Media Coverage

Steffen Hitzemann, a professor of finance and economics at Rutgers Business School in Newark and New Brunswick, said it takes more than six months for oil production to ramp up.

Among the obstacles: Oil companies have run into a worker shortage and supply chain issues to secure drilling equipment, he said.

Meanwhile, their investors are hesitant to spend a lot of money on new drilling. In the short-term, they aren't sure how long the current shortage will last. In the long-term, they aren't sure how much demand there will be as the world turns to energy sources other than fossil fuel, Hitzemann said.

Cryptocurrency has played a significant role in Ukraine since Russia attacked 3 weeks ago; it's provided civilians with a lifeline as access to banks is scarce and it's also been helping the Ukrainian government fight back. President Zelenskyy just signed a law to legalize and regulate cryptocurrency, making digital donations to the fight against Russia's attacks, even easier. For more, KCBS Radio news anchors Jason Brooks and Holly Quan spoke with Dr. Merav Ozair, Blockchain expert and Professor of Fintech at the Rutgers Business School.

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Lyneir Richardson, executive director, Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (CUEED), Rutgers Business School, and founder of The Black and Latino Angel Investment Fund of New Jersey:

“Governor Murphy and the NJEDA made commitments to inclusive innovation. The news of more private investment in the state is clear evidence of the effectiveness of the programs and policies.”

CUEED launched and now operates the Black and Latino Angel Investment Fund, which is a group of investors providing seed-stage capital to high-growth, next-economy startups owned by people of color. The Black and Latino Angel Investment Fund brings diverse experiences as New Jersey-based entrepreneurs and successful small business owners, academic leaders, corporate representatives and venture corporation founders.

In the workplace, it is common to seek advice, whether it be what financial program to invest in or even which legal action to pursue. The role of an advisor in these situations is to provide feedback or predictions to help the advice seeker make a sound decision. However, the accuracy of the advice may be distorted when advisors act overconfident and serve their own self-interests.

In the past, there has been an assumption that to mitigate overconfidence, advice seekers should simply encourage accuracy and discourage any overconfidence (e.g., by criticizing an advisor for overly optimistic predictions). However, new research (Van Zant, 2022) demonstrates that this approach might not always be helpful. The research finds that advisors may act overconfidently to portray competence when it serves their own interests, such as in performance-based financial incentives. Thus, it may take more than just criticizing an advisor’s overconfidence to get accurate advice.

The Black and Latino Angel Investment Fund of New Jersey (BLAIF) was launched in 2020 by the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CUEED) at Rutgers Business School-Newark and a group of individual accredited investors. The goal of the fund, officials said, is to provide the necessary seed capital for Black and Latinx-owned technology businesses to grow and scale.

“We are thrilled to welcome Bank of America as an investor in the Black and Latino Investment Fund of New Jersey,” said D. Lyneir Richardson, executive director of CUEED and founder of the BLAIF. “Bank of America’s ongoing efforts to address the persistent gap in access to growth capital for underrepresented founders align with our strategy of investing in exceptional Black and Latino entrepreneurs with exceptional business ideas ready for scale. We look forward to expanding our work.”

Why is life insurance an important component to estate planning?

Life insurance is most beneficial to someone who wants to ensure that their loved ones are provided for in the event of their untimely death. For example, a young parent with children may want to ensure that their kids will have enough money to attend college. Life insurance proceeds are usually tax-free to the recipient, which provides another important benefit.

What type of life insurance is best for estate planning? What special considerations should you take into account when choosing a type of life insurance?

Term life insurance is usually fairly inexpensive for most people under the age of 50 and covers a specific time period (e.g., 20 years). As noted above, this type of insurance may be beneficial for someone that wishes to ensure that their loved ones can maintain an acceptable lifestyle in the event of their untimely passing. Term life insurance is often part of the employee benefits program at most mid to large companies. There are other types of insurance products that act as an investment portfolio, growing over time, and provide tax benefits to policyholder’s beneficiaries.

Blockchain expert and Rutgers Business School professor Merav Ozair says FTX’s crypto-as-a service offering “is fascinating,” helping expand blockchain’s use cases, boosting the token-trading industry and bringing more liquidity and engagement to the space, this as many digital currencies have collapsed amid geopolitical tensions brought by the Russia-Ukraine war.

But there are challenges. “There is going to be increased competition and we need more interoperability so people can move and take tokens from one game to another,” Ozair said. “If you look at the metaverse [protocols], you can’t shift your assets across networks that operate in silos.”

Interview with Parul Jain, associate professor at Rutgers Business School

The U.S., European Union and G7 countries are moving to deny Russia “most favored nation” trade status and impose tariffs on Russian imports because of its invasion of Ukraine. The move is designed to strengthen the economic squeeze on Russia.

Parul Jain, an associate professor at Rutgers Business School, discusses the possible ratcheting-up of economic pressure on Russia.

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When someone makes a transaction using a cryptocurrency exchange, it’s recorded on the blockchain, which is the system in which a record of transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are saved. Merav Ozair, Ph.D., told VERIFY the transactions recorded on the blockchain are completely traceable, which is another reason why it’s difficult to use cryptocurrency as a way to escape sanctions.

Serendipity is a pleasant thing. The feeling that you have been lucky, that the gods are smiling upon you, that fate has dealt you a good hand, is a good one, bound to increase your happiness and satisfaction. It feels like magic. What's more is that research shows that using this simple formula can be magical for your Customer Experiences, too.

Kristina Durante, (@KristinaDurante) Ph.D., Professor of Marketing at Rutgers Business School, joined us to talk a bit about the magic of luck, one of her research areas. We extended the invitation after reading an article in Fast Company from last May about Durante's latest research about the psychological effects of experiencing serendipity.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected the economies of countries around the world, including the U.S., according to an article from the Associated Press.

Parul Jain, a professor in the Department of Finance and Economics, said that the crisis has caused a rise in oil prices, which has increased energy costs for American companies.

She said that the rise in oil prices is expected to increase the inflation rate of the U.S. as well as increase the cost of gasoline for American consumers, 60 percent of whom are living paycheck to paycheck.

A few weeks ago, the dance floor of The Grand nightclub in the Seaport District moved to the beats of two truly unique DJs ― digital apes displayed on a large video screen.

What might not have been immediately clear to the crowd was that the dancing animals were really NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, that cost the club’s owners nearly a half-million dollars.

NFTs are digital files — in this case, of cartoon apes — created, or “minted,” using blockchain technology. Because they are one-of-a-kind assets, they can be used to authenticate ownership, much like a deed provides proof of who owns a home.

Collins said buying the package in US dollars “for sure would have been easier,” but now he has a digitally verifiable token that proves he won the VIP package. Whether that is valuable beyond becoming personal memorabilia is debatable, but Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and fintech professor at Rutgers Business School, said there could be scenarios where owning NFT-based tickets makes more sense than buying them with hard currency.

“If it is an NFT and it is authenticated, and [if] it turns out that this event was the first time Michael Jordan did a dunk... now it has real power,” she said.

Like any investment, a digital asset could grow in value over time, or also become worthless, she said.

What red flags should credit card shoppers with poor or fair credit look for in unsecured credit card offers?

Perhaps the main red flag to look for is the interest rate charged on balances that are not paid off in full. Of course, it is ideal to pay off your balance in full each month. If you are unable to do this, look for a card that charges single-digit to very low double-digit rate interest rates.

If someone has fair or poor credit, would that person be better off getting an unsecured credit card (if approved) or a secured credit card? Will one affect a person's credit score more positively than the other?

A secured credit card is better since, by definition, it means the borrowings are secured by other assets. The secured nature makes it less likely that you will be unable to pay off your debt. You never want a modest debt to snowball into a large debt due to high-interest rate charges.

Kaplowitz, executive director of the Rutgers Center for Women in Business at the Rutgers Business School, has her finger on the pulse of where women in business stand today.

So, on International Women’s Day, the global celebration of women and their achievements on all levels — socially, economically, culturally and politically — ROI-NJ decided to check with Kaplowitz to get an update on where women stand in the workplace.

Kaplowitz was quick to say the day is a reminder of the global gender-based discrimination that women face around the world. As we move forward to create a world where women are equally heard and valued, it is going to take time before such a transformative change can take place, she said.

Besides trying to keep costs down, they seek to improve community access to healthcare and provide a good experience, said David Dreyfus, an assistant professor at Rutgers Business School's department of supply chain management.

"They are trying to educate patients and say, 'You don't have to go to a hospital, you can be treated at a convenient location," Dreyfus said. "I can go to this really nice convenient clinic that can provide care at the same level of quality that I can get at the hospital."

That can be appealing to donors, too, said Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert at Rutgers Business School.

“I think from a donor perspective it’s instant, you know if you really want to help people right away, you can do it,” she said.

And there’s another advantage for those who might fear retaliation from, say, the Russian government.

“If the donor, say, wants to stay anonymous, then that is a perfect way to do that,” Ozair said.

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Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and fintech professor thinks this perception comes from a misunderstanding of the technology, and a perpetuation of hype and gimmick culture from influencers.

“I have my reservations with influencers in NFTs because it gives a misconception of what they are. These influencers and all the hype and the gimmicks gives people the wrong impression. If they don’t understand the technology behind it and what it can offer, they won’t understand how important NFTs can be.” says Ozair.

This is not to say that influencers shouldn’t play a role in the advancement of NFTs, nor should they be prevented from investing in them. “If influencers want to be involved with NFTs, they also have to educate, there has to be a balance,” says Ozair.

“The value of technology is definitely there; we just need more education to help people better understand it and see beyond the gimmick and understand the real use cases here.”

The real use cases Ozair is referring to is around authentication. She sees NFTs as a key digital tool for authenticating everything from housing contracts, to marriage licenses and music royalties.

“Energy stocks have been among the best-performing stocks over the past year,” John Longo, a professor at Rutgers University, wrote in an email to the News. “In an inflationary environment, commodities typically perform well.”

Longo added that fixed-income investments — which include United States Treasury bonds — are becoming “less attractive” because the bond yields risk underperforming inflation. The latest Consumer Price Index reflected 7.5 percent inflation over the past year. To counter this inflation, the Federal Reserve typically exercises contractionary monetary policy and raises interest rates. Longo said that when interest rates are rising, “value stocks” from established companies with strong cash flows tend to perform especially well.

Scholars Dr. Randal Pinkett and Dr. Jeffrey Robinson recently released their business book “Black Faces in High Places” on February 8, 2022. It’s a sequel to their 2010 best-selling and award-winning book “Black Faces in White Places.” Their latest work, “Black Faces in High Places,” shares entrepreneurial advice and methods from Black entrepreneurs and executives. Some of the highlighted entrepreneurs include Oprah Winfrey, Cathy Hughes, President Barack, and First Lady Michelle Obama. They all share unique stories of how they reached the top and successfully stayed there.

“This book charts the path for those who are in the middle of their career or in the growth phase of their business or organization,” writes Pinkett and Robinson. “It is the culmination of many hours of research, and it draws on the life lessons and professional experiences of Black women and men who have successfully made the climb to become a Black face in a high place.” These hard-working scholars share steps in their book on how to become distinguished leaders. Besides this, they educate readers on the challenges they’ll face and how to conquer them all. Despite the constant struggles people of color endure, it’s inspiring that Pinkett and Robinson share their knowledge to show that success is obtainable.

Dr. Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and fintech professor at Rutgers Business School, said "there is no way bitcoin is going to zero."

"Whatever is happening in the crypto market has nothing to do with what's happening in the network," she said. "I have been researching the network itself and there's a kind of disconnect happening here."

Ozair added "Russia is having a love-hate with crypto, but I'm not sure that this is really the problem."

2022 State Farm Insurance Review

Does State Farm’s status as the largest insurance company in the U.S. benefit customers?

Yes, insofar as the US insurance industry is regionalized and leading regional insurance companies may not have State Farm’s nationwide reach in terms of auto repair shops and claims adjusters. Florida drivers, for instance, may find themselves relatively helpless if anything should happen during a vacation in New York, Chicago or Las Vegas. Furthermore, a large insurance company will mean big volume for auto repair shops, which will tend to treat its customers accordingly. Also, the sheer size of the company provides some sense of security and peace of mind to its customers, and that is important, the sense of feeling safe.

BCT Partners announces the appointment of five new members to their Board of Advisor board. As BCT continues its rapid growth, the addition of these distinguished professionals will help support its efforts to accelerate innovation and advance equity. The new members will join current advisory board members including Dr. Randal Pinkett, Founder, Chairman, CEO, and Managing Partner, BCT Partners, Lawrence Hibbert, Founder, President and Managing Partner, BCT Partners, Dallas Grundy, Founder, BCT Partners and Senior Vice President and CFO at the University of Akron and Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, Founder, BCT Partners, and Professor and Prudential Chair in Business at Rutgers Business School.

NFT stands for ‘non-fungible token’. That breaks into two parts – ‘non-fungible’ and ‘token’. Something that is fungible is interchangeable so “non-fungible is everything that is unique. A painting like the Mona Lisa that you see in the museum, or in the digital world, a video you create, a tweet or a piece of digital artwork,” says Dr. Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and fintech professor at Rutgers Business School.

The token section refers to its digital existence and the fact that it is protected using blockchain technology. To break it down even further, an NFT is simply a digital asset that, because of its existence on a blockchain (we’ll come to that later), can’t be replicated.

John M. Longo, a professor at Rutgers Business School and the Chief Investment Officer for Beacon Trust, wrote that HMC likely reduced its exposure to public equities in anticipation of lower returns from stocks over the next decade.

“A reduction in its equity portfolio at year-end is not surprising given that the S&P 500 has more than doubled over the past three years,” Longo wrote. “Traditional U.S. equity and fixed income investments are likely to provide returns below their historical long-term averages for the decade ahead, since valuations are starting from high levels and we [are] entering a period of rising interest rates and taxes.”

Longo called HMC’s liquidation of Meta Platforms and Affirm Holdings shares “prescient,” pointing to the companies’ 35 percent and 53 percent drop in stock price, respectively. Longo also called HMC’s reduction in Royalty Pharma “a bit surprising,” though he noted it still represents a large portion – $138 million – of HMC’s equity portfolio.

“It is most likely a risk reduction trade, rather than something fundamentally wrong with the stock,” Longo wrote.

Issues of accommodation and flexibility are at the new frontier of job design.

Before the pandemic, employers largely maintained that remote work was too cumbersome to allow, with some expressing concerns that individualized accommodations could be perceived as unfair to others. Working from home was rarely offered as an accommodation unless legally protected disabilities were documented.

But the global experiment of working from home, launched by COVID-19 nearly two years ago, changed that: Suddenly, everyone got sent home to work from whatever nook or cranny they could carve out, and heaven and earth got moved to make remote work work.

This shift to widespread remote work effectively leveled the playing field for some. People with mobility issues, for example, had the same chance to work as their nondisabled counterparts without having to face their usual hardships, such as having to arrive at the train station by 6 a.m. to access one of the few designated parking spots, or having to move on to another station if the elevator was broken.

Even though NFTs are strictly digital assets, they’re still taxed just like physical assets, according to tax and technology experts.

“If you sell anything in the physical world, will you have to pay taxes?” said Merav Ozair, Ph.D., a financial tech expert at Rutgers University who specializes in cryptocurrency. “If I sell anything, I will have to record it on my tax report and pay taxes… So if in the physical world it makes sense to you, then why not in the digital world, right? It's an asset, like any asset, whether it's digital or it is physical, there's no difference.”

Inflation has climbed at its highest rate in nearly 40 years, forcing New Jerseyans to dig deeper to pay for everything from cupcakes to automobiles.
Experts say rising prices are the result of an economy that is out of kilter. While demand is sky-high, the supply of products is coming back slowly from being shut down during the pandemic.

The overall CPI, however, began to pick up last year as the global economy awoke from the pandemic to find manufacturers couldn't keep up with their customers' demand, said Farrokh Langdana, professor of finance and economics at Rutgers Business School in Newark and New Brunswick.

In this blog, we reach out to Kevin Lyons, the associate professor of supply chain archeology at the Rutgers Business School in New Jersey, and Arnon Melo, managing director of MELLOHAWK Logistics, one of EDC’s customers, to discuss the importance of supply chain sustainability.

What is it?
Supply chain sustainability is a business strategy implemented by an organization to ensure its supply chain network has a minimum impact on people (human rights, the health and safety of employees) and the planet.

What are some of the worst non-sustainable supply chain examples you’ve seen?

Lyons: Exploitation of workers and exposure of these workers to non-environmentally responsible conditions. One example is chemicals used in the clothing industry that harm the workers and clean water systems where they’re disposed or dumped. Another non-sustainable practice is the inefficient use of energy within the supply chain, including logistics and warehousing. For example, if your company has to lease extra warehouse space to store overstock. Not only are you wasting energy moving the excess inventory, but also on the costs to store it until it’s sold. Ideally, you only want to have enough stock in your warehouse to fill your client orders. Producing and shipping using the just-in-time concept can help make your supply chain more sustainable.

