articles 1 to 10 of 481
Apollo Management's Marc Rowan: 'The Best Returns Follow Chaos'
Marc Rowan, founding partner of Apollo Management, one of the world's largest private equity investment firms, makes it sound simple: Stick to the fundamentals -- that is, buy a good business at a low price -- and you ultimately will see returns. Of course, identifying those businesses is the challenge. Rowan, who was in mergers and acquisitions at Drexel Burnham Lambert before starting Apollo, spoke with Knowledge@Wharton about how Apollo makes investment decisions, the challenges private equity faces in the coming months, the recent insider trading scandals and what he looks for in new hires.
From: November 11, 2009
Efficient Markets or Herd Mentality? The Future of Economic Forecasting
Once on the academic fringes, behavioral economics has been gaining considerable ground over the past year. While not all economists, government policy makers and corporate financiers agree wholeheartedly with behavioral economists' assertion that markets are inefficient and irrational, it's difficult in the wake of the global financial meltdown to be too dismissive of it, according to some Wharton faculty members. It's likely, they say, that future regulations will be shaped in part by both behavioral economics and the efficient market theory, which has dominated government policymaking since the early 1980s.
From: November 11, 2009
Lessons from Brazil: Why Is It Bouncing Back While Other Markets Stumble?
The sense of optimism in Brazil is palpable and it's not just because the country is getting ready to host soccer's World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016. Brazil's economy was the first in Latin America to stage a recovery following the global economic crisis -- in the second quarter of this year. What has helped Brazil to remain so resilient while other markets are still struggling? And what can it do to maintain economic growth and become, as the World Bank predicts, the world's fifth-largest economy by 2016?
From: November 11, 2009
Lean Financial Services - Cutting Costs While Reducing Risks
The financial services sector has been slow to adopt lean tools and practices, but that's changing. As more banks discover the benefits of lean operations -- such as lower costs, fewer errors, faster cycle times and far greater efficiency -- wide-scale adoption by the industry is just a matter of time.
From: November 11, 2009
The Post-recessionary Global Economy: In Search of the New Normal
The days of loose rules, easy credit and lax oversight, which led to excesses on many fronts, are ending. As the global economy climbs slowly towards recovery, two pressing questions remain: First, how do we prevent things from getting out of control again? And second, what is the so-called new normal? Speakers at the Festival of Thinkers in Abu Dhabi and experts at Wharton weigh in on both issues
From: November 09, 2009
Starved for Financing: Is There Relief in Sight for U.S. Small Businesses?
President Obama's recent move to funnel more credit to small businesses comes at a time when a fragile recovery appears to be underway in that sector. If Congress approves Obama's plan, the measures would enable community banks to borrow at low rates from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, so long as the banks show they are increasing lending to small enterprises. Still, most small businesses continue to hunker down: Last month, a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business found that expansion plans for small businesses were at a 35-year low. How quickly will conditions improve for a sector that generates two-thirds of all new jobs in the U.S.?
From: October 28, 2009
Crackdown on Executive Pay: Too Much or Not Enough?
Last week, the Obama administration's "pay czar," Kenneth Feinberg, announced that the government will impose caps on compensation for the 25 highest-paid executives at seven companies that received "exceptional assistance" through the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- including American International Group (AIG), Bank of America, Citigroup, Chrysler, Chrysler Financial, General Motors and GMAC. Under the new regulations, salaries will be reduced by an average of 90%, and total compensation (including bonuses and stock options) will be lowered by 50%. Knowledge@Wharton spoke with Wharton accounting professor Wayne R. Guay and then with finance professor Alex Edmans about what these changes could mean for Wall Street, company shareholders and taxpayers.
From: October 28, 2009
'Too Big to Fail': Can Regulation Control Systemic Risk?
The phrase "too big to fail" debuted during the financial crisis as a buzzword for mega banks and institutions that pushed the world economy -- and themselves -- to the brink of meltdown. Yet, they could not be allowed to fail because of the havoc this would wreak on the economy at large. With the worst of the crisis apparently over, attention now focuses on how to rein in the behemoths without encouraging even riskier behavior. Wharton faculty members offer their suggestions.
From: October 14, 2009
The Impact of High-frequency Trading: Manipulation, Distortion or a Better-functioning Market?
According to some estimates, high-frequency trading by investment banks, hedge funds and other players accounts for 60% to 70% of all trades in U.S. stocks, explaining the enormous increase in trading volume over the past few years. But critics of the practice worry that those profits are coming out of ordinary investors' pockets. Defenders, on the other hand, say high-frequency trading improves market liquidity, helping to insure there is always a buyer or seller available when one wants to trade. Wharton faculty and others weigh in.
From: September 30, 2009
A Year after Lehman's Collapse: What Does Wall Street Look Like?
On September 14, President Barack Obama gave a speech in New York to mark the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers failure. It was a year ago when -- during the course of a single jaw-dropping week -- the investment bank declared bankruptcy; Bank of America took over Merrill Lynch; and the U.S. federal government bailed out American International Group. How has Wall Street changed during the past year, and what will these changes mean for investors? What new financial regulations have been discussed, and how much longer will it take the U.S. economy to emerge from the woods? Knowledge@Wharton posed these and other questions to finance professors Jeremy Siegel and Richard Herring.
From: September 16, 2009
