IPad Prominent At MBA Programs

November 30, 2010
Website link: http://www.citytowninfo.com/career-and-education-news/articles/ipad-prominent-at-mba-programs-10113003

As the fervor for the Apple iPad continues to grow among consumers worldwide, the trendy digital device is beginning to make an impact at university MBA programs.

Although many criticize the presence of the iPad in business classrooms as distracting and costly, professors and students alike are increasingly praising the Apple product for its versatility and compactness.

Like several other universities that have tested the iPad, Boston University's School of Management is planning on providing iPads to all its students in its Executive MBA Program beginning in January, having successfully launched the tool this fall, according to U.S. News & World Report.

"Ultimately, we'll be at a point when everyone is going to walk into a classroom with some type of tablet device," said Janice Dolnick, director of BU's Executive MBA Program. "So, we think there's a lot to be learned still in terms of how these can be used."

University officials are looking to integrate the iPad into their MBA curriculums as a way of condensing the immense amount of materials a typical business student must juggle into one portable, hand-held device, Business Week reported.

"Its portability makes the iPad ideal for working professional," said Jane Mutchler, associate dean for academic planning and programs at Georgia State University's Robinson College of Business. "In addition to having texts already loaded, it can be used to keep track of assignments, future tests, study dates and social events, and it has the same type of calendar and email platform that is on the iPhone."

As a trial at the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, university officials gave each student an iPad, loaded with presentations, case studies, articles and program information, according to Top MBA. The implementation of the iPad during the program not only fostered a collaborative academic environment for its faculty and students but also substantially reduced the school's paper consumption, suggesting there are environmental benefits to the device.

"Business schools use a lot of paper, so much so that on some programs the cost of the paper is more than the cost of the iPad, so there are clear savings," said Dr. Ian Cooke, IMD's chief technical officer. "However, if it's linked into lectures, as in [IMD's trial] then it becomes more than just a paper replacement."

According to Cooke, the tablet computer's capability to hold masses of information larger than a library as well as update that information in real-time as a lecturer speaks makes it highly useful and unique.
Some students, however, are opposed to using the iPad in the classroom, stating that needing an Internet connection to access materials on the device is impractical.

"During class, I need something quick, and professors talk fast," said Desales University MBA student Vincent Hesener. "[So] unless I whip out a dock with a keyboard, the iPad is difficult to [type] on."

In addition, professors expressed dissatisfaction with the iPad's potential to distract students in class.

"There's a meaningful proportion of b-school professors who don't allow laptops or iPads into the classroom," said Tyler Steben, vice president of custom publishing at XanEdu, a publisher of textbooks and other course materials. "They're afraid students will be playing [games] or using Facebook instead of listening to the case discussion."

Compiled by CityTownInfo.com Staff
Sources:
"M.B.A. Programs Are Biting Apple's iPad," U.S. News & World Report, November 24, 2010, Brian Burnsed
"Apple iPad Enters the MBA Classroom," Business Week, November 19, 2010, Alison Damast
"The MBA and the iPad," Top MBA, February 9, 2010, Richard Burns

Options Offer Clues to Earnings and Beyond---THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Trading Points to a Calm Reporting Season but Curmudgeonly Holidays; Not a Quarter 'To Be Sitting on Your Hands'

By BRENDAN CONWAY OCTOBER 1, 2010

The options market has a few signals for investors as the fourth quarter gets under way. Chief among them: Don't worry too much about corporate earnings, but keep your eye on the holiday season and thereafter.

By watching options prices, investors can glean bits of information about stock-market volatility and individual stocks' outlook. One important signal comes from the so-called fear gauge, the CBOE Market Volatility Index. The measure, also called the VIX, tracks prices investors are willing to pay for Standard & Poor's 500-share index options, commonly used to guard against drops in stocks.

The VIX has been at relatively muted levels in recent weeks, showing that investors are confident as they look to October. How much of this reflects a bullish stock market's afterglow is up for debate, but investors are kicking off the new quarter with little trepidation.

