Media Coverage

What mistakes do people make with credit cards, and specifically rewards programs?

While these are generally good elements of credit cards, users need to be careful to be able to pay the card balance in full each billing cycle. To charge items just to get the rewards is generally not a good strategy and can lead to growing balances.

What are the "gotchas" about credit cards and rewards programs that are not well understood by consumers?

Sometimes there are other "catches" to the rewards programs requiring additional purchases or other elements. I use a "cash back" card offering rebates for gas, travel and other items at different levels. Look carefully at what items deliver the maximum level of return (e.g., I get gas rebates of 4%).

Many students are not educated on credit card use, managing spending and debt. What tips do you have for new credit card holders or parents looking to teach their students how to properly use a credit card?

First, set a reasonable credit limit for small expenses but also low enough to prevent the card user from developing significant debt beyond a comfortable level to be repaid. Be careful of high limits that also have a high interest rate. These are often ways that students get into trouble by making credit too easy and then repaying beyond their ability as new users.

Why do employers have difficulties in filling employment positions?

Although the demographic trends are quite clear in the U.S. and in most of the developed world, it seems that many people, including most employers, do not understand how significant these trends are for their efforts to hire people for their current businesses. The “native-born” population in the U.S. and most developed countries has been growing very slowly and not keeping pace with economic activity. Unless the U.S. accepts more immigration, employers across the country will not be able to fill job openings, even with salary increases.

While it may seem like a lot of stores on paper, it’s really not, explained Arturo Osorio Fernandez, a management and global business professor at Rutgers University.

“If placed on a map there is a geographical pattern of service-overlap on highways and heavy traffic areas,” he said in May. “Yet you will also see that they have no real overlap. Each brand serves a different area. And there are even areas that are not served by either of them.”

Morris A. Davis, professor and Paul V. Profeta Chair in Real Estate and the academic director of the Center for Real Estate Studies at Rutgers Business School, said certain factors will drive down inflation.

"Hopefully, the Russia-Ukraine war will be over soon and the COVID pandemic is essentially over so the impact of supply disruptions on inflation should go away soon," Davis said. "Additionally, the Fed is trying to reduce demand for goods and services by raising interest rates. The key is to get the core inflation rate to 2 percent."

The inflation rate doesn't tell the entire story behind the U.S. economy, Davis said.

"I think the thing we should all be worried about is the debt ceiling," Davis said. "If the U.S. government defaults on a debt payment, chaos will ensue in financial markets, a major recession or worse will follow, and the dollar may massively revalue."

The Provost and Executive Vice Chairman of Rutgers University, Newark-NJ, Dr Jeffrey Robinson, spoke about his institution’s collaboration with SOS Global Investments and Nekotech Center and touched on some of the courses available at Rutgers University to be offered to the incoming African students.

And according to a Rutgers Business School analysis, it is because of Title IX that today, three million more high school girls and 200,000 more college women have access to athletic pursuits.

Parul Jain, finance and economics professor at Rutgers University, reckons the problem might have got worse in the United States, not better.

The U.S. inventory-to-sales ratio was 1.4 in May, up from 1.33 a year ago, which means retailers, manufacturers and wholesalers have more inventory than they can sell at a higher rate than a year ago, she said.

A new study examines whether privately owned banks seek political influence by offering preferred loan terms to corporate borrowers with valuable political connections, showing that such connections do indeed lead to lower interest rates on new loans.

Among the questions MoneyGeek asked a group of experts was this one, What are some of the main benefits of having a secured credit card? Would you consider it worth it for most people? John Longo, a distinguished professor or professional practice in finance at Rutgers Business School offered this information as part of his advice in the piece: "A secured credit card is backed by cash, so there is a significantly reduced chance of default. Therefore, a secured card enables you to build up your credit rating in most instances. If someone has had problems in the past with paying off the balance in full on a traditional credit card, then a secured card may be a good option. Consumers should try hard to pay off their balance in full each month with any type of credit card since the interest rate on remaining balances is likely to exceed the returns on other uses of the funds.

What advice do you have for people looking for a same-day loan?

