Sandra Pianalto, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Speaks on the Current Economic Crisis and the Coming Recovery

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By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)iStock_000003731985XSmall

Economic recovery is likely to be “gradual and bumpy” according to Sandra Pianalto, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. In her remarks to a packed house at the Market News International event on October 1st in New York City, she shared her thoughts on both the current economic conditions and the potential challenges on the road to recovery.

The Economy Was in Critical Condition

“My colleague Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve bank of San Francisco, compared the economy to a hospital patient who was in the intensive care unit and only gradually stabilizing,” said Pianalto, adding that she believes that the economy was in “critical condition.” As evidence, she pointed out that the current recession has already lasted nearly seven quarters, almost four times as long as a typical two-quarter recession. “Even with today’s encouraging signs,” said Pianalto, “we have a lot of ground to make up before we even get back to the levels of output seen in 2007.”

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Ask-A-Career Coach: Match Your Energy To Your Work

Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStartjobsearch

Take this short energy quiz.  Give yourself 1 point for every “Yes” and 0 points for every “No.”  How do you score?

  1. I know what time of day I am most productive.
  2. I schedule my most important work for when I am most productive.
  3. I know what time of day my energy tends to sag.
  4. I know what I need to do for a quick but sure energy boost (e.g., eat a snack, take a cat nap, go for a walk).
  5. I know some activities and tasks that I can do even when my concentration tends to wane.
  6. I know how much sleep I need each night.
  7. I wake up without an alarm clock.

So how much do you know about your energy rhythms?  Read more

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Networking Your Way to the Boardroom

By Liz O’Donnell (Boston)Pretty business woman with colleagues discussing in the back

“More and more, I understand the differences between men and women in business today. Women are truly not making their skills known and therefore are not making themselves available for work positions.”

Tough love for women from Nancy Mellard, executive vice president and general counsel for the Employee Services Division of CBIZ and the national leader of CBIZ Women’s Advantage, a provider of business solutions including financial services and technology systems.

“It’s not just about going to a networking event; it’s about truly engaging people in your story,” says Mellard. “Attending a networking event is not enough. You must follow up after the event. Women must approach a networking event like they would approach closing a sale. Networking and telling your story are the two most critical tools for professional women today. The failure to effectively use these two tools is the gap in women on advisory boards. There are thousands of competent women who are not utilizing the correct tools to place themselves on these boards.”

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Voice of Experience: Margaret Enloe, Principal and Associate General Counsel, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

By Pamela Weinsaft (New York City) Margaret Enloe - PricewaterhouseCoopers

Life lessons that come from one’s parents are not uncommon. But when your parent is the founder of an NGO—specifically, UN We Believe (which ultimately became the Business Council for the UN)—such lessons are as likely to come from a speech as from casual dinner conversation.

And it was a speech by her father that taught Margaret Enloe one of her most treasured life lessons: If it is meant to be, it is up to me.

Ms. Enloe, Associate General Counsel in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Office of the General Counsel explained, “You can hope or expect others to act, but it’s almost never a given. If you really want something to happen, it’s up to you. You have to be proactive. And, it’s not about complaining, or worrying or blaming someone else when things aren’t going right. It is much more ‘let’s try to figure this out and where do I start.’”

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-up

Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group.Martin Mitchel of CTG

The chief executive of HSBC predicts a ‘W-shaped’ rather than ‘V-shaped’ recovery. The service sector in the US grew for the first time in a year in September. Goldman Sachs stands to receive a payment of $1bn if commercial lender CIT files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. These are but a few highlights of important market events that we’ve gathered to help you start the week well informed.

Economic Backdrop

  • The chief executive of HSBC, Michael Geoghegan, is convinced that the economy will face a second downturn in the coming months. Believing the recovery is ‘W-shaped’ rather than ‘V-shaped’, Mr Geoghegan is ‘cautious about growing (HSBC) too fast.’
  • The World Bank has requested an additional sum of up to $5bn in new equity from its shareholder governments to support lending to middle income countries.
  • The service sector in the U.S. grew for the first time in a year in September. The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index rose to 50.9 from 48.5 in August – anything above 50 indicates expansion.
  • Australia became the first of the G20 countries to raise interest rates in more than a year. Believing that the risk of serious economic retraction had passed, interest rates were raised by 25 basis points to 3.25%.

