Search

The remarks that follow were delivered by former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, Jr., at the Americas Partners Meeting of KPMG LLP in Orlando, Fla., Thursday, November 20, 2003. While at [...]

YOU MAY THINK A 401(k) MEANS FREEDOM OF CHOICE. TRUE, IT gives you the power to decide how much to save and where to invest. Like most 401(k) participants, you [...]

Editor's note: The following remarks are excerpts from the testimony of Arthur Levitt, Jr. before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy [...]

Is the United States competitive in world markets? HBR here publishes 23 opinions from leaders in Asia, Europe, and the United States--including the U.S. presidential candidates, CEOs and chairmen of large multinational corporations, owners of small businesses, labor leaders, and economists. Their responses reflect the diversity of their backgrounds and viewpoints. But they all agree that the United States has a competitiveness problem. What they do not agree on is the source of that problem and what its solution should be. In this first round of answers to HBR's call to its readership on the competitiveness issue, the respondents are both creative and substantive. In diagnosing the difficulties, they fall into three groups. The first believes the problem to be endemic and far-reaching, touching every corner of society. The United States suffers from its own form of the British disease; without a solution that addresses the complexity of the problem, our standard of living will continually decline. The second group argues that the problem is not so much societal as managerial. Only more attention to manufacturing and investment and the exploitation of international markets will begin to turn the future around. The third group believes the problem is macroeconomic and structural, growing out of the federal budget and U.S. trade deficits, but curable with traditional macroeconomic logic. These respondents alert us to the importance of the issue. What we now need is to start a dialogue that will result in a solution to the problem. INSET: Other Harvard Business Review articles on competitiveness.. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The recent travails of the American economy have created a broad public awareness that the very terms of industrial competition have changed in some fundamental way. From most every position on the political spectrum comes, at last, an acknowledgment that ‘bandaid’ approaches to this or that specific difficulty will not work. What is needed, we are told, is a consistent and coordinated government policy toward the nation's industry—not the crazy-quilt of legislation, regulation, informal understandings, and ad hoc exceptions that now exists. Whatever our ideological preferences, the realities of the international marketplace demand of us a coherent national posture toward industry. We have been too long complacent. Now we must get our house m order. As discussion of an industrial policy for the United States evolves, the form this new order is to take calls ever more loudly for disciplined attention. As is often the case with politically sensitive issues, however, discussion itself commonly becomes a form of special pleading—experts talking past each other in favor of their own chosen remedies for the nation's economic ills. We at HBR thought it a good idea to gather in one room some of the most thoughtful and articulate participants in the industrial policy debate, provide the opportunity for several hours of open-ended conversation, and edit the transcript of that conversation down to article length—all this, of course, as a means of systematically illuminating the questions at hand by shining the light of argument in them from several directions at once. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 65 years ago, James Landis, who was to become the third Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, sought to enlist the help of the accounting profession in enacting the [...]

The article stresses the need for an industrial policy for entrepreneurship to attain sustainable economic growth in the U.S. The author promotes the use of government policy to lead into the creation and maintenance of a climate of business activity that can help the cause of entrepreneurship. He further argues that real growth depends on reduction of budget deficits and the cost of capital, and substantial changes in tax policy, government regulation, and trade policy. An industrial policy that supports entrepreneurial activity can help the U.S. reach a more prosperous, productive, and secured future.

The motivation to satisfy Wall Street's earnings expectations may be overriding common-sense business practices. In the process, I fear we are witnessing a gradual but noticeable erosion in the quality [...]

Proper disclosure by issuers of municipal securities has been a subject close to my heart since my first days as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The strength of [...]

A frequent failing of leadership is the self-image of omnipotence and infallibility. Because you are the leader, you believe that by definition you have ultimate wisdom. I have found that [...]

Every time directors ask a tough disclosure or financial question, thousands of shareholders will benefit. So we must have an atmosphere that encourages directors to be active. We must help [...]

The article looks at the growing capacity of small businesses in the U.S. to define their needs and lobby for national economic policies and reforms. It cites the groups under which the 15 major legislative objectives agreed at the White House Conference on Small Business for 1981-1982 fall. They include capital formation, giving consideration to the small-business economy in formulating U.S. economic policy, and bringing minorities and women into the mainstream of the small business economy.

The authors offer opinions on the government securities known as municipal bonds and public finance by U.S. state and local governments. A threat to the security of municipal bonds is seen in the financial problems of pension trusts for government employees in many jurisdictions. A series of proposals are made to alleviate that problem including more disclosure of public pension trust finances and forbidding pension trusts to increase benefits without fully funding them.

Discusses prudent management of funds as an important issue for municipal finance officials. Federal government's obligation to encourage implementation of sound measures to assure proper management at the local government level; Management basics; Local official oversight.

Explains the amendments to Rule 15c2-12, to deter fraud and facilitate better disclosure of financial and material event information, a major step taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission to improve the integrity of the municipal markets. Primary market transactions; After the closing; Central information repositories; `Small issuer' exemption.

Presents an open letter to issuers of municipal securities from the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Commission's efforts in improving the municipal markets; Improvement of disclosure and the prudent management of public funds.

The authors present their arguments against those who suggest that the digital currency, or cryptocurrency, bitcoin will fail. They state that blockchain technology improve financial services by making it more global and efficient and argue that bitcoin's value will remain stable because it is more resilient to geo-political risk.