Stay ConnectedThe Knowledge at Wharton feed features standout episodes from across the Wharton Podcast Network. Discover timely conversations and expert insights on business, markets, leadership, innovation, and the forces shaping the global economy.
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Copyright: © 2013 The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The United States government spends more than it takes in a practice that is illegal in most state governments and harshly criticized when households and businesses do it. After being the rule rather than the exception for most of the past century why is the country’s deficit spending such a big deal now? Is the U.S. really on the edge of a precipice? Will the deficit-reduction plans under consideration in Washington work? How painful will the remedies be? Wharton faculty and other experts weigh in.
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Nassim Taleb is a literary essayist hedge fund manager derivatives trader and professor of risk engineering at The Polytechnic Institute of New York University. But he is best known these days as the author of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. During a recent visit to Wharton as part of The Goldstone Forum he spoke with Wharton finance professor Richard Herring -- who taught Taleb when he was a Wharton MBA student -- about events in the Middle East the oil supply investing in options the U.S. economy the dollar health care and of course black swans.
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Alberto Vitale was running Bantam Books the world leader in paperbacks when the Newhouse family recruited him to become the COO of Random House. In that role and later as the CEO of one of the world’s top publishing firms Vitale oversaw huge changes in the publishing industry. In this interview with Stephen J. Kobrin publisher and executive director of Wharton Digital Press and Knowledge at Wharton Vitale discusses the rise of digital publishing the future of bookstores and the globalization of copyright among other issues.
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”Dismissed.” A single word from Bangladesh’s highest court ended a bitter legal battle that has grabbed world attention. The loser in this case: Muhammad Yunus the 70-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of Grameen Bank the groundbreaking Bangladeshi microfinance institution he is no longer allowed to run. But as with many of the highs and lows of microfinance there is much more than meets the eye to this boardroom shakeout.
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Valuations are growing aggressively for Facebook Groupon and a handful of other social media darlings. But does that growth signal the coming of another tech bubble? Not necessarily say Wharton faculty and other experts who note that the main issues are the extent to which these valuations are supported by real staying power and whether or not these companies are having an undue influence across the tech landscape.
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The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank played a central role in mounting a response to the financial crisis of 2008. Battling unprecedented disasters the Fed responded with what experts describe as creative even heroic measures. But in the wake of that crisis the Fed faces new challenges including an increasingly critical Congress at a time when the central bank’s responsibilities have expanded in significant ways. Observers question whether the Fed can continue to effectively monitor the financial landscape while also keeping clear of the politicians in Washington.
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Each day workers in the health care field debate the most reliable course of action for treating a particular ailment. As part of U.S. health care reform new emphasis is being placed on comparative effectiveness research (CER) which pits remedies against one another to determine which is best. A new paper by Wharton professor Scott Harrington warns that the government should avoid developing a monopoly on CER and offers suggestions for sparking interest from private sector researchers.
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As the crisis at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant continues to unfold every bit of news that trickles out deepens the debate about nuclear energy. Anti-nuclear activists point to smoldering reactors and radioactive drinking water; others say the fact that the aging plant survived the earthquake and tsunami without greater damage signals its ability to withstand major disruptions. At issue is whether the expansion of nuclear power in the U.S. gets a green red or yellow light.
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By combining the might of Facebook with the narrative element of experiential computer games like Oregon Trail or The Sims social gaming developer Zynga was able to become one of the fastest-growing companies on the Internet. Andrew Trader was a member of Zynga’s founding team in 2007 and until last year served as executive vice president of sales and business development. Now an entrepreneur-in-residence at Maveron a venture capital firm Trader recently talked to Knowledge at Wharton about Zynga’s success and the rise of social gaming.
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While women have indeed come a long way since earning the right to vote in 1920 they still have not achieved wage and income equity compared with their male counterparts notes a government report released this month. The reason according to a series of speakers and panelists at the recent Wharton Women in Business Alumnae Conference 2011 is that women still need to assert themselves more when establishing work relationships seeking sponsors trying to make their presence -- and contributions -- known or negotiating for a raise. As one speaker noted: ”Women don’t ask.”
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