Publications

August 2011 (Revised October 2014)
Case

High Wire Act: Credit Suisse and Contingent Capital (A)

By: Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia

Late in 2010, Credit Suisse CEO Brady Dougan and his team closed in on the decision of whether or not to issue contingent capital, which Swiss regulators would require by 2019. There were a number of substantial issues facing Dougan and his team, including whether... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Capital Markets; Financial Crisis; Decision Choices and Conditions; Leadership; International Finance; Financial Liquidity; Risk and Uncertainty; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Switzerland

30 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Managing the Family Business: Preparing to Sell

Even if the family quickly and collectively redeploys its assets in new business activities, after a sale family members will have more financial autonomy. This necessitates that individuals develop their own life plans and View Details

Keywords: by Jonathan Pellegrin; Food & Beverage; Retail

01 Jun 2009
News

Too Big To Fail

proposed new regulations: higher capital requirements; leverage limits; FDIC-like insurance charges; and, when all else fails, a receivership process to restructure, sell, or liquidate a failing company. Bottom line, no firm should be too... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; federal bailouts; Credit Intermediation and Related Activities; Finance

01 Sep 2015
News

Research Brief: Bankruptcy as a Better—Not Bitter—End

lenders and liquidating otherwise viable companies. As the theory goes, the deep-pocketed secured lenders at the front of the line have a bias toward shutting down viable operations, selling off the assets, and collecting the cash they’re... View Details

Keywords: Erin Peterson

April 2021
Supplement

Exercise for Revlon: Surviving Covid-19

By: Kristin Mugford and Sarah Gulick

Exercise for Revlon: Surviving Covid-19 View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Financial Liquidity; Bonds; Corporate Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Services Industry; Financial Services Industry; United States

25 Aug 2022
News

The Exchange: The Road Ahead for Crypto

want to sell you. Cryptocurrencies have not yet reached that state. Digital financial transactions are commonplace now, but cryptocurrency, per se, is not something very large numbers of individuals or businesses are willing to trade for... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments; Securities, Commodities, and Other Financial Investments

June 2011 (Revised September 2011)
Case

Tough Choices for the Illinois Pension System

By: Robert C. Pozen and Brij S. Khurana

This case describes the precarious fiscal situation of the Illinois public pension system in the spring of 2009 and the accounting of pension plans by non-federal municipalities more generally. In February 2009, in the midst of a recession, recently-appointed Governor... View Details

Keywords: Budgets and Budgeting; Financial Crisis; Financial Liquidity; Annuities; Financial Management; Financing and Loans; Taxation; Strategic Planning; Problems and Challenges; Illinois

12 Feb 2007
Lessons from the Classroom

‘UpTick’ Brings Wall Street Pressure to Students

Students whose investments have fallen below margin requirement levels are being told they have sixty seconds to liquidate part of their portfolio to cover—effectively locking in a loss—or gamble that their investments will recover before... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Financial Services; Financial Services

February 2008
Teaching Note

Anne Mulcahy: Leading Xerox through the Perfect Storm (TN) (A) and (B)

By: Bill George

Teaching Note for 405050 and 405065. View Details

Keywords: Financial Liquidity; Crisis Management; Profit; Leadership Development; Personal Development and Career; Motivation and Incentives; Knowledge Acquisition; Service Industry; Computer Industry

20 Aug 2012
Research & Ideas

The Acquirers

were published in the paper, Financial vs. Strategic Buyers. The research team first scoured data of private equity firms in the United States that had set out to buy underperforming companies and turn them around—with the goal of a... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

December 1997 (Revised September 1998)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: November 1997

By: Josh Lerner

David Swensen, chief investment officer at Yale University, reviews the $6 billion endowment strategy, which places an unusually heavy emphasis on private equity and other illiquid securities. Changing market conditions in November 1997 cause him to rethink... View Details

Keywords: Change; Private Equity; Financial Liquidity; Investment; Marketing Strategy; Strategy; Education Industry

01 Dec 2019
News

Making Eco Easy

formulated, concentrated products that consumers reconstitute with water in Blueland’s reusable acrylic spray bottles—tinted pink for bathroom cleaning, yellow for multisurface, and blue for glass or mirrors. The company also recently introduced a foaming handwashing... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

2024
Working Paper

Ponzi Funds

By: Philippe van der Beck, Jean-Philippe Bouchaud and Dario Villamaina

Many active funds hold concentrated portfolios. Flow-driven trading causes price pressure, which pushes up the funds’ existing positions resulting in realized returns. We decompose fund returns into a price pressure (self-inflated) and a fundamental component and... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Investment Portfolio; Investment Return; Price Bubble; Financial Reporting; Financial Liquidity

SSRN

Read Now

11 May 2017
News

Going with the Flow

“If I look back at my career, I’ve focused on liquid assets: blood, water, and beer.” That is the wry encapsulation Cynthia Fisher (MBA 1990) uses to describe her professional activities. Like Fisher herself, it is smart, efficient, and... View Details

Keywords: Robert S. Benchley

22 Sep 2009
News

The Case for Regulatory Reform

overview by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, in the June 15 Washington Post. Among other things, the proposed reforms will raise capital and liquidity requirements for... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services; Government

March 2009 (Revised November 2016)
Case

Washington Mutual's Covered Bonds

By: Daniel Baird Bergstresser, Robin Greenwood and James Quinn

Washington Mutual issued 6 billion euro of covered bonds in 2006. The objective of the case is to ask whether these bonds are mispriced in late 2008. The case is set in September 2008, and Washington Mutual is facing considerable distress due to mounting losses in its... View Details

Keywords: Capital Markets; Financial Liquidity; Bonds; Mortgages; Price; Banking Industry; United States