By BONO
Published: July 10, 2009 NYT

On his visit to Ghana, President Obama has the chance to lead nations in building on the successes of recent efforts within Africa and to learn from the failures.

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John A. Quelch is the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.

John Quelch, a professor at Harvard Business School, makes recommendations for CMO’s to consider during this time of recession.

Recession-challenged consumers are buying less, looking for deals, or switching to different brands, product categories, or stores. Some are even changing long-held attitudes toward consumption. To many folks, filling the home with more stuff or keeping up with the Joneses is no longer appealing.

As a result, the degree of uncertainty in business and consumer markets has soared. Yet, to conserve cash, most firms are reducing spending on the market research that would help manage that uncertainty. In the U.S., spending on market research has dipped for four consecutive quarters, and chief marketing officers don’t expect the situation to turn around soon. Most big consumer marketers are seeking to shave 10 to 20% off of research budgets.

In flush times, a rising tide of consumption can compensate for less than optimal branding, positioning, pricing, or segmentation. That is certainly not the case now. At the same time that marketers must pare down research expenditures, they face added pressure to secure high-quality data and insights.

I recommend that CMOs take the following seven steps to minimize the impact of reduced spending.

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From Mint.com:

Everyone knows that China’s got more people & that its importance as an economic superpower has escalated in recent years. What you might not understand is how the differences btw our countries,in economic philosophy, in population, in geography and in how the military is built and paid for ultimately play into the entire economic relationship.

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Graphs depicting the differences between the economy, military, and natural resources of China and the United States.

Everything that critics mock about the recent antitaxation demonstrations has long been standard practice within the Republican Party.

This is a column about Republicans — and I’m not sure I should even be writing it.

Republicans have become embarrassing to watch. And it doesn’t feel right to make fun of crazy people.

Paul Krugman’s Op-Ed piece.

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This roller-coaster just seems to get more out control…

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 800 points to trade below the 10,000 mark Monday as nervousness over the credit crisis spread after the U.S. government’s $700 billion bailout and interventions in Europe only seemed to add to investor anxiety.

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More of the New York Times series The Reckoning, articles that explore the causes of the financial crises the US economy faces currently.

A decision, made under pressure from Congress and investors, to steer Fannie Mae into dangerous corners of the mortgage market proved to be disastrous.

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I’ve been following the financial situation the US is in right now. This article is pretty interesting and I’m looking for more articles that talk about what happened that lead up to this.

“In 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission allowed investment banks to take on more debt, and over the years, the firms took advantage of the rules.”