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Why Trump revoking Brennan's security clearance changes the game
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders began the August 15 press briefing with an announcement: President Donald Trump had revoked former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. Brennan served under President Barack Obama from 2013-2017. Since the 2016 presidential election, Brennan has been a staunch opponent of Trump and is known for expressing his opinions about the president on social media. Trump explained his decision by citing Brennan’s behavior and commentary on social media and accused him of colluding with Russia and profiting off U.S. secrets. Brennan denied the claims and many critics, including both republicans and democrats, called the decision “unprecedented” and “authoritarian.” Are the critics’ right? Dr. Craig Albert, Director of the Master of Arts in Intelligence and Security Studies and associate professor of political science, says the decision is highly unusual. Generally, Albert said, an individual’s security clearance is revoked for security reasons or for conviction of a felony. “Although President Trump gave reasons for the revocation of Brennan’s clearance, it seems rather clear that the personal distaste between the two played a part in the decision,” he said. A scholar of political science and political philosophy, Albert said it’s possible that this decision was intended to set a precedent, especially since Trump has discussed revoking security clearances from other former government officials. “Usually, clearance is revoked for specific crimes, financial hardship, moral turpitude or the clearance just runs out and is not renewed,” Albert said. “This seems to have more to do with personal animosity than any of the typical reasons.” Dr. Albert has experience with all forms of national and local news organizations and is available to speak to media regarding this issue. Simply click on his icon to arrange an interview. Source:
Understanding Trump’s ‘transition tax’ and who wins and who could lose (a lot)
Last December President Donald Trump signed into law sweeping tax reforms – some which had a purpose of discouraging multi-billion-dollar corporations from parking their money outside of the United States. The goal was to incentivise or encourage American-based companies like Apple and Amazon to keep profits local and ideally taxable in the United States. But the impact of these new laws is trickling down and hurting a lot of people. It seems anyone with dual citizenship or any American with interests in Canada may be vulnerable. And for some it is costing a lot of money that’s due very soon. So how much are companies expected to pay? Who is expected to pay and who will be impacted the most? As well, when it comes to taxes – that often means a windfall of new revenue for governments. Is it just Washington that will benefit or will the coffers in Ottawa see some money too? Tax laws are not an easy topic to understand. There are loopholes, complexities and levels of accounting that are beyond most people’s grasp. But that’s where the experts from Freelandt Caldwell Reilly LLP can help. Ed Reilly, Managing Partner and co-founder of Freelandt Caldwell Reilly LLP practices in the areas of tax and owner-managed businesses. To contact Ed directly, simply click on his icon to arrange an appointment regarding this topic. Source:
Helping or Hovering? The Effects of Helicopter Parenting on College Students’ Well-Being
Want to help your child succeed in college? Resist the urge to hover. “Ask how classes are going, let them know that you love and support them, but let them take the lead on how much information to share,” says helicopter parenting expert Holly Schiffrin. “It’s not your job to remind your child to complete assignments, help them with their work or try to resolve their roommate issues for them.” A developmental psychologist, Dr. Schiffrin has conducted extensive research on helicopter parenting and achieving happiness. Her works have appeared in such scholarly publications as the Journal of Child and Family Studies and the Journal of Happiness Studies. She is co-author of Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family and Life and has co-authored a chapter in Intensive Mothering: The Cultural Contradictions of Modern Motherhood. “The biggest gift parents can give their children is the opportunity to make their own decisions,” says Dr. Shiffrin. “Parents who “help” their children too much stress themselves out and leave their kids ill-prepared to be adults.” Dr. Schiffrin is available to speak with media regarding this topic. Simply click on his icon to arrange an interview. Source:
Understanding the meaning of America’s monuments
As the debate continues with what to do with Confederate monuments that dot America’s landscape, the experts from the University of Mary Washington have been lending perspective, knowledge and opinion to the conversation. Professor of Geography Stephen P. Hanna is part of a team of scholars from universities across the South who are investigating how enslavement is incorporated in the landscape and narratives of Southern plantation museums. A key part of this work is to suggest ways these museums can rework their tours and exhibits to help the public understand that slavery was central to both the lives of everybody who lived at these sites and to the development of American political and economic systems. Says Hanna: “A year after white supremacists rioted in Charlottesville, it is clear that the underlying issues related to racial justice have not gone away. African-Americans face arrest for simply being in places where whites suspect they don’t belong. Police are more likely to escalate their use of force more quickly when dealing with black Americans. In addition, both Blacks and Latinos are fighting efforts to make it harder for them to vote while Latino Immigrants have to fear deportation and family separation.” He continues: “The struggle over Confederate Memorials and the narratives presented as “history” at southern plantation museums must be seen within this context. The good news is that more people understand that statues of Robert E. Lee and costumed tour guides at plantation museums describing a romanticized version of the antebellum South don’t represent our shared past. Instead they are efforts to write a particular history that denies that our nation’s roots include enslavement of African-Americans and that slavery’s legacy includes the injustices non-whites endure today.” Dr. Hanna is available to speak with media regarding this topic. Simply click on his icon to arrange an interview. Source:
Spike Lee's Cinematic Alchemy of Past and Present is a Warning About the Future
