Knowledge at Wharton

From Colin Dyer’s perspective the worldwide real estate market is in pretty bad shape. As president and CEO of global real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Dyer has seen firsthand the problems that an absence of liquidity is causing for buyers who need financing for real estate transactions. Yet he is also optimistic that comparatively little competition and some good bargains provide excel...

While Russia initially may have been insulated from the impact of the global financial crisis -- due to the once-high price of oil -- the country is now feeling the impact of the slowdown. What does this mean for the Russian real estate market? How are real estate companies responding to the crisis? And what should international companies look for when doing business there? Bruce Gardner managing...

China’s unsurpassed demand cash reserves and willingness to invest heavily in new infrastructure make it an attractive option for foreign real estate investors according to Gilles Assouline president of Wuxi Iparks Creative Design & Development. In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton Assouline spoke about why conditions in China are ripe for real estate development and how partnering with t...

Those countries that had easy access to debt -- such as the U.S. and Japan -- are taking the biggest hit from the current financial crisis while those countries without access to debt capital -- such as Brazil -- have been somewhat spared according to Gary Garrabrant CEO of Equity International. During the Knowledge at Wharton Real Estate in Emerging Markets Forum Garrabrant spoke about his compan...

Founded in 1928 Mangels Industrial is among Brazil’s leading manufacturers. Its products range from cold rolled steel to gas cylinders. In addition the company is Latin America’s largest maker of aluminum wheels for the auto industry. How are manufacturers such as Mangels Industrial coping with the global recession? In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton Bob Mangels company CEO and grandson of...

After a year of financial shock and sharp economic loss 2009 is likely to be extremely difficult for the global economy with investors business leaders and policymakers struggling to find signs of recovery. Wharton faculty and other experts interviewed by the Knowledge at Wharton Network discuss the outlook for the U.S. Europe Latin America India China and Japan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...

Successful marketplaces -- indeed all social systems -- require a level of ethical behavior among their participants. In an interview with Knowledge at Wharton professors Maurice E. Schweitzer and G. Richard Shell who have conducted extensive research on the role of trust in markets explain why even the most sophisticated investors put their faith in Bernard Madoff the New York City financier rece...

It was a tough year for newspapers. The owner of The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune declared bankruptcy; The New York Times borrowed against its headquarters and even accepted ads on its front page. Detroit’s two dailies announced the end of home delivery on all but three days of the week. According to Wharton faculty if newspapers can’t find a new business model quickly they may soon be pr...

President-elect Barack Obama’s infrastructure plan has drawn considerable debate but mostly over the details -- the size of the stimulus program how to structure the plan to create the most jobs in the shortest time and how to administer such a large program to limit corruption and pork-barrel projects. The bigger questions remain unanswered including to what extent new jobs will actually be creat...

From a childhood spent exploring the woods near his home to a career spent protecting habitats in the far corners of the earth Carter Roberts -- president and CEO of the non-profit World Wildlife Fund -- has fostered a connection to the natural world. His job is as diverse as the ecosystems he visits. One day he may be negotiating with the president of a corporation and the next he is sitting on a...

In 1998 social entrepreneur Seth Goldman founded Honest Tea the nation’s best-selling and fastest-growing organic bottled tea company with a business professor from the Yale School of Management. Honest Tea sources from organic and fair trade tea estates and has partnered with community development groups ranging from the Crow Reservation in Montana to organizations in South Africa and Guatemala....

Kate Roberts is the founder and director of YouthAIDS and Five & Alive two marketing programs implemented by Population Services International (PSI) where she is a vice president. Founded in 2001 YouthAIDS is a global education and prevention initiative that uses pop culture music theater movies and sports to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The program reaches 600 million young people in more tha...

John Brock has come a long way since his first jobs working in his uncle’s dime store and later at a paper mill in Moss Point Miss. Today he is chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises the world’s largest marketer producer and distributor of Coca-Cola products. Brock has more than 25 years of experience in the beverage sales industry. In 2003 he was named CEO of Interbrew headquartered in Brussel...

