CNN Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi reflected on his recent CNN Express bus trip to the Wisconsin School of Business in the November 2009 issue of Delta’s Sky magazine.
Velshi’s article entitled, “The Return of the American Consumer,” featured business school students’ comments on American consumer spending habits. Thoughts expressed by Arts Administration MBA student Kelly Gauthier and Julian Moncada, an undergrad majoring in finance and international business, are featured on page 80.
Assistant Professor of Real Estate Urban Land Economics Morris Davis is critical of a recent move by Congress to extend a tax credit for first-time homebuyers and offer a new credit to people who already own a home but are looking to move.
Davis told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that home prices were stabilizing without further intervention and cautioned that extending the first-time buyer credit will be costly and only pull forward home sales that would have happened at a point in the future anyway. “There’s just a fixed pool of potential first-time homebuyers. So that means if you incent them to buy today, they are not going to be available to buy tomorrow,” said Davis.
Morris Davis, assistant professor of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, was a guest on Marketplace radio to discuss Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s call to action on financial regulation.
Davis discussed with host Bill Radke the implications of regulation and why he believes it will be difficult to monitor systemic risk.
Wisconsin School of Business Dean Michael Knetter recently contributed to a statewide primetime special on the economy, featuring Dennis Winters of Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development and Bill Testa of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
During the special, Dean Knetter provides an analysis of the current national and state economy, and describes key indicators to watch as we await an economic recovery.
Germany’s “cash-for-clunkers” program, designed to help the country’s beleaguered auto makers, has met with an unexpectedly large response and boosted car sales, according to Mark Browne, professor of risk management at the Wisconsin School of Business. Browne spoke with SmartMoney on ways the U.S. is becoming more like Europe.
Morris Davis, assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics at the Wisconsin School of Business, is contributing to the national debate on the best methods to help jobless Americans from defaulting on their mortgages.
Read an article quoting Professor Davis on the impact of housing vouchers here.
Read about The Wisconsin Foreclosure and Unemployment Relief Plan (WI-FUR) here.
Chip Hunter, associate professor of Management and Human Resources, talks with SmartMoney magazine about the economic benefits of a federally mandated minimum wage hike to $7.25/hr, set to go into effect on July 24.
According to think tank estimates, the mandate will increase wages of approximately 4.5 million workers and will raise hourly wages by $1.6 billion per year.
Hunter says the wage hike may have the impact of pumping more money into the economy.
In a recent Investor’s Business Daily article, Professor Mason Carpenter provides tips for managers and employees on ways to deal with stress and be more effective during a down economy.
According to Carpenter, who teaches strategic management and is author of “Managing Effectively Through Tough Times,” managers should take advantage of down time by talking with customers, learning of future trends and creating necessary business solutions.
He says employees should not focus on promotions during bad economic times, but instead should look for ways to manage their own careers by taking courses and obtaining new degrees that will increase their marketability following the recession.
Read more of Professor Carpenter’s suggestions here.
Read a related article by Professor Carpenter on managing in tough times here.
The Wisconsin School of Business and American Family Insurance are partners in Forward Thinking: A Speaker Series. World-renowned economist Nouriel Roubini gave a talk for the series on “The Financial Crisis: Is the Worst Behind Us?” on June 8 on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Nouriel Roubini is a professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business and is cofounder and chairman of RGE Monitor, an innovative economic and geo-strategic information service. In April 2009, he was named to TIME magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people.
Roubini studies international macroeconomics, political economy and the mechanisms of economic growth. He is probably best known for his warnings about an impending financial crisis. Profiled as “Dr. Doom” in The New York Times Magazine, he is much sought after for his economic insights by print and broadcast media around the world.
Roubini served as a senior adviser to the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the U.S. Treasury Department and has held several other prestigious positions in major economic institutions. He has published numerous policy papers and books on key international macroeconomic issues and contributes to a series for Project Syndicate, “Finance in the 21st Century.”
Deborah Mitchell, a senior lecturer of marketing and associate dean for Enterprise MBA programs at the Wisconsin School of Business, tells the Associated Press what GM should focus on when marketing cars during bankruptcy.
Mitchell argued that GM should not “dwell on the negative” or anything that will help consumers “remember that GM is hurting.”
“‘When you buy one of these cars, you’re buying a Chevrolet. You’re not buying a GM,’” said Mitchell. “‘In terms of consumer memory, where the positive associations lie are primarily with the brands.’”
Companies have begun to sell products promising to help homeowners hedge against declines in the value of their home.The Wall Street Journal recently ran an online article examining the pros and cons of home equity protection plans.
Mark Browne, a professor of actuarial science, risk managementand insuranceat the Wisconsin School of Business, was one of the experts quoted in the article. He urged consumers to take a careful look at these new products.
Morris Davis, an assistant professor of real estate at the Wisconsin School of Business, was quoted recently in a front-page article in the New York Times on how job losses are pushing safer mortgages into foreclosure.
Davis, along with two other real estate professors from Wisconsin, Stephen Malpezzi and François Ortalo-Magné, have developed a proposal aimed at preventing homeowners nationally from defaulting on their mortgages. Dubbed the “Wisconsin Foreclosure and Unemployment Relief Plan” (WI-FUR), it would expand and combine two established programs—unemployment insurance and housing vouchers—to provide immediate relief and prevent a new wave of foreclosures of recently unemployed workers.
Read more about the Wisconsin Foreclosure and Unemployment Relief Plan.
Nouriel Roubini