Robinson on the Economy | Faculty/Staff
updated October 6, 2008
Robinson on the Economy
October 6, 2008
WGST-AM - A lot of people were expecting [the bailout to be] a magic bullet to cure the recession, according to Rajeev Dhawan of the Economic Forecasting Center, who added that it will take some time for the impact to be felt. Dhawan explained why the course taken was the lesser of all the evils, the lessons learned from the savings and loan crisis of the 1990s and the fluidity of the situation in Europe.
Listen to the interview.
October 5, 2008
Atlanta Journal Constitution - The turmoil that is rewriting the rules of the banking industry may make it more likely that SunTrust, the only major bank still headquartered in Atlanta, eventually will become a takeover target. Such an acquisition would affect the civic and cultural organizations supported by the financial institution, says Ken Bernhardt of the Department of Marketing. If [SunTrust] were part of a bank based in California, there's no way they give $5 million to the symphony.
Read the article.
October 4, 2008
Outlook India (weekly) - When Sweden faced a banking crisis in 1992, "the Swedish government took equity stakes in banks and then made money off it, Rajeev Dhawan of the Economic Forecasting Center told this national weekly, which is the Indian equivalent of BusinessWeek. By contrast, the slow response of the Japanese government to that country's financial crisis of the 1980s has proved costly. We need [to pass the U.S. bailout legislation] whether we like it or not," Dhawan said. He added that although taxpayers will not see short-term benefits, in the long term they will be able to get loans for homes and cars more easily than they would in the absence of a bailout.
Note: Interview was conducted prior to passage of the bailout bill.
October 4, 2008
Atlanta Journal Constitution - If Citigroup trumps Wells Fargo for the purchase of Wachovia, it could create an opening for other banks in Atlanta to woo customers away. Ken Bernhardt of the Department of Marketing said that a Citigroup takeover could entice Wells Fargo to pursue SunTrust in an effort to become a national bank. Read the article.
October 3, 2008
Atlanta Business Chronicle - Between the credit freeze, the decline in demand in most dining segments, the jump in commodity prices and consumer belt-tightening, David V. Pavesic, the director of graduate studies at the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality, is advising entrepreneurs to hold off on entering the restaurant business. "It's too uncertain to know what to do," he says.
October 2, 2008
NPR - Many suburban Atlanta car dealers are seeing major drops in the purchase of new and used cars. Ken Bernhardt of the Department of Marketing told reporter Kathy Lohr that "consumer confidence is almost as low as it's been since they began recording," adding that "if consumers, either because of their job situation and their earnings or because of the perception of what's going on and their confidence in the economy, cut back on spending, that ripples through the whole economy."
Listen to the remarks.
October 1, 2008
New York Newsday - Although many Americans - most by some polls - find it galling that taxpayers are being asked to bail out greedy or at least careless financiers, most economists argue that there is no realistic alternative to the government stepping in - and that the economic benefits for consumers will justify the staggering cost. "I think at this point the fire is burning and you have to put it out and figure out the collateral damage later," said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at the Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business.
Read the article.
September 30, 2008
Georgia Front Page - The Department of Real Estate is surveying the members of its Honorary Board to take the temperature of the Atlanta market and to determine how its movers and shakers see the future. "As goes real estate, so goes Atlanta," said Julian Diaz III, chair of the department. The survey queries board members about their impressions of Atlanta's economy, stability of commercial and residential markets, the outlook on interest rates, and the impact that each presidential contender could have on the economy.
Read the article.
September 29, 2008
Trading Markets - Opposition on Main Street leads Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center, to believe it is not possible for an agreement on a rescue plan to be reached. "This is dead. If you look at the people's polls, people don't like banks, you know, people don't like them," Dhawan noted, adding that the dislike was evident in the poll numbers.
Read the article.
September 29, 2008
Atlanta Journal Constitution - Although the credit crisis had felled several of the nation's biggest financial services firms, "the [bailout] publicity of the past 10 days has been seen as irrelevant for a lot of people in Atlanta," according to Ken Bernhardt of the Department of Marketing. That changed, however, when an ailing Wachovia Corp. agreed to be snatched up Citigroup - a development that "brings it closer to home."
Read the article.
September 29, 2008
Newnan Times Herald - "Toxic loans are jamming up the banks, and it's difficult to move forward with these toxic loans on the balance sheets," said James Owers of the Department of Finance. The bailout bill is "controversial, and for good reason," Owers said, "but the expectations of its passage are built into the market, and [Congress] needs to move on it to avoid this seizure that's coming along. We need something fundamental to change to avoid this day-by-day crisis."
Read the article.
September 29, 2008
11Alive (WXIA-TV/NBC) - Conrad Ciccotello, director of graduate personal financial planning programs in the Department of Risk Management and Insurance, returned to 11Alive for his second interview of the day, this time to discuss the failure of the bailout bill and the resulting 777 point drop in the Dow. "The negative surprise just dragged the market down," said Ciccotello, who added that "when we have this much fear in the market and there is inactivity by the government, it just seems to feed itself and makes [the market] go down.
Watch the interview.
September 29, 2008
11Alive (WXIA-TV/NBC) — When asked by consumer reporter Bill Liss to explain the $700 billion bailout in layman language, Conrad Ciccotello, director of graduate personal financial planning programs in the Department of Risk Management and Insurance, said to "think of the economy as having a bad flu. The government has injected fluid into the patient, but it will not recover overnight." Ciccotello added that "the bailout -- or 'buy in' as the government is now calling it -- is designed to is inspire confidence in the health of the banking system."
