Federal Reserve economists predicting a mild recession as a result of the recent banking crisis has drawn varied and incisive responses from finance experts at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Elon Musk’s offer to proceed with a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter has the two sides working to close the deal ahead of the recently extended court deadline of October 28.

Economic arguments for and against student loan forgiveness have streamed through the media since President Biden last week announced a three-part plan to cancel student debt for low- to middle-income borrowers. In responses to Brain Trust, Smith experts Michael Faulkender and David Kass give differing perspectives.

Elon Musk’s move to abandon his $44 billion offer to buy Twitter has the company intent on forcing the deal through. Musk says the traffic of bots on the platform is prompting his decision in addition to his subsequent dispute with Twitter over how much data the social network should share toward answering his inquiries about these non-human accounts.

Amid the highest inflation in 40 years, the “outlook for U.S. stocks in the second half of 2022 is very uncertain with at least a 50% probability of a recession in 2022 or 2023,” says Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

The past several weeks’ financial news spotlight has shone brightly on Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett – and, by proxy, Maryland Smith’s David Kass, widely known and respected for insights on the Oracle of Omaha, including through his Warren Buffett Blog.

Elon Musk’s pending $43 billion purchase of Twitter stands to be one of Wall Street’s largest-ever leveraged buyouts. Maryland Smith Clinical Professor of Finance David Kass, a stock market expert who has held senior economist positions with the federal government, gives some quick takes on implications for stakeholders of both Tesla and Twitter.

Its proposed $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard would make Microsoft the world’s third-largest publisher of video games and, more significantly, would solidify its position in the development of the "metaverse” – widely considered the next evolution of the internet by which users in the virtual reality space interact with a computer-generated environment and other users.

Six months ago, Maryland Smith’s David Kass updated his semi-annual “stocks to watch” list, expanding the lineup of watch-worthy shares to 21. But now he’s narrowing the list. The move comes amid rising uncertainties – inflationary pressures, supply chain disruptions and the latest COVID-19 variant to name just a few, says Kass, clinical professor of finance at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

When WeWork saw its IPO bid come to an abrupt halt in 2019, the company was forced to take a hard look in the mirror. Now it’s made a second attempt to go public – this time via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC).