A panel of professors discuss how to spot an upturn in the current economic landscape at the Seventh Annual Marketing Forum hosted by The Economist in San Francisco.
Speakers include: Ward Hanson, Policy Forum Director, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; and Michael Lehmann, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of San Francisco.
Moderated by Martin Giles, Senior Business Correspondent, The Economist.
Bio
Martin Giles
Martin Giles is a Senior Business Correspondent for The Economist based in New York City, where he covers a range of business and financial issues. Prior to taking up this role in 2008, Mr Giles spent ten years on the commercial side of The Economist Group, latterly as Executive Vice-president of the Group's North American operations.
Prior to joining the commercial side of the company, he was editor of The Economist’s finance and economics section, and previously spent time as a reporter in both London and Paris. Mr Giles earned an MA degree from Oxford University and has an executive MBA from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
He is a trustee of a British charity that supports students who wish to become financial journalists and sits on the Advisory Council of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Ward Hanson
Ward Hanson studies the economics and marketing of high technology, especially the impact of information technology on business and policy. He is a Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research Center for Employment and Economic Growth as well as SIEPR Policy Forum Director.
His recent writings include "Recovery.gov: Using the Internet to Accelerate and Improve Fiscal Stimulus," available on the SIEPR website. He published his most recent book on the impact of high technology on business practice, Internet Marketing and Ecommerce, in 2007.
Dr. Hanson received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University, and has been on the faculty of the University of Chicago Business School, Purdue University School of Management, and Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He has served in the U.S. Department of Energy, and assisted the Obama campaign’s Economic Growth and Innovation policy efforts.
Michael Lehmann
Prof. Michael Lehmann obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell University and taught at the University of San Francisco in traditional and on-line venues. He is the author of The Irwin Guide To Using The Wall Street Journal, which sold 250,000 copies in seven editions. Prof. Lehmann also developed a popular seminar, Be Your Own Economist, on business and investment conditions, that he offers to investors, corporations and professional groups.
The San Francisco media frequently interview Prof. Lehmann on current economic and investment conditions. You can read his blog at beyourowneconomist.blogspot.com.
I had Ward Hanson as a marketing professor at the Univ. of Chicago. This guy was perhaps the worst professor I have ever had and spoke so much mumbo jumbo that he was basically asked not to teach until he spoke lucidly to his students. He came with sterling credentials but was as effective as a flag pole when it came to teaching marketing. Why this guy is relevant today is surprising.
wallianti seems to by trying to say that he doesn't support the paying out of bonuses to AIG employees. This is a very dangerous road to go down. If we allow AIG to back out of a binding employment contract, what would happen if my employer decides not to pay me at the end of the week?
Clearly Mr. Lehmann does not support the payment of the bonuses, he simply believes it is folly to focus on the bonuses when we need to focus on the economy. In that at least he is correct.
As for me I completely support the payment of the bonuses, my anger is directed at the elected buffoons who steered us down this path.
He's not a moralizer? I think what he meant to say is that he has no morals.
Why can we not prop up AIG while also being responsible enough to place incentives in their proper place. Or shall we just call their bonuses what they really are. That being an underhanded way to increase the income of those who apparently didn't earn their wealth.
I am starting to believe that the reason for this economic collapse is that people like this old man are so divorced from reality that they loose sight of important details for the sake of the big picture. They forget that the big picture and the details have any relationship at all.
member. 