Same-day loans can be a quick source of emergency funds for people who are in urgent need of cash, but they can be extremely expensive (APRs can be several hundred percent for payday loans) and come with nasty non-payment penalties. Same-day loans often come with high origination fees that include both a fixed charge and a percentage of the loan amount in addition to the high-interest rate. Many have prepayment penalties and expensive rollover costs (if you have to roll it over because you cannot pay it off by the due date).

The best advice that I can give to someone considering these loans is to read the fine print and only borrow from a licensed lender.

Do you think most adults know what a balance transfer is and how it works? Why or why not?

Most adults may have heard about balance transfers; however, this can only be availed of if the 0% offer is mailed to them. And it appears that these offers are mailed to people with high credit ratings, who obviously may not be maintaining outstanding credit card balances for transfer. These offers seem to be targeting the wrong audience.

By and large, it seems that most have a partial understanding of how balance transfers work. The devil is in the details: the balance transfer fee could be 3-5%, the 0% is a teaser rate that can skyrocket when the grace period ends, and there is always a minimum amount to be paid to keep the 0% rate. Thus, any lapses can lead to a big tab.

YWCA Evansville has announced its keynote speaker for the 21st annual Women's Equality Day celebration, and according to the news release, she brings a combination of athleticism, advocacy and business.

Lisa Kaplowitz will be addressing the theme, “From the Locker Room to the Boardroom – Channeling Your Inner Athlete (Even if You Never Played Sports)."

Kaplowitz's background in gender equality advocacy dates to her student-athlete days at Brown University, when she was part of a landmark Title IX case that added more varsity athletic opportunities for women.

“The marketing for Barbie has been insane,” said Kristina Durante, a professor of marketing and department chair at Rutgers University’s business school.

The marketing campaign did two critical things: It kept the plot of the movie a mystery, doling out only breadcrumbs, while simultaneously bombarding the world with pink, partnering with brands and letting social media and millions of people around the world do the rest. It also allowed people to connect with Barbie and with each other in a safe way.

“Barbie is taking issues about equity, body image, inclusion, diversity, intersectionality, politics and the patriarchy, all of the stuff we’re dealing with in such a divided country — the state of the world today is very negative — and addressing it.” Durante said. “It adds a little bit of levity around the weight of these issues that we are facing.”

Nancy DiTomaso, professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School, said that even removing legacy admissions wouldn’t affect white students because they still have access to opportunities that other racial groups do not.

The opposite effect is true for Black and Latino students with regard to the end of affirmative action.

“If they don’t have some kind of attention to the kinds of challenges that they faced and the opportunities that they’ve had to show their leadership and their achievements, despite lack of resources, for example, it may have a big effect in terms of their ability to get into the quality of school that they’re applying to,” DiTomaso said.

In 2015, the BOE voted to approve its “historic” Access & Equity Policy followed shortly thereafter by an Academic Placement policy meant to provide access to higher level courses at the high school to Black students.

Upon its passage, BOE President Wayne Eastman said the Access & Equity policy was a “seismic change” in the district, introducing choice and opening access to all classes and levels for all students throughout the district.

RentCafe recently showed new data indicating that North Jersey has one of the most competitive rental markets in the nation, due to high home prices, tight housing supply and inflation. Those factors, combined with a job market that has showed signs of slowing for entry-level positions, have made New Jersey the state with the highest percentage of people ages 18 to 34 living with their parents, said Parul Jain, an associate professor of practice in finance and economics at Rutgers Business School.

Given the apparent arbitrariness of the established guidelines, I posed the question of how much a responsible individual should truly spend on a house. I disregarded the fantastical figures that optimistic lenders might approve and focused on an appropriate expenditure. The experts seemed puzzled by this premise. “What does the word responsible even mean?” pondered Morris Davis, a real estate professor at Rutgers.

The most significant danger of overspending on a house is the potential inability to continue making payments in the event of personal or global catastrophes. Admittedly, the risk is relatively low. Even homeowners who allocate up to 38 percent of their income towards their mortgage tend to avoid default, especially if they possess good credit and paid a substantial down payment, according to Davis’ research.

