May 20, 2009 at 10:17 am
Reports are surfacing that big banks are using life-insurance policies to help pay bonuses, pensions, and deferred compensation owed to their executives — with the banks as the beneficiaries. While not illegal, critics complain that the banks get tax breaks for funding such quasi-pensions, then profit when the executives die. School of Management Professor Fred Foulkes, director of the Human Resources Policy Institute and an expert on executive compensation, can offer insight into this novel tactic.
Contact Fred Foulkes, 617-353-4281, ffoulkes@bu.edu
May 20, 2009 at 10:15 am
Each person infected with Influenza A (H1N1) will infect between 2.2 and 3.1 others -- a "reproduction ratio" European researchers say is historically similar to other influenza pandemics. Alexander Ozonoff, professor of biostatistics, stresses the spread of the flu virus is separate from its severity.
"On general virological principles we would expect that transmissibility correlates negatively with severity. There are selective pressures that tend to push the virus in that direction, although it is not clear how often this holds with pandemic influenza."
Contact Alexander Ozonoff, 617-638-5866, aozonoff@bu.edu
May 20, 2009 at 10:01 am
Word's out that Microsoft plans to unveil next week a new version of its Internet search engine. Meantime, Yahoo says it plans to improve the way it's engine performs searches. School of Management Professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, who heads the Information Systems Department, can offer perspective on how the moves will affect the battle to compete to search giant Google.
"It’s encouraging to see Microsoft persevering with the search engine for several reasons: (1) Search is an essential building block for many online services and Microsoft is in the midst of transforming its business model to include online and cloud-based services and it cannot let the gateway be controlled by Google; (2) Mobile search is still in its infancy; (3) Search within social networks and social graphs (a la Facebook and Twitter) is still very immature.
"Their current low market share, while discouraging, should not deter Microsoft if they can come up with a more effective search engine that yields relevant, context-specific and timely results."
Contact N. Venkat Venkatraman, 617-353-7117, venkat@bu.edu
May 20, 2009 at 9:55 am
Reports say the Obama administration is considering creating a new regulatory agency to protect consumers of a wide variety of financial products ranging from mortgages to hedge funds. School of Law Professor Cornelius Hurley, a proponent of regulatory streamlining who directs the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, can comment on the implications.
Meantime, School of Management Professor Michael Salinger, a former Federal Trade Commission director, is skeptical. "One of the risks of creating a regulatory authority for a single industry is that it ends up being captured by the industry," he said. "A better solution would be to expand the staff of the FTC."
Contact Cornelius Hurley, 617-353-5427, ckhurley@bu.edu, or Michael Salinger, 617-353-4408, salinger@bu.edu
May 19, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Former deputy Comptroller of the Currency Robert Bench, now senior fellow at the School of Law's Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law, says it's no surprise a Wall Street Journal survey shows more than 900 mid-and small-sized banks could generate losses of $100 billion on commercial real estate loans by the end of 2010.
"It used to be that the ‘business of the U.S. is business.’ In reality, U.S. ‘business’ has been real estate, since so much other business has been outsourced. As early as 2006, the Comptroller of Currency and the FDIC warned community banks that their exposures to commercial real estate were concentrations of risk that were multiples of the banks’ capital which needed careful managment and/or contraction."
Contact Robert Bench, 617-353-5428, bobbench@bu.edu
May 19, 2009 at 10:41 am
Cutler J. Cleveland, Professor of Geography and the Environment and on the faculty of the Center for Energy & Environmental Studies can discuss President Obama's proposal for tough standards on tailpipe emissions and higher fuel efficiency targets to 35.5 miles per gallon for new vehicles by 2016 -- four years earlier than required under the 2007 energy bill.
Contact Cutler J. Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu
May 19, 2009 at 10:16 am
Reports say investigators into Bernard Madoff's alleged "Ponzi scheme" are looking at some of his wealthy clients who may have known that the returns on their investments were unrealistically high. School of Law Professor Tamar Frankel, a securities law expert and Israeli native, says this would violate both securities law and Jewish law.
"Jewish law forbids any person from harming another, directly or indirectly. In addition, a person must take steps to make sure that no injury is caused by himself or others. A person may not aid others or allow others to violate Jewish law (which includes a prohibition on stealing). A person must take affirmative actions to prevent others from violating the law. Civil and criminal law may not be as strict, but its spirit is the same.
"The scary part in the developments in Madoff’s saga is the possibility that a large group of those who accepted his largess suspected the truth. And, rather than escape, they continued to enjoy the ‘profits’ he paid. The saddest part is that Madoff’s investors may represent today’s culture in the financial system where the wealthy set the tone and show the way to those who seek wealth."
Contact Tamar Frankel, 617-353-3773, tfrankel@bu.edu
May 18, 2009 at 3:56 pm
This week Wal-Mart is taking the fight to Best Buy and Amazon (as Circuit City fades away) by upgrading the electronics departments in its 3,500 stores across the country. School of Management marketing Professor Frederic Brunel says it's a consequence of the ubiquitous nature of easy-to-install/operate consumer electronics.
"This is self-service selling, and thus the champions of self-service will be the winners. Excluding very high-end devices or custom installation solutions, it makes perfect sense that most customer electronics be distributed by mass-discounters such as Wal-Mart, Amazon or Costco."
Contact Frederic Brunel, 617-353-4609, brunel@bu.edu
May 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to put a priority on Iran's nuclear ambitions when he meets today with President Obama, an indication that Palestinian statehood, backed by the U.S. but not endorsed by Netanyahu, can wait. College of Communication Professor Robert Zelnick, a former long-time ABC News correspondent in the Middle East, can offer some perspective on where this might be heading.
"The Palestinian statehood question is a red herring. The two real issues are: How is Iran to be prevented from producing nuclear weapons? And, how is Hamas to be dealt with in relationship to the peace process? On these matters there may be real differences of approach."
Contact Robert Zelnick, 617-353-5007, bzelnick@bu.edu
May 18, 2009 at 11:51 am
Silicon Valley companies, particularly Google, are bracing for an expected new phase of tough new antitrust scrutiny under the Obama administration. School of Law Professor Keith Hylton, an antitrust law expert, says the Justice Department is shifting from cartel enforcement back toward prosecuting big firms for monopolization.
"The key obstacle for the Obama administration will be the courts. Over the past 25 years, federal courts have adopted rules that have favored defendants in monopolization cases. The Obama administration can bring more prosecutions against big firms, but unless the law changes, they will lose a lot of their cases."
Contact Keith Hylton, 617-353-8959, knhylton@bu.edu
