tepper - Carnegie Mellon University

TEPPER School of Business
corporate accounting reforms could be improved, according to Chester
Spatt, Mellon Bank Professor of Finance; director, Center for Financial
Markets, (on assignment – chief economist, Securities and Exchange
Commission), though he adds the act has been valuable in other areas.
BusinessWeek / Disclosure can prompt exaggeration, while
giving few benefits
Though advisers sometimes hedge their bets by disclosing conflicts of
interest, the practice may actually add up to a case of too much information,
says Don Moore, Carnegie Bosch Faculty Development Chair; associate
professor of Organizational Behavior & Theory. Often those who receive the
advice don’t place much importance on the disclosures because they’re
unprepared to make use of the information, he says.
The Christian Science Monitor / Economist: President’s
chances of shaking up Social Security are slim
The outcome of congressional elections will be a key factor in determining
whether President Bush succeeds in his bid to partially privatize Social
Security, says Stephen Spear, professor of economics at the Tepper School
of Business. Because the proposal is so unpopular, Bush is likely to face the
same political firestorm he did in 2005, and the proposal’s future will be
influenced by whether Republicans retain control of both house
Financial Times / Good intentions at the expense of the poor
Adam Lerrick, the Friends of Allan Meltzer Chair in Economics and director
of the Gailliot Center for Public Policy, describes how non-governmental
organizations have become the de facto regulators of the flow of finance
to the developing world, to the detriment of the people they intend to help.
Lerrick argues that a new marketplace will emerge, guided by economic
forces rather than intimidation.
CBS Evening News / America’s power grid strained
In this news segment, Lester Lave, explains why America’s electrical
distribution system is vulnerable to surging power demands and what can
be done to make the system more reliable.
The Associated Press / Dissident investors’ apparent win
stirs questions about Heinz board
Robert Dammon, professor of financial economics, discusses how proxy
fights tend to drive up share prices of affected companies even if dissidents
do not win board elections.
U.S. News & World Report / Big Brown: UPS is betting
on tech to deliver a competitive edge
Operations Research Professor Michael Trick of the Tepper School
describes how delivery companies are succeeding airlines as leaders in
using operations research to improve their processes.
BusinessWeek Online / SarbOx doesn’t go far enough
Don Moore argues that Sarbanes-Oxley fails to correct a crucial
accounting system weakness: the potential for the “moral seduction”
of outside auditors.
Foreign Policy Online / The Green Bullet: There’s a
straightforward way for Washington to end America’s
addiction to foreign oil, while reducing greenhouse gas
emissions and resolving the impasse on international trade:
Turn farm subsidies into fuel subsidies.
This article was co-written by Lester Lave and W. Michael Griffin,
executive director of the Green Design Institute. To reconcile President
Bush’s conflict between political pressure to cut U.S. farm subsidies and
domestic pressure to keep them, these experts recommend that Bush
could address both concerns “by transforming farm subsidies into fuel
subsidies. If Washington subsidized corn and switchgrass for domestic
ethanol production instead of export, Bush will relieve his headache on
trade, bolster energy security, and improve the environment,” thereby
helping to end the American “addiction” to oil.
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