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TORONTO, Nov 25, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — A timely new book examining this year’s financial crisis is the second title to be published by Rotman/UTP Publishing, an Imprint of University of Toronto Press in partnership with the Rotman School of Management.

The Finance Crisis and Rescue: What Went Wrong? Why? What Lessons Can Be Learned? features thought leaders from the Rotman School explaining the financial crisis and rescue from a variety of perspectives.

“Covering everything from credit risk to value investing to leadership, our experts tackle the broken model and proposed rescue and provide insight for moving ahead and shaping the world of finance for the better,” writes Rotman Dean Roger Martin in the foreword to the book. “In the end, the treatment required to cure this unhealthy system may be deceptively simple: to produce more beneficial results for stakeholders and for society at large, firms must lower their expectations of monetary incentives and be more cognizant about setting them within a context that reduces the tendency for extremes of behaviour.”

The eleven chapters included in the book are:

— Derivatives and Risk Management: “The Financial Crisis of 2008:

Another Case of Irrational Exuberance” by John Hull, Maple

Financial Group Chair in Derivatives and Risk Management, Professor of

Finance and Co-Director — Master of Finance Program;

— Value Investing: “Value Investing in the Crisis: How Margins of

Safety Melted Away” by Eric Kirzner, John H. Watson Chair in Value

Investing and Professor of Finance;

— Financial Analysis: “Integrative Thinking (or Lack of) and the

Current Crisis” by Ramy Elitzur, Edward Kernaghan Professor of

Financial Analysis and Associate Professor of Accounting;

— Business Economics: “The Financial Crisis of 2008 and the

“Real Economy”: Damage but Not Disaster” by Peter Dungan,

Adjunct Associate Professor of Business Economics and Director — Policy

and Economic Analysis Program;

— International Business: “Global Lessons from the 2008 Financial

Crisis” by Wendy Dobson, Director — Institute for International

Business and Professor of Business Economics;

— Structured Finance: “Subprime, Market Meltdown and Learning from

the Past” by Laurence Booth, CIT Chair in Structured Finance and

Professor of Finance;

— Pension Management: Looking Across the Abyss: Pension Design and

Management in the Twenty-First Century” by Keith Ambachtsheer,

Director — International Centre for Pension Management and Adjunct

Professor of Finance;

— Behavioural Finance: ‘The Influence of Investor Behaviour” by

Lisa Kramer, Canadian Securities Institute Research Foundation Term

Chair and Associate Professor of Finance;

— Corporate Governance: “Where Were the Directors?” by David

Beatty, Conway Director — Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics and Board

Effectiveness and Professor of Strategic Management;

— Leadership: “Rescuing the Global Financial System: The Failure of

American Leadership” by Jim Fisher, Vice-Dean — Programs, CCMF

Chair in Entrepreneurship and Professor of Strategic Management;

— Public Policy: “Carts and Horses and Horses and Carts: How Public

Policy Led to the Subprime Disaster” by Michael Hlinka (Rotman MBA

‘86), Instructor, University of Toronto School of Continuing

Studies and Business Commentator, CBC TV and CBC Radio.

The book will be available at most major book retailers in Canada and also online at www.utppublishing.com and www.rotman.utoronto.ca/financecrisis for a suggested retail price of CDN $24.95.

As previously announced, the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and the University of Toronto Press have collaborated to create Rotman/UTP Publishing, a new imprint devoted to publishing actionable business information of exceptional quality. The imprint’s first title, Fixing the Future: How Canada’s Usually Fractious Governments Worked Together to Rescue the Canada Pension Plan by Bruce Little, was published in October 2008.

Founded in 1901, the University of Toronto Press is Canada’s oldest scholarly press and one of the largest university presses in North America, releasing over 150 new scholarly, reference, and general-interest books each year, as well as maintaining a backlist of over 1500 titles in print. For more information, visit www.utppublishing.com.

The Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is redesigning business education for the 21st century with a curriculum based on Integrative Thinking. Located in the world’s most diverse city, the Rotman School fosters a new way to think that enables the design of creative business solutions. The School is currently raising $200 million to ensure Canada has the world-class business school it deserves. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

DAVOS, Switzerland — This was supposed to be the year the United States came in from the cold at the annual gathering of world leaders here. But instead of receiving a warm embrace, American policies were rebuked again and again in rhetoric that recalled the anger of the Bush years — mainly aimed at what the world views as the new threat of protectionism by the United States.

Certainly, there is a deep reservoir of good will for President Obama and the change in direction he represents. But despite the pledges to encourage international trade and economic cooperation that accompanied the closing sessions of the gathering, the World Economic Forum, on Sunday, there were clear signs that deep divisions between the United States and the rest of the world remained.

