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Calpers sues rating companies over
$1 billion in bond losses
Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Los Angeles and Sacramento -- California's giant public pension fund is suing the nation's three top bond credit-rating companies for issuing "wildly inaccurate" rankings on investments that it said cost pensioners "perhaps more than $1 billion."
The California Public Employees' Retirement System on Wednesday drew plaudits and skepticism for raising legal questions about the firms' gold-plated AAA rankings for investment funds that collapsed in 2007 and 2008.
"It's very exciting when someone has the fortitude and the capital to pursue these kind of claims," said Paul Lapides, director of the Corporate Governance Center at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. "If in fact there's a pattern and practice of bad behavior that they knew or should have known about, then the rating agencies should be held accountable in state court."
(Also: CalPERS sues credit-rating firms over $1 billion in investment losses, WGHP Fox 8 Greensboro.) |
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Entrepreneurship Increases with Corporate
and Economic Disappointments
eNewsline
According to a study by the Kauffman Foundation, a large, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship, it was found that “entrepreneurship rates increased from 2007 to 2008 in what it calls a 'harbinger of the current economic recession.’ ” (Westphal, 2009) The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), during the same time period (2007–2008), saw a 7.5% increase in “non-employer base experiences” or self-employed professionals with no employees working within their businesses.
… Students are not the only ones interested in entrepreneurship in academia. Faculty are also becoming more and more interested in the discipline. For instance, Babson College's 29th Entrepreneurship Research Conference's 2009 call for papers received 598 abstracts from 47 countries. At the event, 366 researchers presented on 263 papers from 29 different countries. Entire journals dedicated to entrepreneurial topics are also being created. For example, in 2010, the Cox Family Enterprise Center at Kennesaw State University will be launching the Journal of Family Business Strategy. The new journal will be dedicated to exploring topics related to the development, survival, and ownership of a family-operated enterprise.
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