OUR TRACFED SUBSCRIPTION

The library subscribes to a database called TracFed. We have described this database in prior posts. See post of 5/5/08, Our TracFed Database. A recent front page article in the New York Times by Eric Lichtblau, December 24, 2008, "Federal Cases of Stock Frau Drop Sharply," demonstrates that this database enjoys prominence in the American journalistic and political sphere.

TracFed is a source of government information compiled from government data about its law enforcement efforts, spending and personnel allocation. If the government itself has not compiled the information, TracFed professionals make freedom of information requests and compile the data for publication. Portions of the information offered is free and some data searches require a payment or subscription.

In this case the article uses TracFed data to highlight the fact that federal fraud prosecutions have dropped because law enforcement was diverted to the war on terror after 9/11. The article characterizes the TracFed data this way:

There were 133 prosecutions for securities fraud in the first 11 months of this fiscal year. That is down from 437 cases in 2000 and from a high of 513 cases in 2002, when Wall Street scandals from Enron to WorldCom led to a crackdown on corporate crime, the data showed.

I was delighted that the article quoted co-director, David Burnham, who made a personal trip to South Texas to talk to librarians about using TracFed:

David Burnham, co-director of the Syracuse research group, which is known as the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, said the decline in stock fraud prosecutions growing out of the F.B.I. “really is no surprise. It’s a reflection of a choice that was made right after 9-11 to move investigators into terrorism, and this is the cost of that.

A Bite at a Time - Economic Bailout Information

Jessica R. Alexander, J.D., M.L.I.S., Reference Librarian

Where does the Treasury secretary get authority to move large amounts of money into the accounts of banks without new legislative action? For weeks, I have been thinking about an approach to understanding this and other events in the economic meltdown. The Fred Parks Law Library subscribes to the CCH Business and Finances Resources Network portal. (Your STCL e-mail address is required.) It links to primary and secondary materials on banking, finance, and securities. Access it through Stanley by clicking on the Library tab and going to the alphabetical database list.

Once in the network, the user is confronted with myriad options for searching. You can search one database or fifty. Paper materials comprising volumes of the CCH Federal Banking Law Reporter (KF970.C61) and the CCH Federal Securities Law Reporter ( KF1436.5.C65), located on the fourth floor are included in the database.

Each user can set up search options customizing search history and favored sub databases. Upon entry into the portal, links to the latest news in Securities, Banking, Anti-Trust and Trade Regulations are displayed. Clicking on the Banking tab, I decided to start with a white paper authored by CCH analysts, Kathleen M. Bianco and John M. Pachkowski, entitled, "The Economic Bailout: An Analysis of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act." It is an excellent summary and analysis of events leading to the bailout. It contains information on the primary laws used as tools in addressing the crisis.

With this information the user can link to the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008” or EESA (the bailout law), and underpinning laws such as the The Federal Reserve Act. To access these primary laws click on the Banking tab at the main page and then the Federal Banking laws option. EESA can be found under the subheading, Federal Banking Law Reporter Legislative Documents (1995 to present), and The Federal Reserve Act is located under Federal Banking Law Reporter Laws. It’s a start to answering complicated questions about our current economic situation.