Posts

Showing posts from October, 2012

On Campus: Midterms and Beyond

Image
USC-Marshall (above) announces a new "MBV" program Across the country at top business schools, MBA students keep a watchful eye on all that's necessary to secure summer internships and full-time jobs.  It requires hard, steadfast work these days to secure work. But through it all, they keep an eye on yet another ball--midterms now, final exams later. It's a task of terror to attempt to pile on 6-8 weeks of intermediate corporate finance into a few days. On campus these days, including at the Consortium 17 , students scramble to find jobs for 2013, ponder the presidential election in the days to come, rush off to case-group meetings, and bury themselves in cubicles to study for an exam in advanced accounting. The pulse is steady, even as many try not to worry too much about what will or won't happen by next summer. Choices and Challenges In between normal academic chores, Dartmouth (Tuck) MBA students found an interesting guest on campus two weeks ago, as part of

Why Was Citi's CEO Asked to Resign?

Citigroup caught everybody off guard this week, when its board announced it had asked for the sudden resignation of CEO Vikram Pandit. Or did it catch anybody off guard? Was this a gesture  investors pushed for? Was it the right move for the big global financial institution that seemed to have leaped a hurdle to move beyond the darkest days of the financial crisis--back when there were moments when many thought its survival was in jeopardy? Over the past few years, Pandit and team took appropriate, bold steps to make the behemoth profitable again. They sold assets en masse . They shuffled bad, non-performing, defaulted, bankrupt, and/or foreclosed assets into a special holding company and, little by little, sold off these positions, properties, securities and full operations.  By doing so, it rid itself of spoiled segments and began to polish ongoing core operations.  They downsized in every way possible--in just about every unit, operation, division, and geography. They finally sold i

Is the Eurozone Crisis Bottoming?

In ECB President Mario Draghi's words: "The worst is over for the EU crisis, but risks remain!". He was refering to the low inflation registered in the EU region. As long as the inflation is kept below 3%, the ECB is happy at keeping the benchmark refinancing rate and the deposit rate unchanged at 0.75% and 0% respectively, and the ultra low interest rate will spur economic growth in the EU. However, not many economists share the same view with Draghi.  A London professor of economics, Costas Lapavitsas said: "This misleading impression has been created by Mario Draghi of the ECB, who announced that he will lend freely to countries in trouble, driving interest rates down. There has been virulent opposition, led by the Bundesbank. For conservative German opinion, Draghi is the devil of Goethe's Faust, luring Angela Merkel into a deadly pact of inflation. Also for ECB lending to materialise, a country must accept tough austerity conditions. Which European politicia

Financial Wisdom in Medical Insurance

Image
In this day and age, some prudent reluctance when it comes to spending is only to be expected from most people, especially if they have a family to care for. But no matter how much people might like to keep money in their savings account, the issue of possible medical expenses should not be ignored either. Someday, someone will get sick or injured which could drain you of all your savings. As such, paying for something like Medical Insurance would be a far better deal than having to shoulder all the burden of medical expenses later on. So what is Medical Insurance? When put in a broad perspective, Medical Insurance is simply the means by which you can protect yourself and your family from any financial trouble that would arise due to expenses incurred by medical issues. How the policy would accomplish this depends on the scenario, but having medical coverage will certainly help in a lot of ways which we will get into further along.Suffice it to say, Medical Insurance is incredibly im

Are MBAs turned off to Investment Banking?

In the past two weeks, national media outlets hopped on a storyline, proclaiming that MBA students and graduates in finance have reached a boiling point of discouragement in investment banking and other activities in financial services.  The Financial Times and CNBC reported last week that MBAs at top schools are somewhat turned off to investment banking as a long-term career, at least based on hiring patterns the past few years. Yahoo reported similar trends last week. The Financial Times reported the dimming in popularity of banking and finance in Wharton's recent MBA classes.  In the past three years, the percentage of graduates entering banking has declined from 25% in 2008 to 16% in 2011.  At Harvard, MBAs choosing banking declined from 10% of its class to 7%. Are MBAs turned off? Or are they scared off? Are they turning away, or are they looking more closely at alternatives--like consulting and entrepreneurship?  Is there a campus backlash toward the industry? Or has the in