Like many other small businesses in North Jersey, Release Yoga has financially recovered from the pandemic and has seen growth. However, small businesses still face challenges. According to Marc Kalan, an associate professor of professional practice at Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick, although the economy is currently strong, consumers are hesitant to spend money on non-necessities that many small businesses sell, because of inflation.

“Cash flow is the essence of your business,” said Gary Minkoff, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at Rutgers University.

Along with tracking revenue and expenses, business owners need to monitor the timing of cash receipts and payments, to ensure they have enough money to cover payroll and other upcoming bills. Also important is knowing what it costs the business to offer its products and services, and effectively managing those costs, as in leveraging inventory and identifying which products are selling and why.

It’s no secret that supply chains were put to the test during COVID, and that many global networks are still feeling the lasting impacts of the subsequent shortages. That’s because consumer demand increased as the worldwide crisis wound down, exacting even more stress on already-taxed supply chains. “When demand exploded, everything from semiconductors to cars to basic items were hard to get,” says Farrokh Langdana, a professor in the finance and economics department at Rutgers Business School and director of its Executive MBA Program.

Eliminating legacy admissions would have a “limited effect” on white students and, to an extent, Asian students, said Professor Nancy DiTomaso. “There are still many options available from which they can gain a good education and good opportunities for their life outcomes,” she said. But Black and Latino students have “greater obstacles and lesser resources,” she added, even those whose families are middle class, because of different factors including the effects of policies and laws, that have made it harder for their families to build wealth.

"The Fourth is a holiday of getting together, sharing games or the beach, and food with family and friends," said Marc Kalan, a professor of professional practice in marketing at Rutgers Business School. "So, spending less money than in previous years on this event is really coming off a relatively low base, and I do not think the overall impact will be very significant. Even most seasonal businesses should not see a very significant decrease for that weekend (and note, this year the weekend has 4 days of celebration, a 33% increase over a traditional 3-day holiday weekend).

Podcasters have any number of reasons for starting their shows. They may want to share their passion about a certain subject, build a brand or establish themselves as thought leaders in a particular industry. Businesses use podcasts as a content marketing tool to engage with their audience and promote their products or services.

Podcasts provide marketers with a unique opportunity to stand out in a crowded digital space, said Neal Schaffer, founder of digital marketing consultancy PDCA Social and a Rutgers Business School instructor, on NealSchaffer.com. While millions of podcasts have been published — Apple Podcasts lists nearly 2.5 million — they amount to just 0.1% of the number of blogs that exist. And only 20% of them are active, with episode drops at least every 90 days. “This simply means that the chances of being found and making connections are high!” Schaffer noted.

Developing countries commonly face alarmingly low levels of regulatory compliance by firms, endangering the health and safety of citizens and the environment. Previous research indicates that the opportunity to provide feedback during the regulatory drafting process—also known as Notice and Comment (N&C)—enhances firms’ views of government’s regulatory authority, as well as their actual efforts towards compliance. This is evidence of a firm-level version of a mechanism that psychologists refer to as procedural justice, which is particularly relevant for the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are most challenging for resource-strapped developing country governments to regulate. Simultaneously, however, there is also evidence of compliance “backlash”—in other words, reduced compliance—when these same firms find government and its N&C approach to be insufficiently engaged or responsive.

New research from the University of Washington finds that employee approval greatly influences whether a board of directors will retain or dismiss a chief executive officer. For a CEO, that means job security could hinge on keeping workers positively engaged and appreciative of leadership.

Other authors were Danni Wang of Rutgers University, Qi Zhu of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Wei Shen and David Waldman of Arizona State University. Zhu was supported by a research grant from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

As well as rising interest in supply chain management as an academic discipline, the career opportunities post-degree look brighter than ever. So what are the key skills that supply chain managers need to be successful in this age of turmoil — and how can they acquire them while studying at business school? “We have had a class on risk and disruption management since the program started. The examples and cases that we study have changed, but the overall learning goals remained the same,” said Rudi Leuschner, director of the online Masters of Science in Supply Chain Management Program at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey. "Demand is robust for the course, he said.

