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The Economic Consequences of Global Uncertainty - By A. Michael Spence
The global economy is weakening, in no small measure because of a deep, widespread sense of uncertainty. And a major source of that uncertainty is the ongoing Sino-American “trade war.”
—— Opinion
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Understanding the Fed’s Dovish Turn - By Nouriel Roubini
The US Federal Reserve surprised markets recently with a large and unexpected policy change. When the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) met in December 2018, it hiked the Fed’s policy rate to 2.25-2.5%, and signaled that it would raise the benchmark rate another three times, to 3%-3.25%, before stopping. It also signaled that it would continue to unwind its balance sheet of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities indefinitely, by up to $50 billion per month.
—— Opinion
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Facebook and YouTube Need to Take Down Provably False "News" - By Michael Posner
Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Facebook will shift its focus to “private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure.” While some commentators initially applauded this statement as a 180-degree turn from the company’s past, the real import is unclear because Zuckerberg didn’t mention any plan of action. As he later acknowledged, “this isn’t a product announcement, it’s a statement of principles.”
—— Opinion
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SEC: How to Decide Earnings Report Timing - By Richard Berner, Kim Schoenholtz & Lawrence White
The Securities and Exchange Commission has set a March 21 deadline for public comments on possible changes to its current financial reporting requirements for U.S. publicly traded companies.
—— Opinion
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On Climate, the Kids Are All Wrong - By Paul H. Tice
In the summer of 1212, thousands of divinely inspired young people from across Catholic France and Germany took off to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims. None made it to the Holy Land. Many died along the way or were sold into slavery. As military campaigns go, the Children’s Crusade was a disaster. Yet environmental activists and politicians are adopting the same “a child shall lead them” strategy to push their climate change agenda and its latest incarnation, the Green New Deal.
—— Opinion
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Tackling Domestic Disinformation - By Stern Center for Business and Human Rights
A new report from the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights examines domestically generated disinformation in the US and urges social media platforms to take a harder line in addressing the problem.
—— Research Highlights
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Why it's so Important to Close the Female Leadership Gap - By Michael Posner
International Women’s Day offers an opportunity to take stock of areas where women have made progress in the struggle for equality but also to examine the gaps that remain. In the United States, women have made notable gains politically, but far too many continue to struggle to gain economic equality, including at the highest levels of American business.
—— Opinion
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A Money Manager’s Past Performance Matters More Than Ever - By Vasant Dhar
A common disclaimer in the investment business is that “past performance is not indicative of future results.” This is consistent with the Theory of Finance which argues that obvious advantages disappear quickly in a competitive market. Historical evidence largely supports this position: Manager performance is mostly unpredictable from month to month.
—— Opinion
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Strategy Needs Creativity - By Adam Brandenburger
I've noticed that business school students often feel frustrated when they’re taught strategy. There’s a gap between what they learn and what they’d like to learn. Strategy professors (including me) typically teach students to think about strategy problems by introducing them to rigorous analytical tools—assessing the five forces, drawing a value net, plotting competitive positions. The students know that the tools are essential, and they dutifully learn how to use them. But they also realize that the tools are better suited to understanding an existing business context than to dreaming up ways to reshape it.
—— Opinion
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On North Korea, U.S. Fails to Maintain Bipartisan Tradition of Leadership on Human Rights - By Michael Posner
As he wound down his two-day summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, President Trump was asked again to comment on the torture and murder of Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia student who died in 2017. Warmbier had been studying in North Korea in 2015 when he was arrested and held on bogus charges for 17 months, ultimately lapsing into a coma and dying.
—— Opinion
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The Next Wave of Improbable Innovation - By Tensie Whelan
The past 20 years have been characterized by innovation that democratizes access to information, entertainment, products and services through platform companies such as Spotify, Amazon and Facebook, as well as technologies such as blockchain. While technological and business innovation continues, there is growing backlash against some of its unintended consequences, such as growth becoming dependent on monetizing consumer data.
—— Opinion
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Stock Buybacks Are the Wrong Target - By A. Michael Spence
The surge in stock buybacks in the United States has sparked a high-stakes debate about what corporations can and should do with surpluses they have generated. It is a topic that raises fundamental questions about the role of the public and private sectors in securing inclusive growth patterns.
—— Opinion
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Justice Thomas' Ominous Threat Against a Vital Free-Press Precedent - By Michael Posner
In 1964, the United States Supreme Court protected journalists from legal retaliation by powerful politicians and other public figures seeking to impede their reporting. The case, New York Times v. Sullivan, significantly limited the scope of defamation lawsuits that could be brought against publishers or reporters by public officials and other prominent figures, requiring proof of “reckless disregard” of the truth. Over the past five decades, the Sullivan case has empowered journalists to root out official corruption and expose wrongdoing by the powerful.
—— Opinion
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How to Mitigate AI’s Exacerbation of Income Inequality - By Haran Segram
It is forecasted that approximately one-sixth of the total labor force will be made redundant over the next decade through some form of automation; this number will be likely be higher in developed economies, including the United States. To keep the American Dream alive, policymakers must address AI’s exacerbation of income inequality.
—— Opinion
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Public Pensions and Infrastructure: A Match Made in Heaven - By Ingo Walter and Clive Lipshitz
During the State of the Union address, President Trump issued a renewed call for an infrastructure bill. Two days later, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held its first hearing of the new Congress to address the state of U.S. infrastructure. Confronting the nation’s infrastructure gap is one of the rare bipartisan issues in Washington today.
—— Opinion
