Category Archives: Media Mentions

Does the Public Care About the Public Option? [New York Times]

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By Katharine Q. Seelye.
What is the Public Option?
“Some see it as having the government act as a provider of last resort,” Robert C. Pozen, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, wrote online in Harvard Business, arguing in favor of state-based public options. “Others mean a national one-payer system based on the Medicare model. Still others mean health care cooperatives, though they do not exist in most of the U.S.”

Whatever the public option may actually be, the public itself seems fairly flexible on the matter — even if those in Washington are not.

Buce: The Best Finance Book I’ve Read So Far This Year [aka, Cliff Notes for Finance Professors]

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From Brad DeLong’s Egregious Moderation:

The best finance book I’ve read so far this year (and I’ve read a slew of them) is Robert C. Pozen’s Too Big to Save? …

In short, what we have here is the book that every business/finance professor wants needs. Not to assign to his students: nothing to vulgar as that. What you do with Pozen is stuff it in your top drawer and sneak a peek whenever you want to look brilliant. I can’t think of anybody who has covered such a range of issues so efficiently or so well.

Cleaning Up the Crisis [Motley Fool]

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By Jennifer Schonberger.

It’s clear by now that a failure of regulation on multiple fronts helped to fuel the financial crisis. What’s more, according to Bob Pozen — chairman of MFS Investment Management and author of the book Too Big to Save? How to Fix the U.S. Financial System — government has also failed, in certain instances, to clean up the fallout from the crisis.

The Perils of Chasing Higher Yields [Wall Street Journal]

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By KAREN BLUMENTHAL.
Bob Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management in Boston and author of a new book, “Too Big to Save?”, argues that increasing the insured amount to such a high level discourages companies and wealthy individuals from studying which banks are worthy of holding their money.

That essentially removes one of the private-sector checks in the system, he says.

Individuals who chase the higher yields offered by weaker banks could be taking an unforeseen risk. If the bank fails and is acquired by another bank, the principal invested will be protected, but the acquiring bank can cut the interest rate offered to market rates, the FDIC says.

6 Smart Books: An Economic Roadmap [SmartMoney]

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Reviewed by Robert J. Hughes

To everyday consumers, “too big to fail” has become a dubious mantras. Where is the fairness in a government bailout of large banks and corporations that leaves regular people wondering when things are going to turn around for them.

Here, author Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management, a lecturer at Harvard Business School and a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, provides an analysis of the financial arrangements the government has used to bolster the economy, with proposals for shaping the economic landscape, all of which may help investors better understand the shifting marketplace. (SmartMoney is a joint venture between Dow Jones and Hearst. The Wall Street Journal is a unit of Dow Jones.)

In four parts and 14 chapters, Pozen details complex economic issues in clear prose: the U.S. housing slump and its affect on the global financial crisis; the slump’s impact on stock and bond markets; last year’s bailout of financial institutions, and the future of the American financial system.

This is a book for investors who want to understand the details of our financial landscape, and who also want to consider arguments on restricting mortgage-lending practices, whether financial derivatives and hedge funds should be regulated or the revival of loan securitization, among others. Pozen also includes a helpful glossary of terms that should help even seasoned investors.