“There is such a level of concern, despair and anxiety that as welcome as the new president is, no one is inclined to cut the U.S. much slack,” said Richard Haas, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Or as Niall Ferguson, the Harvard historian, put it, “If G.M. got a new C.E.O., does that mean people would suddenly want to buy their cars?”

The criticism came from the usual sources, like Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Premier Wen Jiabao of China, who both criticized a long pattern of excessive consumption, risky borrowing and inadequate regulation in the United States.

But more significant, the brickbats also came from economic and political leaders of European allies like Germany and France……………..

Whether the issue was the recent bailout for the American auto industry or proposals favoring American steel producers in the stimulus package now being debated on Capitol Hill, foreign officials warned that any move toward protectionism would have serious consequences for Washington and the rest of the world.

“We must not allow market forces to be completely distorted,” Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, warned in a speech on Wednesday. “For instance, I am very wary of seeing subsidies injected into the U.S. auto industry. That could lead to distortion and protectionism.”

By the weekend, as word of the “Buy American” provision in the stimulus package to help the United States steel industry spread through Davos, the tone had become sharper.

“It’s extremely preoccupying that one of the first acts of the new Obama administration could be a measure that is clearly protectionist and a distortion of competition,” said Anne-Marie Idrac, the French trade minister, who tried to draw Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, into the battle.

Mr. Lamy, however, said the organization would only act if there has been a “breach of the rules.” “I am not that big cop,” he added.

For all the global affection for Mr. Obama, Washington sent a relatively low-profile contingent to Davos, with Valerie Jarrett, a White House adviser, serving as the administration’s headliner here.

Ms. Jarrett did not address the issue of protectionism directly in her brief speech on Thursday, preferring to stick with the big picture as well as Mr. Obama’s connection to Chicago, her hometown.

Instead, the task of defending American economic policy fell to attendees like Representative Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington State, who has served in Congress for the last decade.

“The steel issue is vastly overplayed here,” he said. “Even Adam Smith himself said certain key industries deserved to have protection.”

Noting that his district is home to two steel plants — down from three a few years ago — he added, “Steel is one of those industries.”

He suggested that this was not the time to push free-trade dogma on American taxpayers already worried about surging levels of unemployment.

“If you want to kill the W.T.O., that would be the way to do it,” he said.

Davos has always stood for globalization, and the benefits of free trade are an article of faith here. But even Davos die-hards concede that national economic interests have come to the fore amid the global downturn, and voter support for easing trade barriers is at low ebb.

To be sure, for all the foreign criticism over the help for the Detroit automakers, European countries including France, Britain and Sweden have offered up billions in aid for local auto manufacturers. What’s more, France has long protected the French companies it calls “national champions” from the threat of foreign takeover while providing huge subsidies for its farmers.

But beyond the public sparring, many foreign officials are also concerned about how the United States government will pay for Mr. Obama’s proposed stimulus package, which could ultimately cost $1 trillion.

A binge of new borrowing by Washington could effectively crowd out other borrowers by pushing interest rates higher over the long term, and would be especially painful for developing countries that rely on foreign capital. Or, it could stoke inflation when the global economy eventually begins to recover.

Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico who helped steer his country through a financial crisis in 1994, said developing countries were already having a hard time finding the capital they needed without competing with increased borrowing by the United States. And his country does not have the option of printing money, he said, because the Mexican peso is not a reserve currency like the dollar.

Even the praise for Mr. Obama from other leaders was balanced by criticism of Mr. Bush and past United States policies. “He seems to be very keen to interact with other nations as equals, rather than talking down,” said Kgalema Motlanthe, the president of South Africa. “It is a breath of fresh air.”

But for all the complaining from abroad, no other economic power — not Europe, not Japan and not China — seems ready to step up and fill the role traditionally played by the United States.

“The irony of the situation,” said Mr. Haas, of the Council on Foreign Relations, “is that everyone is still looking to the U.S. for leadership to fix things or at least make things better.”

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The head-turning Samsung Behold is a responsive touch-screen cell phone with a few advanced features and a great camera.

Ginny Mies, PC World

PC World

Saturday, December 13, 2008; 12:19 AM

The 3G Samsung Behold ($150 from T-Mobile), the younger sibling of the Samsung Omnia on the Verizon network, is a slick cell phone with a bevy of advanced multimedia features and a responsive touch screen. However, the Behold lacks Wi-Fi and a standard headphone jack, and its Web browser is a bit counterintuitive.

