February 2, 2010 at 4:25 pm
President Obama has proposed using $30 billion from the TARP bank bailout program to create a small-business lending fund to spur job growth. Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, said he has been suggesting such a fund but that bankers may be skeptical that it may come […]
February 2, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Apple’s ballyhooed new iPad (and other e-readers like Kindle and Nook) can eventually lighten the load of student backpacks. That’s good. But Sargent College Professor Karen Jacobs, who researches how such gagets challenge human capabilities, fears the touch-screen iPad may lead to some unintended harmful ergonomic problems. “In the case of the iPad, which has […]
February 1, 2010 at 4:04 pm
With international atomic energy officials still dickering with Iran over Iran’s uranium-enrichment program, international relations Professor Augustus Richard Norton, in a Q&A with BU Today, says that given the political realities in the United States it’s going to be difficult to deter the Iranians from what they’re doing. “If I were advising the president on […]
February 1, 2010 at 12:03 pm
GOP Congressional leaders, enboldened by their Senate win in Massachusetts, are pushing Democrats to start over on efforts to reform the healthcare system. In an opinion piece in Politico, history Professor Bruce Schulman says House Dems should take a page from FDR history on how Social Security was created and just pass the Senate bill. “Passing the […]
January 29, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Although President Obama pledged in his State of the Union address to double U.S. export growth over the next five years to help create jobs, experts are saying that’s virtually impossible. International Relations Professor Kevin Gallagher, a specialist in globalization and development, says the only time U.S. exports ever doubled was when the Nixon administration […]
January 28, 2010 at 4:52 pm
The London Times is calling economics Prof. Laurence Kotlikoff a “guru” to the Governor of the Bank of England. An ex-Reagan economic advisor, Kotlikoff is pushing his concept to turn banks into mutual funds banned from making loans not matched by cash reserves. Kotlikoff’s new book explaining it all — “Jimmy Steward is Dead: Ending the […]
January 28, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Seeking to avoid another financial meltdown, the S.E.C. issued new rules requiring money-market funds to hold more liquid assets and pay out less interest. Law Professor Tamar Frankel, a securities law authority, says the new regs are puzzling in that they’ll only diminish returns on such funds that investors know such are not FDIC insured. “Perhaps the time […]
January 27, 2010 at 5:47 pm
The Swiss government says it may have to renegotiate that deal with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to hand over names of thousands of tax cheats in return for ending legal proceedings against the Swiss banking giant UBS. Law Professor Daniel Berman, a former U.S. Treasury deputy international tax counsel, says the Swiss government has […]
January 27, 2010 at 5:13 pm
In an unprecedented industry move, Toyota, the world’s most successful automaker, temporarily suspended U.S. sales of eight models until it figures out a brake-pedal problem that sparked a recall. Former Ford Motors executive Louis Lataif, long-time dean of the School of Management, says it may help domestic manufacturers, but it premature to read too much into […]
January 27, 2010 at 12:28 pm
President Obama has proposed taxing banks that have benefited from TARP bailouts and restricting banking trading activities so depositor funds are not put at risk. In a Boston Globe op-ed, Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, says it would be more effective to make too-big-to-fail institutions return […]
