Keeping Up With Faculty

Rodney Paul, Ph.D., had the paper "Sportsbook Behavior in the NCAA Football Betting Market: Tests of the Traditional and Levitt Models of Sportsbook Behavior," accepted for publication in the Journal of Prediction Markets.

SBU Finance Professor Joins Top Economists in calling for Fed Independence

Academic research has shown that Central Bank Independence is important with respect to monetary policy.

Why? Because the politicians have the incentive to keep interest rates too low and money supply too high in order to keep the economy in high gear and thus get re-elected. This type of policy often leads to booms and bust cycles (not unlike what just happened) and inflation.

In light of the changing financial landscape that has come about as a result of our recent financial crisis, many politicians are pushing for a less independent Fed; more specifically a Fed that is more accountable to Congress.

A petition asking for the continued independence was to some of the top economists/financial economists in the country.

The petition (signed by over 350) read as followed:

"Open Letter to Congress and the Executive Branch

Amidst the debate over systemic regulation, the independence of U.S. monetary policy is at risk. We urge Congress and the Executive Branch to reaffirm their support for and defend the independence of the Federal Reserve System as a foundation of U.S. economic stability. There are three specific risks that must be contained.

First, central bank independence has been shown to be essential for controlling inflation. Sooner or later, the Fed will have to scale back its current unprecedented monetary accommodation. When the Federal Reserve judges it time to begin tightening monetary conditions, it must be allowed to do so without interference. Second, lender of last resort decisions should not be politicized.

Finally, calls to alter the structure or personnel selection of the Federal Reserve System easily could backfire by raising inflation expectations and borrowing costs and dimming prospects for recovery. The democratic legitimacy of the Federal Reserve System is well established by its legal mandate and by the existing appointments process. Frequent communication with the public and testimony before Congress ensure Fed accountability.

If the Federal Reserve is given new responsibilities every effort must be made to avoid compromising its ability to manage monetary policy as it sees fit"

The list of signers is here. The list includes (in no order)

Rene Stulz of The Ohio State University
Eugene Fama of The University of Chicago
Harold Demsetz of UCLA
Burton Malkiel of Princeton
Wayne Marr of Alaska-Anchorage (and SSRN fame)
Robert Merton of Harvard
Myron Scholes of Standford
Paul Asquith of MIT
Andrew Lo of MIT
Robert Hansen of Dartmouth
Maureen O'Hara of Cornell
Robert Shiller of Yale
Hal Varian of UC Berkley
Oh and SBU's own, Jim Mahar :) of BonaResponds and FinanceProfessor.com.

Orientation time

It's orientation time already at SBU. Welcome to all of our new students!

And thank you to all of the extra work that the Freshmen advisors are doing.

BonaSIMM: Performance Update

Mark Larry (one of last year's co-general managers) just posted the following on the SIMM blog.

The benchmark by the way which is being used as a comparison is made up of market indexes that are weighted based on investment style (value or growth) as well as size (large, mid-cap, or small cap).

BonaSIMM: Performance Update:

"As of 7/9/09 Year to Date SIMM's E-Trade account has returned 8.18%, while the benchmark has returned 1.02%...Outperforming the benchmark by 7.16%

As for the 2nd quarter 2009 SIMM's E-Trade account returned 16.71%, while the benchmark returned 13.58%...Outperforming the benchmark by 3.13%"

Best Schools for Journalism

Ok, so this is a School of Business Blog, but we do have joint programs with the JMC folks, so a tip of the cap to you on that side of the building :)


Best Schools for Journalism:

"Based on your votes, the top 10 schools doing the best job at preparing students for a career in journalism are (drum roll please):

1. University of Georgia, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications
2. University of California, Berkley Graduate School of Journalism
3. University of Missouri, Missouri School of Journalism
4. Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
5. St. Bonaventure, The Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communication
6. Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism
7. Northwestern University, Medill
8. UNC-Chapel Hill, School of Journalism and Mass Communication
9. Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University
10. The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism"

HT to St. Bonaventure!

BonaResponds Newsletter and Press Coverage

The Summer 2009 BonaResponds newsletter is available here.

You can sign up to work on the July 11th local service day here. (you can also find out how you can help fund BonaResponds every time you buy anything online. (just enter BonaResponds as the charity).

And watch for a story on BonaResponds on YNN out of Buffalo on Friday.

Stevens New Director of MBA Program

John B. Stevens named MBA Program Director as of June 1, 2009. Stevens replaced Brian McAllister.

"An instructor in SBU's School of Business, Stevens is an organizational development, training and human resources professional. He also owns and operates JB Stevens Organizational Solutions. Stevens, of Olean, has over 30 years' experience in positions involving organization development, administration, human resources, communications and public relations. Stevens past experience includes vice president for human resources at The Rehabilitation Center; director of the Achievement Center for Continuous Learning at St. Bonaventure; manager of training and employee development at CUTCO Corporation; training manager for AVX Corporation; and training specialist for Dresser-Rand Corporation. Stevens is a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), recognized by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM); and a Certified Performance Technologist (CPT), recognized by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). He holds a master's degree in business and policy studies from SUNY-Empire State and a bachelor's degree in journalism from St. Bonaventure. He is a past president of the Greater Olean Area Chamber of COmmerce, serves on the Cattaraugus-Allegany County Workforce Investment Board, and is president of the Leadership Cattaraugus program. In addition to St. Bonaventure University, he has taught continuing education or college courses at Cornell University, Jamestown Community College, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, and Penn State University."