Slightly smaller than the Omnia, the Behold measures 2.1 by 4.1 by 0.5 inches. Weighing 3.9 ounces, it’s light but feels solid in the hand.

The Behold’s 3-inch touch screen takes up the majority of the phone, and three physical keys–end, send, and back–reside underneath. The landscape touch-screen QWERTY keyboard, with generously spaced keys and vibrating feedback, is comfortable to use. I didn’t notice any lag between when I typed and when the results appeared on the screen, a problem I’ve experienced with some other touch-screen keyboards. The Behold’s predictive text feature gives two word choices, but you can also turn predictive text off with a dedicated key on the keyboard. The arrangement includes a few dedicated punctuation keys, as well.

The Behold uses Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, also seen on the Omnia. But unlike the Omnia, which seemed sluggish running Windows Mobile, the Behold is very responsive. The accelerometer, which reacted slowly on the Omnia, flipped from portrait to landscape quickly and smoothly on this handset. I encountered some lag only when I scrolled through lists of contacts or my media library. And otherwise, I found TouchWiz very user-friendly.

The lens for the Behold’s 5-megapixel camera, along with a flash, is located on the phone’s metallic back (which is available in a brushed espresso or light-rose finish). A volume rocker and a headphone/USB jack lie on the left spine of the device, while a dedicated camera key and a phone-lock key sit on the right.

Call quality was very good overall. My contacts sounded loud and clear, and I heard no static or interference. Parties on the other end heard some background noise, but otherwise the sound quality was clean. I experienced no dropped calls.

The Today screen–the Behold’s home screen–has a widget bar running along its left side. You can arrange the widgets in any order, as well as drag one into the main part of the screen to launch its respective app. To end the application, you slide the widget back onto the bar. Available widgets include a calendar, a phone book, a music player, and a clock. But other than rearranging widgets and removing them, you don’t have a lot of room for customization; you can’t add new widgets to the bar or buy new programs (there is no app store), which was disappointing.

The Behold offers a full HTML browser, which is a nice addition for a non-smart-phone handset. The browser is difficult to use on occasion: Scrolling through pages wasn’t as smooth a process as on other touch-screen browsers, and getting the hang of navigating took time. For example, to zoom in on a page, you must touch the magnifying-glass icon at the top of the browser and then select the page size to view. The phone doesn’t do Wi-Fi, either, but that didn’t seem like too big of a loss; Web pages loaded very quickly over T-Mobile’s 3G network.

The Behold’s standout feature is its 5-megapixel camera, with 4X digital zoom and a power LED flash. The camera has four resolution settings, light metering, adjustable ISO, a self-timer, a self-portrait mirror on the back cover, an antishake feature, and a setting for shooting backlit subjects. It also has three fun shooting modes (continuous, panorama, and mosaic), as well as a smile-shot mode that will take another shot if the subject is frowning.

Image quality was very good–definitely better than most camera-phone images I’ve seen. Colors were sharp and clear in photos taken both indoors and outdoors. The camera’s touch menu is intuitive, and I enjoyed trying out all of the different settings. Luckily, the Behold has 180MB of internal memory and a microSD slot for expanding the storage up to 16GB, so you have plenty of space for pictures. You can also shoot video in two resolutions (320 by 240 and 176 by 144).

The Behold isn’t a full-on multimedia powerhouse, though. I was disappointed that the Behold didn’t come loaded with the Samsung TouchPlayer, an impressive media player we tested on the Omnia. Instead, the Behold has a bare-bones music player that supports album art and playlists, and has shuffle and repeat modes plus six equalizer settings. But like the Omnia, the Behold is missing a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can’t charge the phone and listen to music at the same time. On the upside, transferring music from your PC to the Behold via the USB cable is a simple drag and drop.

Like the LG Lotus for Sprint, the Samsung Behold has some of the advanced features of a smart phone but isn’t actually a smart phone. And while smart phones aren’t necessarily for everybody, shelling out an extra $30 to 50 more for a phone with stronger multimedia features such as T-Mobile’s Android-based G1 or Apple’s iPhone is worth considering. Overall, however, the Behold is a well-designed touch-screen phone with an impressive feature set.

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uncertainty about the causes of general anxiety disorder and related disorders such as social anxiety and panic disorder. Although many people assume that these disorders are caused by traumatic incidents, some research shows that anxiety disorders are at least partly genetic. Some people who suffer terrible traumatic incidents or develop anxiety disorders, while others do not. Sometimes such incidents trigger long latent predisposition toward anxiety .