After years of handwringing, lawmakers finally may be taking action to support the manufacturing sector

But the bill falls short of assigning responsibility for the maintenance of such a sprawling database once it is established, said Kevin Lyons, an associate professor of supply chain management at the Rutgers Business School. If it works, Lyons said, the database can “provide alternatives in real-time” in the event that “a manufacturer cannot meet the timeline for delivery or cost.”

"If you think about Bitcoin, this is what we can think about as a DeFi decentralised payment system. Now, you can take it to the next level," Dr Merav Ozair, leading blockchain expert and a FinTech professor at Rutgers Business School, told Euronews Next.

"Bitcoin can only do payments. That's it. Nothing else. So you can think about Ethereum as like the next generation. And Ethereum said, 'OK, this is a nice concept, Bitcoin. Let's create, a playground to allow for all other applications to happen," she said.

Ethereum expanded the use of the blockchain beyond a simple payment system and gave tools to developers to create entire programmes that could be stored on them. These came to be known as smart contracts.

"Any contract that you do in the real world, whether you're taking a mortgage or you're asking for a loan or you would like to trade some stock or bond, it's rule-based. So, this rule base can be coded," said Ozair.

And that’s exactly what smart contracts are, pieces of code that automatically execute actions if certain parameters are met.

“[Manufacturers] have a whole series of contracts they’re bidding on,” says David Dreyfus, an assistant professor of supply chain management at Rutgers University Business School who specializes in health care operations. “When they win these contracts, they sort of have to scramble and say, oh boy, we got a big one here. What are we gonna do? And who’s going to be pushed off until later?”

Terri Kurtzberg, PhD, a researcher and professor of negotiation strategies and tactics at the Rutgers University Business School, says that the findings are “spot on.” “It resonates with my experience in the classroom,” she says. “If I give students three weeks to do an assignment, they will do it the night before.”

When there is no deadline attached to something, people are still aware that it needs to get done and can put pressure on themselves to work through it sooner, Dr. Kurtzberg says. “It’s low-hanging fruit. You want to answer it immediately and check it off, so you feel like you accomplished something,” she says.

So, whether you know you need a hand moving or want help with a work project, it could be helpful to leave any kind of deadline out of the equation. “If people know they’re never going to get a moment of pressure, they have to put it on themselves—and they usually will,” Dr. Kurtzberg says.

According to Dr Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and a FinTech Professor at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey in the United States, the hack happened on the “bridge,” which is Layer 2, not Layer 1 and was therefore not the cryptocurrencies that were themselves hacked.

Blockchain expert and a FinTech Professor at Rutgers Business School
Layer 1 is the term that’s used to describe the underlying main blockchain architecture (ie, a blockchain, such as Ethereum or Solana, Avalanche or Algorand). She said layer 1 is almost impossible to hack.

But Ozair explained that Layer 2, the overlaying network that lies on top of the underlying blockchain (such as the Wormhole bridge), is less secure and therefore more vulnerable to code bug exploitations.

“Ethereum and Solana have not been ‘hacked,’ the bridge has been. The analogous is that – if you have a bridge between 2 cities, the ‘attack’ occurred on the bridge between the cities, but each city has not been ‘attacked’ or damaged,” she told Euronews Next.

“Therefore, the solution should be in creating more secure blockchain bridges, shielding any potential ‘attacks’”.

Rutgers Business School's Dr. Merav Ozair explains how the Infrastructure Bill could hurt crypto.

Key points
Blockchain expert Dr. Merav Ozair believes the new Infrastructure Bill could damage the cryptocurrency industry and is built on misconceptions.
New tax requirements don't take into account the way crypto differs from stock investments.

Celebrity chefs and restaurateurs are betting on issuing non-fungible tokens or NFTs as a new way to diversify their revenue stream as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the dining industry hard – and new variants have made recovery even harder.

“Everyone is trying now, especially with the entertainment [industry], trying to allow people back to come and experience in house, because they haven’t done that for a while,” said Prof Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and a FinTech Professor at Rutgers Business School.

