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Hot
Topics – What the experts are saying
MEDIA ALERT:
April 18, 2008
For business, technology and auto industry reporters, editors and producers
Contact:
Carrie Handwerker,
301-405-5833,
chand@rhsmith.umd.edu
PROMINENT EXPERTS TO GIVE INSIGHT INTO THE FUTURE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR
A top investor in electric
vehicle company Project Better
Place, Michael Granoff, and
Associate Professor David Kirsch, a
business historian and expert on the
history of the electric car at the
University of Maryland’s Robert H.
Smith School of Business, will be
available to answer media questions
about the future of the electric car
on April 23. Granoff will meet with
MBA students and Kirsch at the Smith
School to explore the history of the
electric car, which precedes
gas-powered vehicles, and how
lessons from the past can pave the
way toward Project Better Place's
ambitious vision for the future.
Project Better Place recently
partnered with Renault-Nissan to
roll out an electric vehicle system
in Israel and recently closed $200
million in venture investment, the
largest U.S. investment in green
technology in 2007.
Who:
Michael Granoff, top
green technology investor and original
investor and company executive of
Project Better Place, a developer of a
new infrastructure for electric cars
What: Granoff will meet with
Smith Associate Professor David Kirsch
and a small group of MBA students to
disucuss
Project Better Place and the
history of the electric car as a model
for the future. Granoff and Kirsch will
be available for interviews to discuss
Project Better Place and the future and
past of the electric car.
When: Wednesday, April 23
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Where: 1303 Van Munching Hall
Robert H. Smith School of Business
University of Maryland, College Park, Md
20742
Contact: Carrie Handwerker
PR Associate
301-405-5833
chand@rhsmith.umd.edu
MEDIA ALERT:
March 25, 2008
For financial, business and economic reporters, editors and producers
Contact:
Carrie Handwerker,
301-405-5833,
chand@rhsmith.umd.edu
UMD FINANCE PROFESSOR AVAILABLE FOR COMMENT ON ECONOMY
AND FINANCIAL FAILURES
Dr. Albert S. “Pete” Kyle, the
Smith Chair Professor of Finance at
the University of Maryland’s Robert
H. Smith School of Business, is an
expert on financial markets and
closely follows the housing market
and its impact on bond markets. He
also served as a staff member on the
Brady Commission after the stock
market crash of 1987 and has been a
member of NASDAQ’s economic advisory
board. The Smith School has an
in-house ReadyCam broadcast facility
for live or taped interviews via
fiber-optic line for television or
multimedia content.
Kyle can talk about:
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After the Bear Stearns
buyout, the likelihood
of additional failures
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The potential for
trouble at Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac and what
it will take to keep
those organizations
operating
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How the current state of
financial markets
compares to the stock
market crash of 1987
“Until the hole in the
balance sheets gets filled,
I think we’re likely to see
either bank runs or bank
failures and other signs
that investors don’t trust
the financial systems. I
would recommend to the
government that steps be
taken to make the financial
institutions strengthen
their balance sheets by
raising external capital and
also by not paying dividends
in the future – the near
future – they way they’ve
paid dividends in the past.”
— Dr. Albert S. “Pete”
Kyle, phone: 301-405-9684;
e-mail:
akyle@rhsmith.umd.edu
“Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac are looking at a kind of
unprecedented situation with
regard to their book of
mortgages right now. Their
historical losses, which
have averaged only one or
two pennies per hundred
dollars of mortgages per
year – that is, one or two
basis points – might be 10
times higher, might be 20
times higher, because of the
very bad situation in the
housing market. If that is
the case, the balance sheets
of Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac will be put under
pressure and I would predict
that they would need
significant external equity
to be raised and there is a
good chance that the federal
government may in fact wind
up injecting some equity.”
— Dr. Albert S.
“Pete” Kyle, phone:
301-405-9684;
e-mail:
akyle@rhsmith.umd.edu
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Video
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Albert S. “Pete” Kyle, the
Smith Chair Professor of
Finance
Click to watch Kyle
talk about:
●
After the Bear Stearns
buyout, the likelihood
of additional failures
●
The potential for
trouble at Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac and what
it will take to keep
those organizations
operating |
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* The
Smith School has an in-house
ReadyCam broadcast
facility for live or taped
interviews via fiber-optic
line for television or
multimedia content.
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MEDIA ALERT:
February 12, 2008
For business and airlines reporters, editors and producers
Contact:
Carrie Handwerker,
301-405-5833,
chand@rhsmith.umd.edu
UMD EXPERTS TO COMMENT ON AIRLINES MERGER
Experts from the University of
Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of
Business are available for comment
on the potential merger of Delta and
Northwest airlines. The Smith School
has an in-house ReadyCam broadcast
facility for live or taped
interviews via fiber-optic line for
television or multimedia content.