"Heading into earnings, the demand for protection has fallen for most sectors," Credit Suisse equity derivatives strategist Terry Wilson said, noting that investors aren't rushing for a shield the way they were at midyear.

To be sure, investors feel better about some sectors than others. One way of judging is to compare bullish calls and bearish puts for differences in "implied volatility," which is the market's best guess whether a stock will stage big swings.

A few months out, this approach shows that investors are quite bullish about basic-materials stocks, according to a Credit Suisse analysis of options on several SPDR exchange-traded funds. That won't come as much of a surprise to investors watching the current enthusiasm for commodities, especially gold, silver and copper.

Neither will it surprise that investors seem quite guarded on health-care stocks, which continue to be plagued with political and regulatory uncertainty.

The mood in consumer-discretionary stocks, however, suggests an upbeat view through earnings season followed by the onset of worry right around the holiday season.

Investors have been heartened with strong earnings reports from the likes of athletic-apparel titan Nike Inc. and home-goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Their outlook for earnings season is calm judging by their low appetite for protection.

But, looking further out, three-month protective options on the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund currently show the most bearish options "skew" among 10 major sector funds.

That negative judgment on the health of the U.S. consumer contrasts with the handful of recent bullish signals from holiday-season bellwethers. Toys "R" Us said this week that it will hire more workers for this year's seasonal rush. Earlier came news that discount airlines are pricing some markets significantly higher ahead of what they see as robust demand over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Three months out, the only sector to show notably bullish sentiment is financial stocks. But this may simply reflect those shares' relative underperformance in the current stock-market rally.

The picture darkens across the market as investors look to January. Among the gauges that strategists watch are futures on the VIX, which can give a window into sophisticated investors' expectations a few months out. The January VIX future contract trades close to 31, well above the index's current level around 24. The wide spread is a sign that investors aren't fully buying into the current rally.

For several weeks, MKM Partners derivatives strategist Jim Strugger has been predicting a stronger market until investors grow too complacent late in the year. He expects more weeks of good news for stocks, with the VIX moving to the very calm 15 to 18 range before any trouble.

In the meantime, quiet in the options market provides earnings-season opportunities. Optimistic investors can use relatively inexpensive bullish options ahead of reports they think will surprise positively. Bears can snap up protection on the cheap.

Goldman Sachs derivatives strategists John Marshall and Maria Grant told clients this week that both Google Inc. and Apple Inc. options seem inexpensive a few weeks ahead of their earnings reports.

In the case of Google, the Internet search titan's options show that even investors who are agnostic on the company's earnings have a shot at profits.

Here is how a Google strategy works in an options "straddle": In this move, investors aim to profit from volatile moves in a stock. They buy a protective put and a bullish call at the same "strike" price, setting up for the stock to move in either direction.

Over the past eight quarters, Google's stock has moved a median 5.6%, the Goldman strategists found.

At Thursday's prices, the straddle cost 5.4% of Google's share price. Thus, investors willing to bet on an average-or-higher swing on earnings don't even need to make a judgment whether tougher times are ahead.

"This is not a quarter where you want to be sitting on your hands and hoping for the best," MKM Partners' Mr. Strugger said. "Implied volatility is at a low enough place to look at any number of strategies."

Write to Brendan Conway at brendan.conway@dowjones.com

Top Adviser to Lead Panel on Economy

By JACKIE CALMES


Published: September 9, 2010

Web site http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/business/10adviser.html?ref=todayspaper

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday will promote a longtime economic adviser, Austan D. Goolsbee, to chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, signaling continuity even as a high unemployment rate has left much of the public dissatisfied with administration policies.

Mr. Obama’s decision to elevate Mr. Goolsbee, a left-of-center economist, to succeed Christina D. Romer, who returned this month to the University of California, Berkeley, is part of a broader flux within the White House economic team, as architects of the government’s response to the worst recession in 80 years begin moving up and out and their roles shift.

Mr. Goolsbee has been serving as a member of the three-person advisory panel since the beginning of the Obama administration.