The event included remarks by Special Guest Speaker, Lizanne Kindler, Executive Chair & CEO, Talbots, Ann Taylor, LOFT, Executive Chair, Lane Bryant, followed by a lively panel discussion moderated by Lisa Kaplowitz, Founder & Executive Director of the Center for Women in Business, Rutgers University that included Jill Beraud, Independent Director, Levi Strauss & Co. Chair, Fashion for Good, Gisel Ruiz, Former EVP Chief Operating Officer, Sam's Club, Independent Director, Ulta Beauty, and Theresa Strickland, Executive Leader and Digital/Brand Transformation Expert.

In contemplating the 150-hour requirement for licensure — if and how the rule benefits both CPA candidates and the profession — it’s important to note that it’s also part of a larger discussion around the decline in the CPA pipeline and accounting program enrollments in general. It seems there’s no better time to be an accounting student — you are in high demand! But the trend is troubling for the accounting profession itself.

So why does the 150-hour requirement exist and what value does it provide? I assume that, at least in part, the thought-process behind the rule initially was that accounting students should acquire additional knowledge which would prove useful in their future careers. But how has this scenario played out over the years? How do students choose to complete these credits?

"We initially thought this research was going to show that the Russian sanctions worked," said Alexander Settles, a professor in the University of Florida Warrington College of Business. "But once we analyzed the data, we started seeing what we saw on the ground, which is there did not seem to be long-term negative impacts from these economic sanctions."

Settles worked with Ajai Gaur of Rutgers University and Juha Väätänen from LUT University in Finland to analyze the effect of sanctions on Russian businesses implemented after the Crimean annexation in 2014. The team published their findings June 1 in the Journal of Management Studies.

John M. Longo, a professor at Rutgers Business School and chief investment officer at Beacon Trust, wrote in an email that the growth in HMC’s direct stock holdings mirrors the performance of other investment portfolios during the first quarter.

“The S&P 500 increased 7.5% in Q1, so most diversified equity portfolios rose over the reporting period,” Longo wrote.

As of December 2022, HMC’s holdings in Meta totaled $136 million, representing more than 16 percent of its stock portfolio. By the end of the first quarter in 2023, the company’s Meta stocks were worth more than $240 million — more than a quarter of the value of HMC’s direct public investments.

Longo also wrote in an email that Meta’s stock “has been one of the best performers YTD in 2023.”

“The firm has embraced cost-cutting as well as growth in AI, while seeming to scale back its investments a bit in the metaverse,” Longo said. “Investors seem to like this shift in strategy.”

Farrokh Langdana, director of the executive MBA program at Rutgers Business School said that inflation peaked around 9.5% last June and has since fallen to about 5%, though he acknowledged that’s higher than the Federal Reserve’s 2-3% inflation target.

“The economy is growing, there’s optimism, they’re buying more furniture, they’re traveling more, they’re eating out more,” Langdana said. “This is known as demand pull. The demand is pulling up prices.”

At a certain point, however, the demand pull overwhelmed the economy.

“What happened last year was another inflation came in at the worst possible time: cost push inflation. This is inflation caused by shortage,” Langdana said. “This is the cost-push inflation because you have prices going up but production going down.”

Part of the Fed’s tough messaging so far, he added, is to address the psychological component of inflation, because just the expectation of inflation can drive prices higher.

“If the Fed has to tame expectations, it’s not just bringing inflation down, it’s also bringing the expectations of inflation down,” Langdana said. “They’re not just trying to sound tough, there is a purpose here. It’s to shut down any thought that this will be a lingering inflation.”

The disclosures also help to convey the widespread use of these programs, which have gained in popularity over the past three years, particularly for companies seeking to preserve cash. “It’s probably normalizing because we don’t necessarily have that crisis mode,” said Rudi Leuschner, associate professor of supply-chain management at Rutgers University.

The disclosures could prove especially valuable to investors as recession fears continue to loom. A worsening economic outlook could limit companies’ ability to pay their suppliers, he said.