Gathering collectibles as part of the gaming experience is a great way to drive people back into brick-and-mortar restaurants, she added.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a revised statement in December that simplifies definitions used in financial reporting — Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts Statement No. 8, (CON 8), chapter 4, “Elements of Financial Statements,” which supersedes Concepts Statement No. 6 (CON 6), “Elements of Financial Statements.” FASB’s objective was to eliminate much of the terminology that created difficulties in applying and understanding the prior elements. With few exceptions, the Board stated that the impact of the statement is not expected to significantly change the population of assets and liabilities or modify the classification of revenues, gains, expenses and losses.

Nonetheless, a careful analysis of 36 comment letters responding to FASB’s Exposure Draft since July 2020 seems to indicate that the revised concepts statement could result in changes in the population of assets and liabilities as well as impact the classification of items on the income statement.

“Our desire for instant gratification hasn’t disappeared,” Rutgers Business School Professor Ashwani Monga wrote in an email. “But we have accepted that gratification may not be as ‘instant’ as it used to be. Patience is being forced upon us. Even after the supply chains stabilize, the sudden stockouts and delayed deliveries will remain seared in our memory, particularly because these events have coincided with emotional scars from the times we live in--the economic, physical, and psychological pain that the pandemic wrought upon so many.”

Monga thinks this time will scar us: “The remnants of both the pain and the forced patience will likely stay with us, long after the pandemic is gone, just as the events of the Great Depression influenced consumers for decades afterward.”

Similarly, a study by Hilal Atasoy at Rutgers Business School finds that during the late 1990s and early 2000s, federal policy programs aimed at expanding broadband internet access led to a substantial increase in the employment rate, especially in rural areas. An important chunk—about 40 percent—of the estimated employment gains were driven by greater labor force participation, suggesting that a decline in job-search costs was one of the drivers of the increase in employment.

New research also suggests, however, that the returns to internet access can be unequal. In the same study, Atasoy finds that, all else being equal, the positive effect of broadband on employment was greater in counties and industries in which a larger share of the workforce had a college degree.

It’s almost a testament, the determination to make your child happy. I was wondering what was your son’s reaction when he first got to hold like a… I don’t know if he got to see like demos or if he got to see the fully-produced figure, but what was his reaction when he first got to hold Sun-Man?
Well, he did see stages of it, so he loved it, but I can tell you how I really knew he had a wonderful reaction was, I went to pick him up at the nursery school one day and all the kids swarmed me, squealing, yelling around my legs. And I was like, “What’s going on here?” And they said, “Menelik told us you can get us any toy we want.”

That’s hilarious. [Laughs]
That’s when I realized what it meant to him, because he was telling his friends about me and about the toy.

How do credit card companies decide whether or not to “instantly approve” an online applicant?

Several factors may influence the decision. The individual’s credit score is a basic indicator of overall creditworthiness. Additionally, other factors, such as prior delinquencies (accounts that are past due) and payment history weigh in as well.

An important factor, of course, is income. This must be disclosed in the application and can be compared to the debt level. Credit history may also feature in approval decisions, with a short credit history indicating an inexperienced borrower.

When does it make sense to worry about getting instant credit card approval?

The credit card company may initiate “hard inquiries” when an individual applies for several credit cards at the same time. Those who have had excessive credit card usage (using more than 30% of available credit) are viewed as engaging in potentially risky behavior as well. Any previous delinquencies and late payments on utility bills etc. are things to worry about since these will show up in the credit report.

The purchase of NFTs essentially gives people membership to a yet-to-open establishment promising omakase – and exclusivity.

Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and fintech professor at Rutgers Business School, says this kind of use of NFTs might be new, but that she expects many more brands will follow suit. “People think of NFTs as the cute stuff, the Beeple and the fancy art,” she says, referring to the artist whose NFT sold for more than $69 million at a Christie’s auction. She thinks NFTs have the potential for broader use, like the way Flyfish will allow people to own, lease and sell their memberships.

“The power of NFTs is authentication – they facilitate the transition of ownership,” Ozair said. “When you think about it, everything in your life is about is transferring ownership.”

“The crazy thing is in the last several years, it really feels like based on your political affiliation, you’re operating on different facts,” Ponce de Leon added. “It’s hard to compromise when we can’t even agree on what reality is. It makes it almost impossible to talk about what the solutions are.”

Nancy DiTomaso, a professor of business and management at Rutgers Business School, said that is by design. As issues of racism and inequality persist and politicians and others offer possible solutions, she said, there has been an effort “orchestrated by right-wing billionaires who have put together organizations to try to change the conversation.” Those include conservative-leaning think tanks and other entities that try to influence politics, higher education, the judiciary and more.