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After the Crisis: Women Taking the Reins in the Financial Sector

By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)iStock_000002096821XSmall

According to Catalyst’s Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners, women are still struggling to attain positions of power and in some cases, the number of women in top-ranking, top-earning positions has declined. For example, women currently only hold 6.2 percent of top-earning positions at the largest companies in the United States, though in 2007 that number was 6.7 percent. Catalyst also found that the number of companies with no women corporate officers has increased from 74 to 75 percent in 2008.

These numbers may seem discouraging, but things may change as a result of the ever-expanding global financial crisis. In an unforeseen twist of fate, a revolution of sorts has occurred in an industry that has long been considered a men’s club: the financial sector. It’s no surprise that the financial organizations that led to the economy’s downward spiral were male dominated. One only needs to think back to February; nearly every CEO or executive that appeared before Congress to discuss the bank bailouts was male. This has led many to wonder if more women in boardrooms would have led to less risk-taking behavior or if the financial crisis would have happened at all- or at least as severely as it has played out.

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The Controversy of Increased Regulation: A Discussion with Lynette Hotchkiss, Executive Director of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board

By Lisa Dolan (New York City)iStock_000003949888XSmall

The Municipal Rulemaking Board (MSRB) has proposed new regulations for this $2.6 trillion market. Under the proposed regulations, municipal dealers would face more detailed reporting requirements and enforcement of heightened MSRB rules concerning fair dealing, fair pricing and disclosure. The Glass Hammer recently interviewed Lynette Hotchkiss, Executive Director of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board on her thoughts on the financial disaster and how the proposed regulations by the to prevent a recurrence will impact the investment business as a whole.

Ms. Hotchkiss has more than 20 years of legal, business, and regulatory experience in public finance and other fixed-income securities. Before joining the MSRB, Ms. Hotchkiss was a managing director and associate general counsel at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and associate general counsel at The Bond Market Association, which merged with the Securities Industry Association to form SIFMA. Prior to that, she worked at law firms in New York and London as a bond, underwriters’, and special disclosure counsel and was a general counsel for the New York City Municipal Assistant Corporation.

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Voice of Experience: Melinda Schramm, founder of the National Introducing Brokers Association (NIBA) and owner of MHS Capital Resource

By Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)Schramm

Melinda Schramm is the founder of the National Introducing Brokers Association (NIBA), the writer of the industry’s only guide for Introducing Brokers (currently circulated by the CME Group) and the owner of MHS Capital Resource, an NFA registrant. A lawyer by training, Schramm decided to go into finance after being physically threatened on her prior job. Knowing she needed a change, she answered an ad in the Chicago Tribune and went to work in a newly created compliance department at Green & Collins (known today as the Rosenthal Collins Group).

Now, more than 30 years later, “Melinda is considered a matriarch to the leaders in the financial arena of Introducing Brokers,” said Karen Bertoli, Director of Communications Strategy at Zen-Fire and an affiliate member of the National Introducing Brokers Association (NIBA).  “I have been lucky enough to enjoy her leadership through NIBA and her friendship outside the office.”

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Let’s Bury Short-Termism to Avoid Another Crisis

Contributed by Bill George, professor of management practice at Harvard Business SchooliStock_000005516576XSmall

The Aspen Institute recently made the following announcement:

“Twenty-eight leaders representing business, investment, government, academia, and labor joined the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program’s Corporate Values Strategy Group (CVSG) to endorse a bold call to end the focus on value-destroying short-termism in our financial markets and create public policies that reward long-term value creation for investors and the public good.”

I am one of those twenty-eight leaders, and am proud to join the likes of Warren Buffett, Louis Gerstner, Barbara Hackman Franklin, and Richard Trumka as a signatory to the statement, “Overcoming Short-termism: A Call for a More Responsible Approach to Investment and Business Management.”

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Ask-A-Career-Coach: The Versatility of Specific Graduate Degrees

jobsearchContributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart

I’ve been accepted into University of Richmond to study the Masters of HR Management. I find HR very interesting and want to learn about the subject, but what if later on I decide to focus on a career outside of HR? Will this masters degree hinder me? Since my undergrad is in business, I have absolutely no desire to go for my MBA. They seem like a dime a dozen these days. How would the MHRM be viewed to recruiters in terms of managing other areas of a business? Other departments?

If you ask 10 recruiters the same question, you will get a range of answers. Careers are not an exact science and vary based on an individual’s goals, skill set, personality, drive, etc. In this case, the only thing I am sure about is that you will find some recruiters who highly value the MHRM, some who dismiss it and some who will be in-between.
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