No other major changes are expected, officials say, reflecting a theme the president sounded on Wednesday in an economic address near Cleveland, that the country should “keep moving forward with policies that are slowly pulling us out.”

Republican leaders in Congress, and a few endangered Democrats seeking to distance themselves from the White House before the midterm elections, have called for Mr. Obama to fire his top advisers, including the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner. But Mr. Geithner, who did not know Mr. Obama previously, has become one of the president’s most trusted advisers, credited with successfully managing the financial bailout and recovering most of the taxpayers’ money. He is expected to remain for some time.

Asked on PBS’s “NewsHour” this week about the calls for him to be fired, Mr. Geithner quipped, “It’s an old idea. A lot of people have had it, and my wife had it first, I think.” He added, “I’m going to do this as long as the president asks me to do it.”

Similarly, Lawrence H. Summers, the director of the White House National Economic Council, is not expected to leave soon, officials say, despite his history of run-ins with other advisers, and Mr. Obama’s occasional impatience with the policy vetting process that Mr. Summers oversees.

Mr. Obama and the other advisers nonetheless value Mr. Summers’s contributions as a renowned economist and former secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration, these officials say.

Yet the other two principals in Mr. Obama’s economic inner circle — Ms. Romer and Peter R. Orszag, his budget director — left in recent weeks, largely for personal reasons, giving Mr. Obama the opening to remake his team. But for both vacancies, Mr. Obama has now picked people from within his administration.

To succeed Mr. Orszag, who left in July, the president nominated Jack Lew, who has been a deputy secretary of state and was a budget director in the Clinton administration. Mr. Lew is not on the job yet but is awaiting confirmation by the Senate.

Because Mr. Goolsbee has been confirmed by the Senate as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, he does not need approval to become the chairman — not a small consideration at the White House, given how often the president’s nominees become bogged down in partisans skirmishes.

Another factor initially worked against Mr. Goolsbee’s elevation — his sex — and that also played a part in his being passed over for the chairman post at the start of the administration. Ms. Romer was the only woman among Mr. Obama’s top economic advisers, and administration officials considered whether to name a woman to replace her.

Also, at 41, Mr. Goolsbee would be the youngest chairman since Arthur M. Okun held the job from 1968 to 1969 under President Lyndon B. Johnson. (Mr. Okun is known for Okun’s Law, which describes the relationship between changes in employment and changes in output.)

But Mr. Goolsbee, an amateur comic as well as an economist, was a favorite within the White House, where many colleagues felt he had earned the chairmanship. He has tense relations with Mr. Summers, however, after policy disputes in the early crisis-driven debates over the rescues of the financial industry and Chrysler, among other issues.

Mr. Goolsbee, who has a free-market bent, opposed bailing out Chrysler. He did not prevail, but Mr. Obama personally sought his arguments.

The Council of Economic Advisers traditionally provides analysis of the economy and of the potential economic impact of proposed policies. But because the office is largely divorced from politics and located in a building separate from the White House, many past chairmen have had limited influence. Ms. Romer, however, was routinely included in the West Wing deliberations of the last 20 months, and Mr. Goolsbee is likely to be as well.

And unlike Ms. Romer or most past chairmen, Mr. Goolsbee has a previous, friendly relationship with the president. Mr. Goolsbee was an economics professor at the University of Chicago when Mr. Obama taught at its law school. He provided economic advice when Mr. Obama ran for the Senate and for president.

Mr. Goolsbee was at the center of a controversy during the Democratic race for the presidential nomination when it was reported that he had told a Canadian official in Chicago that Mr. Obama’s protectionist campaign talk was “more reflective of political maneuvering than policy” he would support as president. While Mr. Goolsbee denied the account, as an economist he does espouse a free trade philosophy.

Mr. Goolsbee has also been the staff director of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a panel of business, labor and academic officials providing outside perspective. As such he worked closely with Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, and shared with him a preference for tougher regulation of the financial industry than Mr. Geithner and others espoused.