Nearly a year to the day after White Nationalists marched in Charlottesville, the film “BlacKkKlansman” is released. Spike Lee's film is both a representation of a real-life story of an African-American detective who infiltrated and exposed the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s and as an ideological vehicle for critique of our current social and political moment, says Matthew Hughey, associated professor of sociology at UConn. Together, “BlacKkKlansman” conveys a multi-part message. First, it is cinematic alchemy of the past and present—revealing what has and has not changed over the past half-century in order create a warning about the future. It recalls philosopher George Santayana’s saying “those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Second, the film eviscerates both American naiveté and intentional hypocrisy regarding racism and racial inequality. The film shines a bright light on the dark methods people use to dress up racism, nativist xenophobia, and hatred as “pride and patriotism,” and the madness deployed to rationalize police brutality and murder as little more than “law and order.” Third, and perhaps most importantly, the film deconstructs the “bad apple” theory of racism. Racism does not exist within the hood-wearing, swastika-sporting, epithet-spewing ignoramus alone, but exists in a systemic orchard that segregates and privileges whiteness economically, politically, and socially regardless of individual intention, worldview, or behavior. In the end, Lee’s film leads us to the conclusion that if “we are all Charlottesville” then “we are all Klansman,” too, says Hughey. Source:
Being homeless negatively impacts health in diverse ways, especially for those experiencing chronic homelessness.1 Such persons are at higher risk for multiple infectious diseases, traumatic injuries, interpersonal violence, conditions related to extreme heat or cold, and death due to alcoholism and drug overdoses. They are more likely than housed persons to use hospital emergency departments for health care and to be admitted to the hospital for health problems, because they are less likely to have health insurance and because their conditions cannot be appropriately cared for without safe and secure housing. Thus, there are compelling reasons to know whether interventions aimed at reducing homelessness also reduce the adverse health consequences associated with it. Source:
Tournament strategies: Collusion or competition?
As many as one-third of US corporations make use of tournament incentive schemes, where compensation is linked to employees’ performance and ranking. But how does the degree of mutual monitoring— the ability of employees to observe each other’s productive activities—affect effort? In a study on mutual monitoring and rank-order tournaments, Lynn Hannan (Tulane); Kristy Towry, Goizueta Term Chair and associate professor of accounting; and Yue (May) Zhang (Northeastern) conduct two experiments to determine whether employees are more likely to collude, resulting in lower effort, or to compete, resulting in higher effort, when they are able to monitor each other during a tournament. They find that mutual monitoring can actually work in either direction, and that it depends on the workplace culture. For example, when management practices are perceived to be unfair, this creates a general inclination for workers to collude against management. In this case, mutual monitoring will amplify the collusion, resulting in lower effort. Likewise, when the workplace culture encourages competition, mutual monitoring contribute to higher effort. Source:
Forecasting sales using financial stock market data
Firms use many kinds of data for forecasting future sales—one of the key activities in the management of a business—and combine various methods in order to utilize different types of information. A recent study by Nikolay Osadchiy, assistant professor of information systems and operations management; Vishal Gaur (Cornell); and Sridhar Seshadri (UT Austin) focuses on financial stock market data in developing a new methodology for firm-level sales forecasting, testing it against standard benchmarks such as forecasts from equity analysts and time-series methods. Applying their method to the forecast of total annual sales for US public retail firms, the researchers find their market-based approach achieves an average 15 percent reduction in forecasting error compared with more typical forecasting methods. Their model, they write, can also be applied to hedging operational risk with financial instruments. Source:
The challenge of accurately weighting contrary advice
Auditors regularly seek informal advice about their initial judgments from other auditors. Audit firms encourage this advice seeking, believing it enhances professional skepticism and improves professional judgment. But does it? A recent study by Kathryn Kadous, professor of accounting; Justin Leiby (U. Florida); and Mark Peecher (U. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) investigates contrasting theories and evidence on whether seeking advice improves auditors’ judgment and on the factors that influence how readily they incorporate contrary advice into their judgments. They find that nonspecialist auditors who seek advice from those with whom they share a close social bond tend to overestimate the value of that advice. On the other hand, specialists tend to underestimate such advice, perhaps, note the authors, because of threats to the specialists’ egos. In both cases the defensibility of the auditors’ conclusions is negatively affected, heightening audit risk. Source:
Reducing home equity bias through transparency
One of the goals of global stock exchange mergers is to create a consolidated trading platform that makes listed firms available to a greater number of investors while providing firms with larger pools of liquidity. But the problem of equity home bias—the tendency of investors to overinvest in domestic securities and underinvest in foreign securities—can thwart optimal global portfolio diversification. In a recent study, Grace Pownall, professor of accounting; Maria Vulcheva 05MBA 11PhD (FIU); and Xue Wang (Ohio State) examine such home bias in Euronext, which was created in 2002 when four European countries merged their stock exchanges. The researchers focus in particular on two structural mechanisms adopted by Euronext: (1) the integration of trading platforms across the four exchanges, and (2) the creation of named segments open to firms that voluntarily pre commit to greater transparency in financial reporting and corporate governance. In their investigation of these mechanisms, the researchers find that firms that choose not to join the segmented list see no diminution of home bias, while the segmented, more transparent firms reap significant increases in all categories of foreign holdings relative to domestic holdings. Source:
