SMITH BRAIN TRUST – How will a Joe Biden presidency affect the American economy, and what will it mean for the U.S. role in global economies, including China’s?
Following Biden’s projected election victory, experts David Kass and Kislaya Prasad at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business offered insight from different perspectives.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to have missed an opportunity to correct a nagging issue in its definition of a qualified mortgage, Maryland Smith's Clifford Rossi writes in HousingWire. And it goes to the heart of the borrower’s ability to repay.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Recent COVID-prompted Federal Reserve actions, fiscal policy responses, forbearances and foreclosures moratoriums have affected the reliability and stability of mortgage finance data models -- and the industry more broadly.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – The question of when to refinance is often a slightly complicated one, but with mortgage rates at years-long lows, you might think that everyone would be gathering up their documents and getting a new loan that will let them draw money out of their homes or pay them off faster.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – It’s challenging when you graduate in a pandemic era. Employment prospects have altered and many new hires will begin their jobs not in a shiny new office, but remote from their kitchen tables. Some things haven’t changed, however, like the personal finance advice that young professionals should follow.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – With COVID-19 spreading rapidly across Africa, it’s clear the disease is now "the greatest global crisis of the century," Maryland Smith's Lemma W. Senbet says.
In a recent webinar, "COVID-19 and the African Economies," Senbet discussed the pandemic and its staggering economic fallout, along with high-level policy experts from the IMF and World Bank.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – What stocks do the smartest fund managers love, and are they worth knowing?
Recently exploring this question, Investors Chronicle revisited a 2012-published study by Maryland Smith’s Russell Wermers showing mutual fund managers, in aggregate, have better stock selection abilities than other investors.
Institutional investors own more than two-thirds of corporate equities, and they account for an even greater percentage of trading volume. Because they make up such a large share of the market, when these pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, hedge funds, endowment funds, and other behemoth investors buy and sell based on news, it moves market prices for everyone.
Factors and implications surrounding the financial crisis of 2008 was the focus of a recent presentation by Martin J. Gruenberg, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, hosted by the Center for Financial Policy at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
President Donald Trump’s proposed plan to reform the tax code, as revealed in a one-page outline last week, would benefit middle and lower-income households in three ways, but to varying degrees, says the Smith School's William Longbrake. The proposal would simplify filing requirements and reduce income taxes for many Americans, and lower significantly the tax rate for corporations and companies like his. Overall, says Longbrake, only “a negligible amount" of the estimated $3 trillion to $7 trillion in reduced taxes over the next 10 years would benefit low-income families. Read more...