Watch the interview.
September 26, 2008
Atlanta Journal-Constitution — Will AIG sell Atlantic Station to repay its $85 billion loan from the Feds? Alan Ziobrowski of the Department of Real Estate says that "If the money is right, they'll sell off whatever they have to." AIG Global Real Estate, a subsidiary of AIG, is the majority owner of the unfinished mixed-use development.
Read the article.
September 26, 2008
The Wall Street Journal — Ken Lewis, chairman, CEO and president of Bank of America, wrote an op-ed piece on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's proposed financial rescue package, commenting that Congress should pass the legislation as soon as possible. "The most critical point for the public to understand is that the money being proposed--$700 billion--is not going away," Lewis explains. "The American taxpayer could break even on this transaction, or even post a financial gain."
Read the article.
September 26, 2008
Atlanta Business Chronicle — Despite the credit collapse, luxury hotels that have begun construction will continue to move forward, says Debby Cannon of the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality. Those not yet underway may face significant delays due to the financial turmoil. Nonetheless, Cannon remains optimistic about Atlanta's future as a luxury hotel market because the project developers "are such visionaries that they are not looking at 2008 or 2009 but [2010 and 2011] when we expect to see an uptick."
Read the article.
September 15, 2008
TradingMarkets.com — Rajeev Dhawan's expertise was featured in a recent article speculating why the government let Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers go bankrupt after brokering the sale of Bear Stearns earlier in the year. Dhawan explains that Bear was solvent, with solid long-term prospects but illiquid assets; Lehman, however, was insolvent because of its investment in mortgage-backed securities, even though the firm had enough liquidity. "This was a clear case of a private balance sheet being in trouble," Dhawan says.
Read the article.
August 27, 2008
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta — Dennis P. Lockhart, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, spoke at the Economic Outlook Conference held by the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. In an address titled "Inflation Beyond the Headlines," Mr. Lockhart shared his views on the dynamics underlying inflation and the inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy.
read Lockhart's remarks>>
listen to Lockhart's remarks>> 
(duration: 40:02)
August 4, 2008
Wall Street Journal — Despite economic weakness since the end of 2007, worker productivity, or output per hour, is estimated to have grown an average 2.5% at an annual rate. By contrast, in the six U.S. recessions since 1970, worker productivity, or output per hour, grew only 0.8%, on average, a trend that is contrary to typical productivity behavior of going "up in good times and down in bad times," says Georgia State University forecaster Rajeev Dhawan. Brian Blackstone, who filed the story, wrote that, "Unlike in the 1970s, the recent rise in energy prices is unlikely to damp productivity," referencing a paper written for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta by Dhawan and two Atlanta Fed economists in which they presented findings that prior to 1982, higher energy prices negatively affected productivity as measured by total factor productivity. Dhawan and his coauthors wrote that, "This spillover has since disappeared."
back to top>>
Faculty/Staff
October 5, 2008
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - The Business People column included news of Angela Raub's new role as Robinson's director of corporate relations. Earlier in her career, Raub was director of enrollment management and financial aid at Tri-State University (now Trine University) in Angola, Indiana.
October 3, 2008
Atlanta Business Chronicle - In his monthly column, Ken Bernhardt examines the benefits of joining LinkedIn, an online business network that he describes as MySpace for grownups. He writes that LinkedIn is a valuable tool for researching potential clients, prepping for interviews, locating job leads and more.
Read Ken's column.
October 2, 2008
The Hindu Business Line - "Customers have to be managed by the value they bring to the firm" according to V. Kumar of the Center for Excellence in Customer and Brand Management. Kumar, who created the customer lifetime value (CLV) metric used by many Fortune 500 companies, supported his statement with data establishing the link between CLV and above-the-norm growth in stock prices and shareholder value.
Read the article.
September 12, 2008
Atlanta Business Chronicle — The Atlanta Business Chronicle recently ran a piece on the rising demand for management information systems (MIS) majors because of the lack of this specialized knowledge, brought on by the dot-com bust. Many universities are encouraging students to pursue MIS majors, as the career outlook for that industry is bright. "Companies are hiring," says Ephraim McLean, chair of the Computer Information Systems department. "Not only are there a lot of jobs in IT. They're good-paying jobs."
Read the article.
September 9, 2008
The Economic Times — V. Kumar, the Richard and Susan Lenny professor at the Robinson College of Business, recently discussed how companies boost sales by applying his theory of customer lifetime value, emphasizing that loyal customers aren't always profitable. Using his customer lifetime value metric, loyalty programs can be restructured so loyal customers also become profitable. "Loyalty is not correlated with profit, and changing the metrics could make the difference," Kumar explains.
Read the article.
August 8, 2008
Atlanta Journal Constitution — Maria Saporta noted in her column this week that "Dr. V. Kumar, considered one of the nation's top five marketing scholars, is joining GSU's J. Mack Robinson College of Business. He will be the inaugural recipient of the Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair in Marketing. It took 10 years, but Georgia State University's business school landed a big name in the marketing world," added Saporta. She further noted that "Kumar's theories are based on a concept of 'customer lifetime value' - figuring out how companies can market to customers according to their life cycle and building loyalty by trying to make customers more profitable rather than just trying to sell them more products."
Read the article.
back to top>>
