All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions

Conventional wisdom tells us that we need regulators to ensure quality work in certain professions. But do consumers really benefit as much as they think from government regulation?In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen investigate the question: Who does regulation help more, consumers or producers?Later in the episode, Jonathan and Jules call in an expert: Maureen Ohlhausen, who chairs the Global Antitrust and Competition Law practice at Baker Botts.Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.Show Links:Regulation of Charlatans in High-Skill ProfessionsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Corporations are often characterized as evil entities that exploit workers. But in fact they enable firms to provide job security and thus serve the important role of minimizing risk for individual employees.In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen explore how corporations set employees’ wages based on their job performance while still providing job security by comparing it to an insurance contract. “I think, in fact, you could think of corporations as entities that insure workers,” says Jonathan Berk.Also in this episode, Jonathan and Jules talk about bankruptcy, house fires, and why your supervisor hasn’t fired that one annoying coworker who doesn’t do anything.Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Does filing for bankruptcy spell the end for a company? Or is there another way to look at corporate financial distress?In this episode of All Else Equal: Making better decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen debunk some myths about Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code – and compare the benefits of financing your company with equity or debt. Later, bankruptcy expert Jim Millstein joins the show to talk about corporate restructuring proceedings and the government bailout of General Motors.Jim Millstein is the Co-Chairman of Guggenheim Securities, the investment banking and capital markets business of Guggenheim Partners, a global investment and advisory firm. Prior to joining Guggenheim in 2018, Mr. Millstein was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Millstein & Co. His representative engagements include providing advice to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in connection with the management of its $75 billion of institutional indebtedness; to US Airways in connection with its acquisition of American Airlines out of Chapter 11; and Caesars in its Chapter 11 proceedings.Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are buybacks bad for business? Should firms buy dividends instead, or just not make payouts?In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professorsJonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen debunk myths about buybacks. They explain what abuyback, or share repurchase, is and why companies choose to use them, as well as theimplications of the Inflation Reduction Act’s proposal to assess a 1% tax on buybacks.All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions is a podcast produced by Stanford Graduate School ofBusiness. It is hosted by Jonathan Berk, The A.P. Giannini Professor of Finance at StanfordGSB, and Jules van Binsbergen, The Nippon Life Professor in Finance, Professor of Finance, atThe Wharton School. Each episode provides insight into how to make better decisions. Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As leaders, how do we know when we've made a mistake? Is it as simple as evaluating whether the outcome was good or bad? In this episode of All Else Equal: Making better decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss how risk/reward calculations can help define what is a mistake and what isn't.To talk more in depth about this topic, and how owning up to a mistake plays out inside an investment firm, the hosts interview Hadley Mullin. Mullin is a senior partner at TSG Consumer Partners, a private equity firm with approximately $10 billion in assets under management. At her firm, decisions are made collectively – and accountability is shared. "It's not a blame game," Mullin says. "Not focusing on whose deal this is, but referring to it as 'our deal,' makes us better positioned to do an unbiased postmortem."Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Competitive markets don’t produce the same level of prosperity for everyone, but economist John Cochrane thinks they give us something more important — incentives.In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts Jules van Binsbergen and Jonathan Berk are joined by John Cochrane, a prominent free-market economist and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.According to Cochrane, competition gives us the incentives to work, serve the needs of others, and innovate. A system with incentives, he says, “is the only one where we all don't end up worse.”Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.More About the Guest:John Cochrane at the Hoover InstituteSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How can investors play a part in accomplishing social change? In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts Jules van Binsbergen and Jonathan Berk explore what strategies are available to the social-minded investor.When it comes to what’s good for business and what’s good for society, van Binsbergen says, “People really would like to have it both ways.” But as he and Berk explain, it is unlikely that they can.The Impact of Impact Investing working paper referenced in this episode. Read more about the pitfalls and promises of ESG on Stanford GSB's website.Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, hosts Jules van Binsbergen and Jonathan Berk discuss the complexities of the corporate income tax with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who argues for retaining the tax.Summers explains why taxing corporations is one of the most effective tools the federal government has in making sure the wealthy pay their fair share. Might there be room for improvement? Yes, Summers says, but don’t abolish it. “Before we are critical of that tax, we better make awfully sure that we have a superior alternative.”Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

"The reason people disagree is because they're striving toward a different goal," says mathematician and Nobel Prize winner Robert Aumann. In this episode of All Else Equal, Aumann sits down with finance professors and podcast hosts Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen."If there's a disagreement in the room at the end of a discussion, someone in the room is making a mistake," says Berk.Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When it comes to investments, value sometimes resides in unlikely places. Pete Briger, CEO of Fortress Investment Group, specializes in buying bad debt and spinning it into gold.In this episode of All Else Equal, Briger, who dubs himself a “garbage collector,” describes how he makes decisions and why being prepared to act quickly and decisively is crucial for success.In a market bristling with competitors, “the competitive edge you get may be expressed in the context of days,” Briger says.Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqualFind All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decisionsAll Else Equal: Making Better Decisions Podcast is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business and is produced by University FM.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.