“To some extent, the rush among Republican legislators to try to prevent people from talking about racial inequality is another manifestation [of the] wish to keep things hidden … under wraps,” she added.

And when investors sell, they don't just sell in one asset class. Retail investors and institutional investors might sell assets to cover for losses in other ones. If crypto was once a hedge from inflation and traditional market forces, that era may be long gone. "There was a time when you could think about Bitcoin as a way to diversify from the market," but that's no longer the case, said Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and fintech professor at Rutgers Business School.

"When people panic, they panic cross-border."

NFT experts and artists say they’re wary of Meta’s gambit for a number of reasons. It’s a centralized business, while the NFT community prizes decentralization and autonomy. Meta has tried to censor content on its platform, while NFT artists value free expression. There’s also the suspicion that Meta is only jumping on the bandwagon to capitalize on a Web3 innovation that can make a lot of money. In January, NFT trading broke records, topping $4 billion in sales on OpenSea as celebrities and fashion brands got involved.

Decentralized art sales don’t “resonate well with a company like Facebook,” said Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and a fintech professor at Rutgers Business School. Ozair says she is dubious of the degree of control Meta will have on price manipulation of the art, highlighting an example of how Meta plans to track people’s movement in the metaverse.

News 12 spoke with professor David Dreyfus, who teaches supply chain management at Rutgers Business School, two weeks ago when many hoped the COVID-19-related situation would be solved by now.

“If you are going to the store, certainly check around and see what others are finding,” says Dreyfus. “Ask friends or neighbors going to the store to look for you for items that may be at a different store. You could of course call the store and see if they have a specific item in stock."

Visakhapatnam: The three-day Academy of International Business (AIB) South Asia Conference (SAC) began here at the Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam (IIMV), the hosts, in virtual mode on Sunday.

In the keynote address, Prof. Farok Contractor, President AIB, and distinguished professor, Rutgers Business School, USA, highlighted the agenda of SAC and spoke about the importance of studying international business. He emphasized the roles of international business leading to sustainable development in South Asian economies.

A recent academic study looking at the performance of IRAs found some “striking and unexpected” results. First, for those who make less than $200,000 (or “low-income”), returns on Roth IRAs were 3.6% from 2004 to 2018, versus 8.5% for those who make more (or “high-income”). Further, the Sharpe ratio for those with lower returns was 50% higher (.49 versus .32).

“At the aggregate level, the risk-adjusted performances of IRA plans are comparable to that of the aggregate equity market,” Lorenzo Bretscher of London Business School, Riccardo Sabbatucci of Stockholm School of Economics and Andrea Tamoni of Rutgers Business School write in their paper, “The Unintended Consequences of Roth IRAs.”

“However,” they write, “high-income individuals substantially outperform low-income ones, and this return differential is almost three times as large in ‘tax-free’ Roth IRAs, suggesting that their introduction, intended to help hard-working, middle-class Americans, greatly benefited high-income individuals and amplified wealth inequality.”

The latest restaurant to be launched upon New York’s crowded dining scene does not yet have premises or a menu and will only serve diners who have purchased a token using the digital currency ethereum.

In spite of these drawbacks, or perhaps because of them, tokens giving the holder the right to eat at this establishment at some time in the future were trading this week for $21,000.

Flyfish Club, which is due to open in 2023, has been set up by three restaurateurs and a digital marketing entrepreneur and is being billed as the “world’s first NFT restaurant.”

Merav Ozair, an expert in blockchain technology and a fintech professor at Rutgers Business School, thought the group behind Flyfish Club would need to steadily provide added benefits for token holders.

“This is how they are really going to increase the value,” she said. If they did not, the value of the assets would be entirely based on the quality of the restaurant “and this is super risky.”

Merav Ozair, a blockchain expert and fintech professor at Rutgers Business School, says this kind of use of NFTs might be new, but that she expects many more brands will follow suit. “People think of NFTs as the cute stuff, the Beeple and the fancy art,” she says, referring to the artist whose NFT sold for more than $69 million at a Christie’s auction. She thinks NFTs have the potential for broader use, like the way Flyfish will allow people to own, lease and sell their memberships.

“The power of NFTs is authentication — they facilitate the transition of ownership,” Ozair said. “When you think about it, everything in your life is about is transferring ownership.”