utah Senator Frank J. Cannon that stretched well into the 1910s. Cannon specifically takes aim at Flake’s contention that the Smoot hearings were the high-water mark of anti-Mormon agitation in this country, but in my opinion Flake’s argument is still sound, with Frank J. Cannon’s personal crusade the exception that proves the rule.The second part of the book pivots from the larger national issues of the hearings to a look at four personalities who played important roles in the events. Kathryn Smoot Egan explores the stresses and strains on Smoot’s wife during this period, as the Smoots’ monogamy came under intense scrutiny as the new ideal of Mormon marriage. The appearance of LDS president Joseph F. Smith as a witness under subpoena is the subject of Paulos’ analysis of Smith’s congressional testimony as an example of political tightrope walking that had profound implications for Mormonism. This is a fascinating chapter, although for a fuller understanding of how Smith astutely used the hearings as an opportunity to shift the LDS Church away from polygamy, it needs to be read in conjunction with Flake. The last two chapters deal with Smoot’s long-suffering Mormon secretary, Carl Badger. Gary James Bergera and John Brumbaugh provide interesting insights into the impact of the hearings on the lives and careers of two men rooted in the Mormon Corridor of the intermountain West. The book concludes with a long list compiled by D. Michael Quinn of high Mormon officials who contracted new plural marriages after the Church’s 1890 Woodruff Manifesto seemingly banned polygamy, a contentious issue during the Smoot hearings.The Reed Smoot Hearings is an important addition to the ongoing reassessment of Mormon history in the twentieth century, providing much needed detail surrounding a signal event in that history. As this review makes clear, however, I strongly recommend that the book be read after reading The Politics of American Religious Identity since Flake provides the broad context necessary to better understand the specific concerns of the individual chapters. Indeed, I could see both books being used to great advantage as a unit in graduate seminars on Mormonism or American new religious movements in general, and in courses on secularism and the history of church and state in America.

Congressional Testimony: Shareholder Proposals, Index Fund Voting and the Need for Proxy Advisor Reform

Congressional Testimony: Shareholder Proposals, Index Fund Voting and the Need for Proxy Advisor Reform

A Seat at the Table: A New Data Set of Social Movement Organization Representation before Congress during the Twentieth Century

The authors ask descriptive questions concerning the relationship between social movement organizations (SMOs) and the state. Which movement’s SMOs are consulted the most by the state? Do only a few “spokes-organizations” speak for the whole of movements? Has the state increasingly consulted SMOs over time? Do the movements consulted most by the state advise only a few state venues? The authors present and describe a new publicly available data set covering 2,593 SMOs testifying at any of the 87,249 public congressional hearings held during the twentieth century. Testimony is highly concentrated across movements, with just four movements giving 64 percent of the testimony before Congress. A very few “spokes-organizations” testify far more often than typical SMOs. The SMO congressional testimony diversified over the twentieth century from primarily “old” movements such as Labor to include “new” movements such as the Environmental movement. The movements that testified most often did so before a broader range of congressional committees.

“As Pretty a Piece of Price Fixing as I Ever Saw”: Prerelease Engagements and the Circumvention of the Paramount Consent Decrees

Despite hopes for a more equitable cinematic marketplace after the 1948 Paramount decision, the studios quickly developed new methods of dominating exhibition. One technique, the prerelease engagement, created an unofficial first run at higher prices before a film's official release. The Department of Justice's disinterested response to exhibitor complaints demonstrated that it was no longer interested in policing the industry. Using the trade press and congressional testimony, this essay traces the history of the prerelease and exhibitors' unsuccessful attempts to block it—an early example of the decline of the Paramount decrees as a means to counter studio dominance.

50th Anniversary of TPRC—Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy: Looking Ahead to the Next 50 Years

50th Anniversary of TPRC—Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy: Looking Ahead to the Next 50 Years

Commentary: Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems: Seeing Through the Clouds.

Commentary: Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems: Seeing Through the Clouds.