Feature
The Halo Effect and Other Managerial Delusions
The quest of every high-quality corporate executive is to find the keys to superior performance. Achieving market leadership is hard enough, but staying at the top—given intense competition, rapidly changing technology, and shifting global forces—is even more difficult. At the same time, executives are under enormous pressure to deliver profitable growth and high returns for their shareholders. No wonder they constantly search for ways to achieve competitive advantage.
But many executives, despite their good intentions, look in the wrong places for the insights that will deliver an edge.
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Financial Market Outlook
A Subprime Perspective
First, let’s get this out of the way. The subprime mortgage market is in distress. Delinquency, default, foreclosure and loss rates have climbed sharply in the past year and will climb even higher in 2007. To a large degree, this outcome reflects irrationally easy terms and pricing on loans that were poorly calibrated to their risks. The worst mistakes—by lenders and their capital providers alike—are now haunting their perpetrators.
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International & Trade
Trading with China: Foreign Exchange Hedging Strategies
No one knows if the Chinese yuan will appreciate or fall, but many FX specialists have predicted that the currency is greatly undervalued against the US dollar. This article looks at options for hedging FX risk when trading with China, such as the non-deliverable forward contract.
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Economics
Profit Growth: The Overlooked Engine of U.S. Economic Prosperity
Few would question the economy’s robust growth since 2001. However, the good times have been accompanied by a curious deficiency: several esteemed and closely followed economic indicators haven’t served their purpose very well in recent years. The economy has, so to speak, outperformed the indicators.
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International & Trade
China Stumbles, Markets Tumble:
Will the Volatility Continue?
The Economist
called it "a snort from a dragon's nostrils." At the end of February, as China's stock market index fell by more than 8%, stock markets tumbled around the globe—it was their steepest decline since the September 11 attacks in 2001. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 500 points in a single afternoon. In addition to worries about China, concerns about a possible shakeout in the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market contributed to the anxiety. And to add to the gloom, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, commented that the U.S.
economy could face a recession. In the week that has gone by, volatility has continued—markets have recovered, only to drop again, and then climb once more.
What is causing this volatility, and what does it mean for investors?
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Business Planning & Strategies
Are You a Target?
Meet Patrick Albert, a broad-shouldered man who went to college in Schenectady, New York, loves Tokyo, and calls himself CFO and general manager, Pacific finance, of Momentive Performance Materials. His title is new, by the way. Albert was CFO of Tokyo-based GE Toshiba Silicones until this December. But when Apollo Management, the US private equity buyer, bought the company for US$3.8 bn and changed its name, it asked Albert to stay on. It's life in a very different world.
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Trends & Technology
Lessons of the Last Bubble
Quiz time: What percentage of dot-com startups have failed?
If you are like most people we have informally surveyed, you probably estimated around 90 percent. A few people posit a slightly lower failure rate; some say the rate was 98 percent or more. Virtually no one assumes that the numbers of dot-com failures and successes have been roughly equal, but that’s what our research found.
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Private Client Group
The A.R.T. of Investing
See how the A.R.T. of Investing (After-tax returns, Risk control and Time horizons) fits into your personal investment strategy. Our CIO and Equity Research team provide timely market commentary, financial articles and more.
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Women Business Owners
The Best, The Brightest
Every month, National City taps the brightest minds to find valuable information designed specifically for women business owners—addressing their unique concerns, providing business management tips, offering inspiration and more.
Click here to tap the power of our website…
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Small Business
Need to Succeed? Check Here!
Our Small Business Resource Center is a treasure trove of information, advice and resources to help you prosper. Check out the latest things to help you manage your business.
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