September 25, 2008
Bell Hall (5th floor, Belfer Building)
12:00-1:30 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
The Warping of Government Work
Government has become a refuge, and a relic, of America’s crumbling middle-class economy. As the public and private worlds of work have veered in different directions, the gaps between them are warping government work in unintended ways.
Three decades of economic turbulence have rendered American workplaces more demanding and less secure, more rewarding for high-end workers and punishing for workers without advanced skills. This workplace revolution, however, has largely bypassed government. Public employees—representing roughly one-sixth of the total workforce—still work under the conditions of dampened risk and constrained opportunity that marked most of the economy during the middle-class boom following World War II.
The divergent paths of public and private employment have intensified a long-standing pattern: elite workers spurn public jobs, while less skilled workers cling to government work as a refuge from a harsh private economy. The first trend creates a chronic talent deficit in the public sector. The second trend makes the government workplace rigid and resistant to change. And both contribute to shortfalls in public-sector performance.
The Warping of Government Work documents government’s isolation from the rest of the American economy and arrays the stark choices we confront for narrowing, or accommodating, the divide between public and private work.
John D. Donahue
Raymond Vernon Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Director of the Weil Program on Collaborative Governance, M-RCBG
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September 29, 2008
Global Power From the Wind - POSTPONED: This talk will be rescheduled later in the year
The talk will examine the rapid rise of the wind industry and the government policies in six countries—Denmark, Germany, Spain, India, China, and the United States—that have fostered a pro-wind environment.
Richard Vietor
Professor Vietor is the Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management
at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and Senior Associate
for the Asian Initiative
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October 2, 2008
Bell Hall (5th floor, Belfer Building)
12:00-1:30 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
Funding Public Pensions: Who's Afraid of Private Equity, Hedge Funds, Real Estate and Infrastructure?
Public pension funds are the last bastions of the defined benefit plan concept in which benefits are guaranteed for life. The investment risk of the funds backing up those guarantees rests with state and local governments. Corporate plans have largely shifted that investment risk to pensioners by converting to 401(k)-type defined contribution plans. When the return on public pension funds falls short, the difference must be made up through higher taxation or government debt. Either way, the taxpayer bears the burden of underperforming investments. This presents an unsavory dilemma: We must ask public agencies to make riskier investments or ask taxpayers to shoulder the tax burden of shortfalls from more conservative ones. What’s a public pension fund manager to do?
Timothy Cahill
Massachusetts State Treasurer
Jeffrey Furber
CEO, AEW Capital Management
Josh Lerner
Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School
Brant Maller
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
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October 2, 2008
HKS Forum (Littauer Building)
6:00-7:30 pm
The Financial Crisis: How Did We Get Here and What's Next?
Click here to watch a recording of the event in the IOP archives. Click here for a write-up which appeared in the Harvard Crimson.
Fearturing Roger Porter, Jeffrey Frankel, Robert Glauber, Edward Glaeser & Diana Henriques
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October 16, 2008
Allison Dining Room (5th floor, Taubman Building)
12:00-1:30 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
The Price of Power: Energy Firms and the Russian Renaissance
During the 1990s, the Russian state collapsed, taking its economy, international status, geopolitical power, and national dignity with it. In 2000, however, a new president, Vladimir Putin sought to rebuild the autonomy and capacity of the Russian state and thereby restore Russia’s status and power. In part this was accomplished by a reassertion of state power in the energy sector, including a recasting of the government’s relationship with both domestic and foreign energy firms. Most important among these decisions was the cultivation of several national champions, including Gazprom. This seminar will examine how politics have shaped the economics of the natural gas trade in the former Soviet Union and Europe, emerging with greatest intensity in Russian-Ukrainian relations.
