894 Posts Found

With so many markets around the world simultaneously approaching critical mass, how do companies decide where and when to invest their scarce resources? Consumption curves—an old idea imbued with new power—can provide those answers and more, including how to shape markets to their advantage.

Content: Article | Authors: Armen Ovanessoff, Athena Peppes, Mark Purdy, Matthew Robinson | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Economics, International, Strategy

When the environment is continuously unstable, it is no longer volatile. Rather, we have entered a new economic era… Nothing is certain except for the need to have strong risk management, a lot of cash, the willingness to invest even when the future is unclear, and great people.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jeff Immelt | Source: Outlook Journal (Accenture) | Subjects: Economics, Management, Risk Management

As the economy bounces between recession and recovery, financial executives have to make a bet between whether the economy, their industry and their business will experience rising prices going forward or whether they will have to grapple with the balance sheet and operational effects of deflation. They will have to choose wisely as this has the potential of being a bet-your-business risk. The decision is … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Carl Steidtmann, Dan Latimore, Elisabeth Denison | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Economics, Finance

The Motley Fool interviewed Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz in his office at Columbia Business School. In this clip, Stiglitz answers the question, “What is something that is taught in the modern business school that gives a flawed sense of how risk and financial markets work?”

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz | Source: The Motley Fool | Subjects: Economics, People

The social theorist on why new technologies are ushering in a paradigm shift, and how the transition will redefine how business is done.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Art Kleiner, Douglas Rushkoff | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Economics

Harvard Business School’s Rebecca M. Henderson and Karthik Ramanna argue that company managers have a moral obligation to preserve capitalism.

Content: Article | Authors: Karthik Ramanna, Michael Blanding, Rebecca M. Henderson | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subject: Economics

From a policy standpoint, many countries continue to focus on privatization, liberalization, deregulation and modernization as growth strategies. Unfortunately, according to Jean-Eric Aubert of the World Bank Institute, these policies typically do not yield the expected fruits due to their lack of sustainability, because they often fail to take into account emerging opportunities. For instance, the privatization of aging factories does little to enhance economic … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Mark McCord | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Economics, International, Politics

Monetary policy is not the only economic mechanism driving inflation. Government debt creates inflationary pressures in at least three ways. First, rising government deficits represent an increase in aggregate demand over supply. While small increases in the deficit have little impact on price levels, large increases in deficits can have a big impact. Second, by shifting resources from the more productive private sector to the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Carl Steidtmann, Dan Latimore, Elisabeth Denison | Source: Deloitte Review | Subject: Economics

Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.

Content: Quotation | Author: Milton Friedman | Source: Deloitte Review | Subject: Economics

The market is effective when it is a servant and not when it is the master of our destinies.

Content: Quotation | Author: Stephen Green | Source: Deloitte Review | Subject: Economics

It is as if we saw in the markets, in recent years, an attitude develop that if I have got a contract and a product that has got a market, and it is legal, then I don’t have to ask any other questions about rightness or suitability. I would suggest that simply won’t do, and indeed I think we all know that it won’t do.

It … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Stephen Green | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Economics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

In the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, NOVA presents “Mind Over Money”—an entertaining and penetrating exploration of why mainstream economists failed to predict the crash of 2008 and why we so often make irrational financial decisions. The program reveals how our emotions interfere with our decision-making and explores controversial new arguments about the world of finance. In the face of … [ Read more ]

Content: Multimedia Content | Source: PBS | Subjects: Economics, Finance

A Nobel prizewinner argues for an overhaul of the theory of consumer choice.

Content: Article | Source: The Economist | Subject: Economics

Capitalism earns its legitimacy through the idea that the pursuit of self-interest explicitly delivers on certain moral goods for society. Individuals could criticize that moral framework—a Marxist, for instance, might argue that capitalism ignores issues of fairness in outcomes—but they can’t say that it doesn’t exist.

Content: Quotation | Author: Michael Blanding | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

Capitalism has two powerful things going for it. First, it has been shown to be incredibly effective in leading to economic growth. …Second, capitalism tends to be self-correcting. When the free market does fail, the market itself steps in to correct the problem. …But that doesn’t mean markets always work to self-correct structural problems. The snag, as Adam Smith first identified in The Wealth of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: Karthik Ramanna, Michael Blanding, Rebecca M. Henderson | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

Our capitalistic system is the best. Unfortunately it produces “winners” and “losers.” Many in the loser group are there through no fault of their own. Capitalism’s biggest challenge is how to treat the losers.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

Identity Economics provides an important and compelling new way to understand human behavior, revealing how our identities–and not just economic incentives–influence our decisions. In 1995, economist Rachel Kranton wrote future Nobel Prize-winner George Akerlof a letter insisting that his most recent paper was wrong. Identity, she argued, was the missing element that would help to explain why people–facing the same economic circumstances–would make different choices. … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Authors: George Akerlof, Rachel Kranton | Subject: Economics

The Industrial Age was based on a new relationship with time. Instead of paying people for the things they produced, we began to pay people for their time. The Industrial Age also brought a new kind of time-based money. In order to transact, merchants and companies needed to borrow coin, and then pay it back with interest. In a sense, it is money with a … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Douglas Rushkoff | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, History, Money, Time Management

If we truly had efficient markets in which there were no externalities, in which there was no despoiling of public goods, in which there was perfect information and people weren’t allowed to deceive and cheat, then I think the Friedman argument would work. I believe Friedman is very aware of that and wasn’t saying, “Oh, just maximize shareholder, value no matter what the situation.” … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jonathan Haidt | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Economics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

Economic growth over the past 250 years is best understood as the product of a “three-player game.” In this game, the market economy and the state compete to direct the allocation of resources to new technologies—to canals and waterpower in one century, to steam and electricity in the next, and to computers after that. Financial capitalism, the third player, which includes bankers of every sort, … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Authors: David Warsh, William H. Janeway | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Economics, Finance