Knowledge at Wharton

Viacom and CBS have pulled videos from Google’s YouTube. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently requested that some Oscar footage be taken down from YouTube as well. And Google’s efforts to sell radio and print advertising have not met expectations. In short Google’s ability to navigate the traditional media landscape doesn’t seem to be going particularly well. What’s the problem? While Google has the resources to create deals with content companies it still must contend with a number of confounding crosscurrents including content owners’ concerns over intellectual property and a clash of advertising models. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In one sense Frank Abagnale Jr. might seem an odd choice as a featured speaker at a cutting-edge computer-ruled event like the Wharton Technology Conference 2007. That’s not just because Abagnale -- the subject of the 2002 Steven Spielberg movie ”Catch Me If You Can” -- was one of the most notorious con men of the 20th century but also because his technique was so decidedly low-tech. But that was in fact part of Abagnale’s message: Vigilance against fraudsters and con artists he said should be even more of a priority now than it was then because Abagnale’s 1960s schemes were harder work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

According to a new study by Wharton professors Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers marriage and divorce rates in the United States are both at historic lows. When Stevenson and Wolfers began to analyze the changing market forces behind these new statistics one thing became clear: The same forces that play a role in marriage and divorce statistics -- namely birth control partial closing of the gender wage gap the rising age of first marriages and dramatic changes in home technologies -- have also had a significant impact on businesses and employees. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As recently as 1990 nearly 70% of newspaper carriers in the U.S. were teens. But that number dropped to 18% in 2004 and more declines are likely. Although reasons for teens being edged out of this formerly youth-dominated profession are specific to the newspaper industry the end of the boyhood (or girlhood) paper route reflects a dramatic but little-noticed trend: Teen unemployment has hit historic highs in the last three years. Experts in the field say employers who want to ensure a quality workforce down the line should sit up and take notice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the Lilliputians came upon the sleeping Gulliver they didn’t know if he was friendly or hostile but he was so big it seemed prudent to tie him down. Should the 9 000 hedge funds -- the secretive investment pools controlling $1.4 trillion in assets -- be treated the same way? The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets doesn’t think so. In a late-February report the group urged vigilance but concluded that new regulations are not needed. Was this the right decision? Wharton faculty weigh in on the issue. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has set an ambitious goal: He wants the country to become one of the world’s top 20 economies during the next two decades. To accomplish this he has mandated that all university students in Nigeria study entrepreneurship. That is one of the factors that brought Peter Bamkole General Manager Enterprise Development Services at Lagos Business School to Wharton where he recently spent time with The Wharton Small Business Development Center exploring how to set up an entrepreneurship program in Nigeria. Bamkole -- who often goes by the more informal ”Banky” -- spoke with Knowledge at Wharton about the challenges that entrepreneurs face in his home country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The issue of using hardware- or software-based digital rights management or ”DRM” to restrict how music and movies can be copied or shared has spurred fierce debate between those who think DRM is essential to protect content from unauthorized use and those who believe it undermines consumers’ rights to do whatever they want with the content they purchase. On February 6 Apple CEO Steve Jobs added to the controversy by posting an open letter on Apple’s web site in which he proposes that the recording industry simply do away with DRM all together. Knowledge at Wharton asked marketing professor Peter Fader and Don Huesman senior director of information technology for their views on the subject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Monday the country’s two satellite radio services -- Sirius and XM -- announced that they had finally agreed to merge. The move raises a number of questions not the least of which is whether they can get this deal approved by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. But regulatory issues aside what prompted these two archrivals to embrace each other what do they expect to get out of it and what does a combined company mean for consumers who currently pay a subscription fee of $12.95 a month? Knowledge at Wharton asked for comments from Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader whom we talked with first and business and public policy professor Gerald Faulhaber. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For months the steady drip of news about troubles in the subprime mortgage market didn’t seem too bad and many economists started to feel reassured about the health of the general housing market. But now some experts wonder whether those feelings of reassurance came too soon. They suggest that the growing number of borrower defaults in the ”aggressive lending” market which includes various types of risky mortgages besides subprime loans could shock the broader housing market and economy after all. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some media reports called it a Valentine’s Day gift to Wall Street. When Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before Congress on February 14 and 15 he gave an upbeat view of inflation and the economy setting off a strong rally in stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 87 points to 12 741.86. Bernanke told Congress that the economy seems to be moving to a slower but more sustainable rate of growth which suggests that the Fed will hold short-term interest rates steady at 5.25% where they have been since last summer. Will stocks continue to perform strongly? Knowledge at Wharton talked to Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel who predicted in his last podcast that the Fed was unlikely to raise interest rates anytime soon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.