After a trek in the Himalayas brought him face-to-face with extreme poverty and illiteracy John Wood left his position as a director of business development at Microsoft to found Room to Read an award-winning international education organization. Under his leadership more than 1.7 million children in the developing world now have access to enhanced educational opportunities. Room to Read to date h...

Octavio Lopes senior partner of private equity firm GP Investments is in the middle of raising what might be the largest private equity fund ever for Latin America. In a podcast recorded in Sao Paulo Lopes discusses the prospects for investing in Brazil and Latin America where he thinks commodity prices are headed and how the discovery of oil in places like Brazil Colombia and Mexico will affect t...

Alberto Duran founder and CEO of Mundivox Communications of Brazil has seen the world of telecommunications from various perspectives. He worked in the telecom sector for J.P. Morgan in New York and Bain & Company and Monitor Company in Boston and London. He specialized in the development of strategies for major industry players worldwide including privatizations and M&A in North America E...

Arminio Fraga was president of the Central Bank of Brazil from 1999 to 2002. He has sometimes been called the Alan Greenspan of Latin America though that comparison may not sit well these days as Greenspan comes in for his share of the blame for the global financial crisis. In 2001 Fraga founded the Rio de Janeiro-based Gávea Investimentos an independent asset management company. It operates princ...

These are volatile times for Brazilian real estate which mirrors the situation in most countries. But according to Elie Horn chairman and CEO of Cyrela Brazil Realty Brazil’s largest developer of residential properties Brazil doesn’t have the deep-rooted problems of the U.S. market. It’s just a matter of lying low for some time until confidence returns he suggests in an interview with Knowledge at...

Brazil’s petrochemicals industry has been going through active consolidation a phase that is almost at an end. That process however has seen the creation and growth of Braskem a giant of a firm that is the largest petrochemicals producer not just in Brazil but in all of Latin America. Bernardo Gradin who has been part of Braskem since the company’s formation in 2002 took over in July as its CEO. I...

Economic crises around the globe have often hit Brazilian banks hard with capital flight hammering the country’s currency the real. But Brazil’s financial institutions seem better positioned to weather the current worldwide credit crunch although lending there is just as frozen as it is elsewhere according to Candido Bracher president and chief executive officer of the São Paulo-based Banco Itaú B...

A government plan to rescue the U.S. automobile industry with $14 billion in emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler was approved by the House of Representatives late on December 10 but the proposal continued to face stiff opposition from Senate Republicans. While the lifeline loans would give the Detroit automakers some breathing room legislators and auto executives remain under enormous p...

Many shareholder advocates see the financial collapse and resulting economic woes as stunning proof of their long-held claim that too often the wrong people are in charge of top corporations -- and that attacking this problem demands an overhaul in corporate-governance regulations. But not everyone sees governance as the culprit and some warn that a kneejerk attack on established corporate practic...

Back in the heady days of the real estate boom property prices in New York City soared along with those in the rest of the U.S. When the subprime mortgage crisis hit and prices collapsed the city’s market held out longer than others -- for two reasons. First it is a major financial center with strong demand; and second the weak dollar made it possible for international buyers and investors to find...

For decades sports have existed in a protective bubble. Even in recessions fans could be counted on to keep buying tickets to games and keep beefing up the huge television audiences that draw top dollar from advertisers. But the current recession seems to be bursting the bubble. Says Wharton professor Eric Bradlow: ”Advertising revenue is down. Corporate boxes and corporate sponsorships are going...

Is the cavalry coming to rescue troubled homeowners? Despite soaring foreclosure rates President Bush and other Republicans have not made this a top priority. But this could soon change: President-elect Barak Obama and fellow Democrats say reducing foreclosures is crucial to attacking the financial crisis. As one expert notes: ”The financial sector weaknesses all originate in the housing market. I...