What the experts are saying:
Delta and Northwest have
complementary route maps and are
good candidates for a “positive”
merger.
"Consolidation in the U.S.
airline industry is both inevitable
from a business standpoint and
positive from a consumer standpoint.
The major U.S. carriers have all
been evolving toward national
footprints and national business
models. Having widespread coverage
is important with respect to the
competitiveness of frequent-flier
programs and also with respect to
negotiating relationships with large
corporate clients."
"At some point it
becomes inefficient for the U.S. to
have four, five or six ‘national’
carriers. Without consolidation,
carriers will tend to spread
themselves too thin, which will lead
to inefficiencies and higher costs.
It is certainly true that each
potential merger should be carefully
examined to insure that monopolies
are not left in major geographic
areas. However, in the long run both
passengers and airlines will benefit
from some consolidation in the
industry.”
—
Michael O. Ball
is co-director of NEXTOR, the FAA’s National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research, and Orkand Corporation Professor of Management Science at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. * Ball is on sabbatical this semester at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Phone: 510.643.5635; cell: 240.533.5175; e-mail:
mball@rhsmith.umd.edu.
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Airlines consolidation
will affect customer service
for passengers
“Whenever you
have these airlines mergers
— or any kind of company
merger — its almost always
bad for consumers,
especially in the short run.
… It becomes a real problem
for the consumers – they get
worse service. With fewer
airlines, you have fewer
competitive choices, which
means that prices goes up,
so that’s the biggest
problem with the consumers.”
— Dr.
Roland T. Rust is Distinguished University Professor and David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, where he is chair of the marketing department and executive director of the
Center for Excellence in Service.
Phone: 301.405.4300; e-mail:
rrust@rhsmith.umd.edu |
Video
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Roland T. Rust,
Distinguished University
Professor
Click
to watch Rust talk about:
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The negative effects of
mergers on service
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How mergers lead to higher
prices
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How reduced domestic
competition may encourage
foreign airlines to create
new U.S. airlines |
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* The
Smith School has an in-house
ReadyCam broadcast
facility for live or taped
interviews via fiber-optic
line for television or
multimedia content.
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MEDIA ALERT::
January 16, 2008
For financial, business and economic reporters, editors and producers
Contact:
Carrie Handwerker,
301-405-5833,
chand@rhsmith.umd.edu
UMD FINANCE EXPERTS TO COMMENT ON RECESSION
Finance professors at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business are available for comment on the economic outlook for recession,
including causes and solutions. The Smith School has an in-house
ReadyCam broadcast facility for live or taped interviews via fiber-optic line for television or multimedia content.
Recession looms
“The recession — if and when it occurs — will probably last about a year, but the hangover from the recession will last a lot longer.”
“I think you’ll see housing prices decline year after year for three, four, maybe five years in a row, resulting in a cumulative decline of maybe 15 percent nationally on houses, maybe 30 percent in some of the more over-inflated markets like California and Florida, and that’s before adjusting for inflation. … I think to many people, that will feel like a recession, regardless of what else happens in the economy.”
— Dr. Albert S. “Pete” Kyle, the Smith Chair Professor of Finance, is an expert on financial markets and closely follows the housing market and its impact on bond markets. He also served as a staff member on the Brady Commission after the stock market crash of 1987 and has been a member of NASDAQ’s economic advisory board. Phone: 301-405-9684; e-mail:
akyle@rhsmith.umd.edu
Not All Bad News
“Though the stock market is
reflecting fears that the economy
might be edging toward a recession,
all is not bad news — 30-year fixed
mortgage rates have fallen below 6
percent, wholesale sales have
outstripped increases in
inventories, and job growth
continues. But there is no denying
that recession, not inflation, has
become the Fed’s enemy No. 1. The
White House is preparing a stimulus
package, and the Federal Reserve
will further reduce interest rates
this month and hopefully increase
the amount of its extended credits
designed to increase liquidity in
the credit markets. The White House
also needs to increase the size and
type of mortgages Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac can buy and extend their
legal ability to lend.”
— Dr. John A. “Jack” Haslem, Professor Emeritus of Finance, is an expert on mutual funds, focusing on financial, regulatory and policy issues. Phone: 202-236-3172; e-mail jhaslem@rhsmith.umd.edu.
*For more
information about the studio and to access
a directory of the Smith School’s experts,
please visit
www.rhsmith.umd.edu/news/studio.html.
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