Critical Thinking
Liquidity Traps: Old and New
By Hassan Shirvani—- The concept of a liquidity trap, introduced by the British economist John Maynard Keynes during the Great Depression of the 1930s, refers to the situation in which monetary policy becomes largely impotent in lowering interest rates to stimulate additional borrowing and spending in the economy. This can result from the fact that…
Read MoreCSB Student Brings Inspiration to a Commencement Address
By Kechi Okwuchi—- Applying to become the commencement speaker for the graduating class of 2015 was something I had never even considered until I received the email about a month ago. I had never given it much prior thought, not because of lack of interest, but because it was such a far-fetched notion to me.…
Read MoreSummary Brief Exploring the Role of Relationship Context in Consumer Brand Preference of Luxury Consumption
By Shuoyang Zhang– Introduction The growth in global income, middle class consumption, and continuous urbanization has led to the increase in international luxury consumption (Albany 2014). Moreover, today’s luxury consumers are more sophisticated and require higher skilled services and unique product designs. It is very important to understand luxury consumption and the factors involved in…
Read MoreIs it Time for Europe to Call in the Helicopter?
By Dr. Pierre Canac– “Let us suppose now that one day a helicopter flies over this community and drops an additional $1000 in bills from the sky, …. Let us suppose further that everyone is convinced that this is a unique event which will never be repeated,” (Friedman 1969, pp 4–5). In one of…
Read MoreInspired to be a Confident Woman Leader
By Hang Phan—The Cameron School of Business gave me and twenty other female students an opportunity to joyfully join an excellent and efficient learning section and discussion about confident women, which is a part of “Aspire to Lead: The PwC women’s Leadership Series.” MEETING FEMALE LEADERS At the PwC Houston offices, we watched a…
Read MoreGermany and Greece Need to Learn How to Tango Together
By Dr. Pierre Canac—Prior to the 2007-2008 financial crisis, cross-countries financial flows triggered global imbalances whereby some countries experienced large current account surpluses (and capital outflows) while others faced large current account deficits (and capital inflows). Current Account and Capital Flows A country with a large current account deficit by definition has a large excess…
Read MoreThinking Inside the Box
By Dr. Mark Turner—-When you think of the stereotypical accountant, does the word creativity come to mind? Are accountants as a group more or less creative than non-accountants? Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg, authors of Inside the Box, A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results argue “creativity is a skill that can be learned…
Read MoreNegative Interest Rates: Unusual and a Difficult Phenomenon to Explain
With respect to interest rates, we live in a very interesting and indeed historical time. In some European countries, nominal interest rates are negative (while they are close to zero in the United States). A short while back this was thought to be impossible. Until it actually happened, it would have been difficult to imagine…
Read MoreFallacy of Composition in Economics
By Dr. Hassan Shirvani —-The fallacy of composition refers to the logically untenable position that what is true for a member of a group must necessarily also be true for the group as a whole. Perhaps a good example of this fallacy is the assertion that since an individual in a crowded room can obtain…
Read MoreA Real World Marketing Experience at UST
By Janelle Escayg — From the first day of Marketing Management class, we knew it would be challenging after Dr. Zhang told us of all the class requirements. The biggest challenge, yet the most exciting part of the class, was when we were told that for one of the assignments we had to create a…
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