Rawi Abdelal
Professor at Harvard Business School in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit
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October 21, 2008
Bell Hall (5th floor, Belfer Building)
12:00-1:30 pm, Bag lunch - drinks & dessert provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
The Financial Crisis - MBS, ABS, CDO, SPV, CDS, ARM, BBB+:
Understanding the Alphabet Soup of Securitization
The financial crisis has been blamed on an array of causes from easy credit, to bank deregulation to housing policies to greed. One additional cause on the list of many experts is securitization. Since the term was coined in 1977, this financing vehicle has been poorly understood. A seemingly endless list of opaque acronyms such as CDO (collateralized debt obligation) and CDF (credit default swap) has not increased the transparency of the securitization concept. Please join MR-CBG Senior fellow Mark Fagan and BU law professor Tamar Frankel as they explain securitization in laymen’s terms and offer their views on the good, the bad and the future of securitization.
Presentation Available Here
Mark Fagan
Senior Fellow, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government
Tamar Frankel
Michaels Faculty Research Scholar, Professor of Law, Boston Univsersity School of Law
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October 23, 2008
Allison Dining Room (5th floor, Belfer Building)
12:00-1:30 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
Beyond Good Company: Next Generation Corporate Citizenship
Most would agree that business creates or exacerbates many of the world’s biggest problems. Can business also solve them? This is the defining question of an era when corporations have become the dominant global institution and problems such as climate change, a growing rich-poor gap, an obesity pandemic, and disillusionment with rapacious profit-taking cry out for a new way of doing business. Frankly, the majority of companies are ducking this call for action. Even the “good companies” are only nibbling at the margins through the tools of philanthropy, stakeholder consultation, and community involvement. But a vanguard is beginning to apply managerial know-how, marketing savvy, and commercial acumen to problems that have been heretofore pigeon-holed under the labels of corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability. The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship has been studying and working with these firms for decades. Neither critics of nor cheerleaders for business, Googins, Mirvis and Rochlin have amassed a database of evidence––including personal, in-depth interviews with the CEOs of global businesses, hands-on case studies of what’s behind these efforts and what they can and cannot deliver, plus multiyear surveys of business practices––to present a clear-eyed and compelling case that an increasing number of companies and their values-driven leaders are redefining the business-of-business today. Authors Googins and Mirvis discuss their book, Beyond Good Company: Next Generation Corporate Citizenship. The book takes a practice-oriented look at corporate citizenship, and uses real, behind the scenes examples from well-known companies to show that, for many firms, social responsibility is becoming more integrated into corporate strategy.
Bradley K. Googins
Executive Director of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and a professor in the Department of Organizational Studies at Boston College's Wallace E. Carroll School of Management
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October 30, 2008
Allison Dining Room (5th floor, Taubman Building)
1:15-2:30 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
A Plan for Addressing the Financial Crisis
A better alternative to the recently-passed $700 billion bailout will be discussed.
The alternative would greatly reduce the cost to taxpayers while doing much better in terms of restoring stability to the financial markets. The proposed redesign is based on four interrelated elements: (1) No overpaying for troubled assets; (2) addressing undercapitalization problems directly by purchasing, at fair market value, new securities issued by financial institutions in need of additional capital; (3) market-based discipline, established by creating a multi-buyer competitive process with appropriate incentives; and (4) inducing infusion of private capital by requiring financial firms to raise capital through right offerings to their existing shareholders. These elements would provide a far better way to use taxpayers’ funds to address the financial crisis.
Lucian Bebchuck
William J. Friedman and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor of Law, Economics, and Finance and Director of the Program on Corporate Governance at Harvard Law School
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October 30, 2008
Co-Sponsored by M-RCBG
Nye A (5th floor, Taubman Building)
4:30-6:00 pm
Financial Crisis 101 - A Student Panel
Four Kennedy School students, each with professional experience in the financial sector, will discuss some of the driving forces behind the current financial crisis and offer their thoughts on what lies ahead.
- Alessandro Carinelli, UBS & McKinsey (MPA/MBA)
- Adam Chepenik, JP Morgan (MPA/MBA)
- Christine Corkery, State Street Corporation (MPA)
- Adam Heilemann, State Street Corporation (MPA)
- Moderated by Professor Roger Porter
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Bell Hall 12:00pm -1:30PM
A Million Home Foreclosures: How could it Happen? What Should be Done?
