Knowledge at Wharton

The economy seems to be sinking toward recession with new home sales at their lowest since the early 1990s. At the same time inflation is picking up. Some Americans are paying $4 for a gallon of gas and coming home from the supermarket with sticker shock. Today the Fed deemed recession the bigger worry and cut short-term interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point from 2.25% to 2%. Was this the right choice? How will it affect the financial markets? Should investors bet on a stock market rebound or hide on the sidelines? Knowledge at Wharton put these questions to Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel author of The Future for Investors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is selling police equipment to a notoriously brutal government tantamount to assisting in torture? William Schulz believes that it can be and that these types of sales are one of the principal ways in which businesses find themselves tangled up with torturers. During a presentation sponsored by Wharton’s Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research Schulz former executive director of Amnesty International and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress spoke about the challenges that companies face doing business with repressive governments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Richard Fain is chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises the Miami-based global cruise company that operates 36 ships under the Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International brands among others. He joined the company in 1981 as an outside director and became chairman and CEO in 1988. He spent 13 years before that at Gotass-Larsen Shipping Corp. a London-based owner and operator of cargo ships. Knowledge at Wharton asked him to update us on the cruise business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While China’s manufacturing sector booms and people sock away money in savings accounts the country’s financial markets remain in their infancy according to international finance experts who gathered at the recent 2008 Wharton China Business Conference. One reason for the relative underdevelopment of China’s capital markets they note is the role of the country’s powerful central government. ”Regulators are not comfortable letting the market do its own work ” noted one conference participant. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A thorny question lies at the heart of meaningful health care reform. How much is human life worth? New Wharton research based on Medicare kidney dialysis data shows that the average figure -- $129 090 per additional year of quality life -- is higher than prior studies have shown. Perhaps more important the study also puts a value on the cost-effectiveness of treatment across percentiles of the entire dialysis population in an attempt to develop a benchmark for coverage decisions. Chris P. Lee a Wharton professor of operations and information management co-authored the paper titled ”An Empiric Estimate of the Value of Life: Updating the Renal Dialysis Cost-effectiveness Standard.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Condos in Miami traditional music stores gas-guzzling cars pharmaceuticals that get unfavorable press foods made with trans fats: All marketers from time to time confront products that for whatever reason become difficult to sell. What strategies should companies follow to reposition their products in ways that might attract new audiences or at least retain existing ones? One answer: segmenting. ”There are so many different kinds of customers out there. You just need to find them ” says one Wharton expert. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Call it a gold rush of sorts. Gold topped out at more than $1 000 an ounce in mid-March up from about $680 a year ago. Although it dipped to just under $900 late in April it has had a tremendous run up from $350 five years ago. What has driven these price gains? What does gold tell us about the economy’s future? Should ordinary investors buy it? Knowledge at Wharton talks to the experts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The scientific community now overwhelmingly agrees that earth’s 6.5 billion inhabitants are contributing to global warming through heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. While various industries are yielding to public pressure to address climate change new carbon emission regulatory regimes are coming soon and they will likely carry significant costs according to experts from business and academia who spoke at the recent First Annual Conference-Workshop on Business and the Environment which was organized by the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) at Wharton/Penn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ask any CEO or senior level executive what his or her biggest challenge is and the answer is almost always finding and keeping good people. Yet most executives fail to manage their company’s needs in a way that recognizes the unpredictability of the global marketplace. In a book titled Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty Peter Cappelli director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources proposes a new approach to this issue based on applying the principles of supply chain management to people. He and Joyce Bradley senior vice president and general manager Delaware Valley region of Lee Hecht Harrison spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about talent management including the challenges of managing employees in a recessionary economy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The ongoing takeover battle between Microsoft and Yahoo has taken several surprising turns over the past few weeks. After rejecting Microsoft’s unsolicited $44.6 billion offer in late February Yahoo has announced a two-week ad testing program with its main search rival Google and has reportedly entertained a possible merger with Time Warner’s AOL. Meanwhile Microsoft was rumored to be considering News Corp. as a possible ally in acquiring Yahoo. While spectators wait for the next twist in this saga another headline-making deal has been announced: a merger between Delta and Northwest Airlines to become the world’s largest airline. Knowledge at Wharton spoke with Wharton management professor Saikat Chaudhuri and Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach to find out whether these deals make sense and for whom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.