Monthly Archives: May 2009

White House Outlines Offshore-Tax fixes

With the White House unveiling a $210 billion plan to tax more of U.S. firms’ overseas earnings and crack down on tax-avoidance loopholes, School of Law Professor Daniel Berman, a former Treasury Department official and now director of the graduate tax program, can look at the historical track record of presidents on such proposals. “Many […]

Iran Frees American Journalist

As a former long-time ABC News foreign correspondent, College of Communication journalism Professor Robert Zelnick can offer unique perspective on the decision by the Iranian government to free American journalist Roxana Saberi. “The freeing of Roxana Saberi, a courageous journalist whose three months imprisonment rightly triggered international outrage, shows that even Iran cannot be completely […]

Strengthening Antitrust Rules

With the Obama administration’s top antitrust official announcing plans to restore an aggressive antitrust enforcement policy, School of Management Professor Michael Salinger, a former FTC official, can offer some perspective on the likely impact. “I will be interested to hear the specifics of what she says about monopolization cases. This is an inherently more controversial […]

“Stress Tests” Done, Now What?

With the government’s “stress tests” now completed on the nation’s largest  banks, School of Management risk expert Mark T. Williams, a former Federal Reserve bank examiner, looks at the lessons learned and what happens next.  “Stronger capital requirements, better regulatory risk oversight, and banks with a stronger handle on fundamental risk-management principles should help reduce the […]

Congress moving closer for the FDA to regulate tobacco

A Senate committee this week takes up a House-passed version of a bill that will give the FDA broad powers over the marketing and manufacturing of tobacco products — including full disclosure of cigarette, cigar and other tobacco product ingredients. It also would require tobacco companies to expand the size of warning labels, ban harmful […]

Health-care groups pledge savings

With leading health-care industry groups offering the Obama administration $2 trillion in savings over the next decade, School of Management Professor Stephen Davidson can discuss the implications.  He is the author of the soon to be published book “In Urgent Need of Reform: Saving the U.S. Healthcare System.” “These organizatons are promising to reduce their […]

The final extreme makeover for the Hubble Space Telescope

With a scheduled May 11 blast off to the Hubble Space Telescope, a seven-person maintenance and repair crew on the space shuttle Atlantis will spend 11 days on a delicate overhaul that would make it 90 times more powerful than when it was launched in 1990. This fifth and final fix will extend’s Hubble’s life of sending continuous cosmic images to 2014. […]

Afghan revamp

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. will appoint a three-star general to Kabul, marking the first time since the seven-year war began that the U.S. will have two senior commanders in Afghanistan.  Former head of the American Embassy in Kabul, Charles Dunbar, now a professor of international relations, is available for comment on the […]

Report: GM to build more cars overseas

Despite billions of taxpayer dollars poured into it to help revive the US economy, GM plans to add many of its new automaking jobs overseas under its restructuring. The Washington Post reports that the GM plan looks to double the number of cars it sells in the US that will be built Mexico, China, and South Korea.  School […]

MA SJC clears up GPS monitoring of sex offender law

According to a recent Boston Globe article, the state’s highest court ruled that the law requiring GPS monitoring of people on probation for certain sex offenses applies only to offenders who have been placed on probation after being convicted of the crimes, not to offenders who are awaiting trial.  “It’s not clear from the ruling that […]