Recognize General Anxiety Disorder Causes in his own life

Try to recognize the causes of their own lives. If they succeed in recognizing the causes and triggers of anxiety disorder in general its own life, you may have a better chance of preventing and avoiding triggers such symptoms in some of its future .

review family history. If a father or brother has had an anxiety disorder, the risk of developing a related disorder is higher, either because of the same genetic predisposition, environmental factors or both shared .

identify any stressful or frightening events that have occurred in his life in the period immediately preceding the onset of symptoms of general anxiety disorder. Even if you have a genetic predisposition to a disorder of anxiety, how to work in general, these trends is that the scene of an incident that triggered the disorder .

Recognize the causes and triggers of Disorder general anxiety symptoms

Step

Keep a diary or journal in which record events and incidents in his daily life that may have caused the concerns and anxieties triggered excessive or other symptoms of general anxiety disorder .

Paso

self-employment or, preferably, with a therapist to identify recurring patterns or similar incidents that always seem to be the cause of anxiety or other symptoms.

Paso

Learn to distinguish between external events and their interpretation so that it can make determining the causes of general anxiety disorder and its symptoms among their thought processes and trends and eventually exert control over these trends.

This article is written by Article Marketing.

Cornelius Martin will be among the crowd in Washington D.C. taking part in history on Tuesday.


The 20-year-old Opelika resident is among a group that will attend the Inauguration of president-elect Barack Obama.

The University of Alabama student will be in Washington for five days as part of the University Presidential Conference, which provides students with an understanding of the history behind the electoral process and the traditions of the presidential inauguration.

“We going to be doing different group events, we’re going to see the motorcade and were going to the inauguration… I know we’ll have the opportunity to go to the different monuments, the museum,” he said.

At the end of the trip, the students will attend a Black Tie Gala Inaugural Ball.

“I can’t wait to see. I know they said I think over the million people there,” he said. “That will be an experience in itself to experience that.”

For first person accounts from the Presidential Inauguration, pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Opelika-Auburn News.

source: oanow.com

inaugural-politics

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More and more businesses are common multinational in order to grow and take advantage of economies of scale. Business can be conducted via teleconferencing but usually a puss to face meeting is still needed to close the deal. So globe trotting employees have now become a norm. If your business requires your employees to sphere trot then business travel insurance is a must. And thanks to the internet, getting a business travel insurance bring up is easier than ever. It is as easy as getting basic homeowners insurance or very cheap car insurance.

Business journey has become an integral part of business’ operations. But it can also turn out to be a costly obstacle course with flight delays and cancellations getting more and more stock. Important company assets such as PDA’s and laptops have have been known to go missing on such journeys. Thankfully, though, business travel protection can help protect you and your employees against the unexpected occurrences that can interrupt your travels. Business travel insurance can mask accidents, illnesses, injuries, canceled flights, lost PDA’s and laptops, and other incidents that have the potential to derail even the finest laid plans.

When looking for a business travel insurance quote, it is important to asses your friends’s needs first or you will end up paying for what you do not need and missing out on what you do. Do do this, you need to ask a few questions. How many people will be going on the trip? What are the business tools or society assets would you and/or your colleagues be bringing? Will you be renting a vehicle at the destination? Once you have the answers to these questions, you can begin to customize your enterprise travel insurance quote request to include features you feel your employees and company property can do with.

You might also lack to include an international business travel medical insurance. This policy provides similar benefits to your established health plan while you and your business associates are traveling overseas. Business travel accident insurance provides uncalculated death and dismemberment (AD&D) coverage for your employees on business related travel. Of course, trip cancellation security is a must. This policy can help you recoup your investment if a trip is canceled, interrupted or delayed.

Business travelling insurance is undoubtedly essential to a global business entity. Multinational companies are slowly but surely growing more sensible of its importance and are factoring it into the cost of doing business. Companies now have the option of purchasing annual trip touring insurance to save cost. Not so long ago, this was a frowned upon burden. Now, it is a necessity.

by Trey Granger

This story is part of Earth911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas.

Regardless of economic conditions, travel during November and December increases, often up to 23 percent during the Christmas and New Year’s breaks. Whether you’re visiting friends and family by plane, train or automobile, here’s eight ways to travel green this holiday season:

1. Ride the Rails . . . and Bus Routes

Wondering what’s the greenest form of travel? Actually, traveling by bus or train consumes the least amount of carbon per passenger. In the winter, travel by other means is subject to road closures and weather delays. Plus, trains and buses will usually drop you downtown for easier access to the city you’re visiting.

2. Enjoy Paperless Travel

No matter how you decide to travel, there is potential for lots of paper use. You’ve got tickets and boarding passes, baggage claim receipts and even directions to your lodging. But in this technological age, is all this paper necessary?

