Message-ID: <2245747.1075852694450.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:01:27 -0700 (PDT) From: knowledge@wharton.upenn.edu To: jarnold@enron.com Subject: K@W Newsletter October 10-23, 2001: What's Hot: In Bush's Economic Stimulus Package, Timing is Key Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: knowledge@wharton.upenn.edu@ENRON X-To: jarnold@enron.com X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \JARNOLD (Non-Privileged)\Arnold, John\Deleted Items X-Origin: Arnold-J X-FileName: JARNOLD (Non-Privileged).pst Knowledge@Wharton Newsletterhttp://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu October 10-23, 2001 What's Hot In Bush's Economic Stimulus Package, Timing Is Key As the U.S. economy continues to feel the aftershocks of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the focus now is on how to turn around the ensuing recession. The effect of President Bush's recently proposed economic stimulus package is difficult to gauge given that consumer and corporate spending remain so unpredictable. Experts agree, however, that the timing of the stimulus will have a major impact on its success or failure.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/whatshot.cfm Finance and Investment Japan's Economic Outlook Remains Gloomy But Opportunities Exist for Investors Japan's stock market - and its economy - have been in a dismal state since the beginning of the 1990s. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington made matters worse, pushing the country into what analysts say is Japan's fourth recession in a decade. But Wharton faculty and outside market analysts add that some sectors of the Japanese economy should be attractive for long-term investors.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articles.cfm?catid=1&articleid=445 Strategic Management What Webvan Could Have Learned from Tesco Webvan, the ambitious online grocer, once bragged that it would set a new standard for Internet retailing. As most people now know, for all its hubris the company has turned out to be one of the dot-com economy's most spectacular failures. After burning its way through $1.2 billion in capital, it declared bankruptcy in July. But does Webvan's collapse mean that shoppers dislike buying groceries online? For a part of the answer, look across the Atlantic to a Britain-based supermarket chain called Tesco. Its online arm, Tesco.com, will probably have revenues of $420 million this year.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articles.cfm?catid=7&articleid=448 Finance and Investment Is Behavioral Finance a Growth Industry? Can psychology really help us understand financial markets? Yes, say many academics. The subdiscipline of behavioral finance - which argues that investors are not as rational as traditional theory assumes and that their biases can affect asset prices - has gained ground over the past five years. Although behavioral finance attracts powerful criticism - and at times is clearly been oversold -- it seems to be growing up. Experts at Wharton and other business schools provide some perspectives.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articles.cfm?catid=1&articleid=444 Health Economics Prescription Drug Coverage for Seniors Faces Uncertain Future Less than a year ago, in the heat of the presidential campaign, it seemed almost certain that Medicare would undergo a major transformation that would provide prescription drug coverage to the program's 40 million seniors. But that was before an economic slowdown and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now there are new, more urgent priorities and it's unclear just when the debate over drug coverage will again get underway.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articles.cfm?catid=6&articleid=442 Public Policy and Management Are Government Bailouts Bad Business? Even the most cold-hearted free-marketer would concede the airlines got a tough break in the two-day grounding after the terrorist attacks. No manager could have been expected to anticipate events on the scale of Sept. 11, or to set aside enough money to cover the revenue shortfalls that followed. So a government bailout is a reasonable response, right? Not necessarily, say those who have studied past examples of government bailouts.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articles.cfm?catid=9&articleid=446 Finance and Investment The Man Who Made Wall Street Finally Gets Credit When a book is entitled The Man Who Made Wall Street, you just don''t expect the sub-title to read: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance. Yet according to author Dan Rottenberg, the much more famous J. Pierpont Morgan never made a move without consulting Drexel, a Philadelphia banker who was as publicity-shy as he was shrewd. The way Rottenberg sees it, there''s no limit to how much you can accomplish, if you don''t care who gets the credit.http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articles.cfm?catid=1&articleid=441 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Links from Knowledge@Wharton Sponsors GE Capital: Sales-Leasebacks: Benefits and Challenges Today CFOs must negotiate their way through a weakened economy. But even as they search for new ways to generate revenue and conserve capital, CFOs from a variety of industries are discovering the value of one strategy -- sale-leasebacks -- that for many years was primarily focused on real estate transactions. Sale-leasebacks are generally structured to unlock the equity a business has in its assets (like machinery and equipment), converting that equity into cash.http://www.gecfo.com/resources/wharton.html?n=Wharton&c=September&t=email GE Capital: Maximizing Your Trucking Fleet in Tough Times Tough times have hit the trucking industry as shippers evaluate the best way to move goods around the country: Lease or buy? For-hire truckers or private fleet? The queries arise as a glut of used trucks comes on the market and some shippers evaluate how long they can stretch existing leases. Learn how to maximize your trucking fleet in tough times from the experts at Wharton and GE Capital.http://www.getrucking.com/resources/wharton.html?c=Wharton&n=Sept&t=email ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Spread Knowledge Do you know people who might be interested in these research studies and more? If you do, please forward this e-mail message to them. 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