A tragic aspect of the financial crisis is that more than one million
homeowners will face foreclosure in 2008. A larger number of foreclosures
are projected for 2009. How did this happen? Who is to blame and more
importantly what can be done to prevent such a crisis in the future? Join
MR-CBG Senior Fellow Mark Fagan in a case study discussion of the epidemic
of foreclosures and the public policy actions that would prevent a repeat
of this problem in the future. A synopsis of the case will be provided at
the session; the case study is available here.
Mark Fagan
Senior Fellow, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government
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Bell Hall (5th floor, Belfer Building)
12:00-1:30 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
An Overview of the SEC’s Examination Program and its Priorities for Fiscal Year 2009
For the securities markets, 2008 has been momentous and the coming year suggests more of the same. Particular attention will be paid to the SEC’s examination program, current SEC initiatives, and some of the major challenges that are likely to result in SEC regulatory initiatives in the year ahead. In addition, amidst the current unprecedented upheavals, the regulatory pendulum is increasingly generating calls to reorganize the regulatory structure and increase regulation in the United States. Some thoughts on the role of the SEC and purpose of regulation of the securities markets will be discussed.
Joseph Hirsch is a Branch Chief at the New York Regional Office of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission where he is responsible for planning, supervising, coordinating, and administering the work performed by examiners as well as providing assistance to enforcement attorneys in the preparation of materials for litigation and testimony. Joseph is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Financial Planning at Columbia University, an Adjunct Lecturer in Finance at Baruch College, and is a member of the Leadership Council at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. Joseph has a Master’s in Economics and Education from Columbia University, a Master’s in Finance from New York University, and a Bachelor’s in Economics from Brooklyn College. Joseph has received several awards from the Securities and Exchange Commission and he received the Sterling D. Spero Prize from New York University for his thesis analyzing regulatory compliance in the United States securities markets.
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Bell Hall (5th floor, Belfer Building)
12:00-1:30 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
The Character of Harms: Operational Challenges in Control
How should we deal with societal ills such as crime, poverty, pollution, terrorism, and corruption? Control or mitigation of these and other "bad" things involves distinctive patterns of thought and action which turn out to be broadly applicable across a range of human endeavors. An explicit focus on the bads, rather than on the countervailing goods (safety, prosperity, environmental stewardship, etc.) can provide rich opportunities for surgically efficient and effective interventions for tackling the complex problems facing society. For more on Malcolm Sparrow’s new book on the subject, The Character of Harms, click here.
Professor of the Practice of Public Management, Harvard Kennedy School
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Bell Hall (5th floor, Belfer Building)
12:00-1:30 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: What on Earth Happened?
This seminar will explore the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among the largest financial failures ever.
How did Fannie and Freddy go wrong?
What was the role of lobbying?
What should we do now?
Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Advisory Director of Goldman Sachs & Co.
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Bell Hall (5th floor, Belfer Building)
1:15-2:30 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
Hot Cars and the Bailout of the Auto Industry -
Good Idea or Bad?
Congressional committees showed little sympathy for a proposed automobile industry bailout, but the issue is likely to emerge again in the early days of the Obama administration. What benefits would aid to the auto industry bring? What would be the costs? Has the industry's performance been such as not to warrant federal aid? If aid is to be provided, how should it be structured, and what conditions should be attached?
F.M. Scherer
Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management in the Aetna Chair, Kennedy School, Emeritu
John E Kwoka, Jr.
Neal F. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Economics at
Northeastern University
Roger Porter
IBM Professor of Business and Government, &
Director, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government
John Donahue
Raymond Vernon Lecturer in Public Policy and
Director of the Weil Program on Collaborative Governance
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Bell Hall (5th floor, Belfer Building)
11:45-1:00 pm, Lunch provided: RSVP to mrcbg@ksg.harvard.edu
Macro Oversight of Micro Banking: Regulation and Supervision of Microfinance
Much of the recent attention to financial regulation has focused on the formal financial sector. However, these institutions serve only the top of the economic pyramid. Family businesses and low-income households often do not have access to formal credit, savings, and payment services, and instead must depend on non-conventional financial institutions. What are the challenges and alternative models for regulating institutions serving the financially excluded? How can the interests of the informal economy best be protected without jeopardizing the soundness of a nation's formal financial sector?
Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
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