• Wait to print boarding passes at the airport, where less paper is used (and refuse the “ticket jacket” if offered).
• Enter important addresses into a portable GPS unit to take on your travel, so you won’t need to print directions.
• Ask if travel receipts can be emailed to you instead of printed (except luggage, of course).

3. Prepare Your Car

If you’re one of the 91 percent of people who opt for the holiday road trip, pre-trip car maintenance can optimize your gas mileage. This includes checking your motor oil and tire pressure, as well as removing unnecessary baggage that will weigh down your car. A 15-minute car preparation can help prevent a two-hour car breakdown in cold weather and more money spent on gas.

4. Reduce Airplane Waste

Think about how much waste you go through on an average flight. There’s peanut and food wrappers, aluminum soda and beer cans, disposable headphones, newspapers and magazines and the aforementioned paper travel documents. Other than the headphones and wrappers, it can all be recycled, and chances are your airport has recycling bins.

Keep this in mind before the flight attendant comes around asking for your trash. You can also bring your own headphones and packed lunch, or tuck your newspaper into the seat in front of you for the next passenger to read.

5. Monitor the Thermostat

News flash: winter weather is cold! Since you’re not footing the energy bill on vacation, it’s tempting to turn up the heat at a hotel or a friend’s house (which your buddy probably won’t appreciate). But over a year, two degrees of temperature increase equals 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. Consider a reasonable room temperature and request an extra blanket for your bed if you need it.

6. Recycle in Your Hotel

You would think that spending $3.00 for a soda at the hotel mini-bar would entitle you to a recycling bin for the can or bottle. Since this is unlikely, bring along a separate bag for recyclables (paper, metal, plastic) that you’re bound to use in the hotel room. Then use Earth911 to find nearby recycling locations on-the-go, or ask the hotel to recycle them for you when you check out.

7. Refill Travel Containers

Security measures and space requirements may have you traveling with compact containers for shampoo, toothpaste and other toiletries. Instead of continually buying new travel sizes at the store, refill the same compacts from a larger container prior to travel. For most liquids this can be accomplished with a funnel, and you’ll also save money by buying larger sizes.

8. Shop and Ship Online

You’re likely exchanging gifts at your holiday destination, so travel raises the important issue of how the gifts will arrive. Packing them in the car will reduce your gas mileage, and packing them in your checked luggage reduces space for clothes. Plus, if you use an extra bag, that will probably cost extra with your airline. If you decide to shop at your destination, you’ll likely face last-minute lines, higher prices and limited availability.

Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning.

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The two sides of Capitol Hill appear to be engaging in a bidding war to see who can put more money toward the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases in its version of the economic stimulus bill.

The House included $335 million in its package. But the Senate, not to be outdone, provided $400 million in STD spending in its bill.

When the Drudge Report noted the House funds Wednesday morning, it set off a round of criticism from Republicans who said the money made no sense in a $819 billion bill designed to get the economy back on track.

“Senate big spenders will never be underbid in wasting tax dollars. But how in the world does STD research create jobs? Wait. … Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know,” said Wesley Denton, an aide to Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican.

But the Senate bill, on page 138 of the 431-page measure, directs $400 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “for the screening and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.”

The Senate is expected to begin floor debate on its stimulus bill next week.

Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat and chairman of the Senate Appropriations health subcommittee, listed the allocation as one of the noteworthy achievements of the Senate spending bill, along with $75 million for smoking cessation and $870 million to prepare for a pandemic influenza outbreak.

“This initiative includes grants to communities for health promotion, immunization programs, health screenings and counseling, smoking-cessation programs, scholarships and loan repayment for health professionals, research, and evidence-based disease-prevention strategies,” Mr. Harkin said in touting his work.

On the House side, the National Republican Congressional Committee fired off e-mails Wednesday challenging freshman Democrats to take a stand on whether they thought $335 million for STD prevention was a good way to spend economic-recovery money.

Harkin

The STD money was included in the bill that passed the House by a 244-188 vote Wednesday evening, but House Democrats were forced to remove a separate $200 million that had been designated to boost contraceptive coverage under Medicaid, the government-run health care plan for the poor.

That provision was removed after President Obama made a personal appeal to take it out of the bill.

Republicans and some Democrats have complained that the recovery bill is loaded with items that would provide little short-term help in boosting the economy. Republicans say the bill instead has become a vehicle for congressional Democrats to get approval for projects they’ve been unable to secure in recent years with congressional Republicans and President Bush able to foil their efforts.

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