“If a company is seriously in trouble, having a larger amount outstanding that they still owe to their suppliers could raise the trigger point of a potential bankruptcy to a very high level,” Leuschner said. “It very quickly can devolve into a really bad situation.”

When does it make sense to buy insurance from a rental car company?

Whenever your credit card does not offer auto insurance coverage or when your own insurance cannot be transferred to your rental, it would be wise to get proper coverage. Over one million cars were stolen in the US last year, and rentals are four times more likely to be involved in an accident than non-rentals. It could happen to anyone. Play it safe!

Terri R. Kurtzberg is a professor of business and management at the Rutgers Business School. Much of her career has been spent investigating these issues of negotiation, salaries, promotions and so on.

Many of the conclusions in her investigations are collected in a not-very well-known book that is already a few years old, "The Essentials of Job Negotiations." However, still highly recommended for the subject we are talking about today.

And the most repeated failures that she has seen in her studies have been these:

Lack of preparation and general knowledge about the company and the negotiator
Sending mixed signals during the negotiation
Giving too much information too soon
Asking too much just to “see what happens”
Focusing too much on numbers and the short term
To lie

Borrowing costs would go up if the U.S defaults, said John Longo, an economics professor at Rutgers University. “A car loan, a mortgage loan, interest rates go up a little bit and that raises the cost of borrowing to the consumer,” he said.

While that may seem like a lot on paper, it’s really not, explained Arturo Osorio Fernandez, a management and global business professor at Rutgers University.

“If placed on a map there is a geographical pattern of service-overlap on highways and heavy traffic areas,” he said. “Yet you will also see that they have no real overlap. Each brand serves a different area. And there are even areas that are not served by either of them.”

Wawa “is considered to be an NJ store by locals,” Fernandez said, despite being based out of Pennsylvania, “because of its largest presence in the area.”

With QuickChek, he said, “the brand is linked to green practices and transparency, [t]hus presenting itself as a more environmentally conscious business that seeks to provide freshness and convenience.”

"The data shows Walmart's power over suppliers and its potential to gain market share from rivals like Amazon," said Parul Jain, a professor of finance and economics at Rutgers Business School, who reviewed the data for Reuters.

In other words: industry consolidation. And there’s room for it. The U.S. has over 4,000 banks, more than any other nation.

These individual acquisitions are supposed to add up to this grand confidence in the banking system. Bank A provides stability by buying Bank B. Bank C buys bank D and so on. But Darius Palia, a finance professor at Rutgers University, said a pattern of saves by lenders and regulators can instead make depositors nervous.

“It’s like crowd philosophy, you know. When does the crowd suddenly turn?” he said.

How important are limited-time promotions to credit card application rates?

Attractive promotions assist the vendors break through the clutter and get into the consumer consideration set. The market is saturated and most consumers are not thinking of applying for additional credit cards organically so such offers are essential to generate traction.

According to a new study by Rutgers University’s Alex Van Zant and colleagues (2023), dishonesty is a common feature of social interactions, especially when it can favor the liar in some way, such as in business negotiations. It obviously can benefit a negotiator, at least temporarily, to leave out some hard truths about what they’re asking you to do, invest, or provide on their behalf. Even if the actual reward is small, they could still experience, as the Rutgers U. team points out, a bit of “deceiver’s delight.” The feeling may be akin to the rush you get when you take an extra helping of dessert without being noticed.

On the other hand, “deceiver’s guilt” can set in if liars believe they’ve crossed an ethical/moral line, even wishing later that they’d acted in a way consistent with their moral compass. This process, what’s called “upward counterfactual thinking,” can create not only guilt but also dissatisfaction with the whole situation and everyone involved, including the person they've deceived.

John Longo, a Rutgers Business School professor, said SVB's collapse occurred after investors questioned the bank's financial stability and the resulting panic caused a bank run.

A bank run refers to when numerous customers simultaneously withdraw their money from a certain bank due to worries about the bank's funds — such withdrawals may actually cause the bank to collapse.

The initial collapse of SVB, a bank that specialized in lending to start-up companies, heightened concerns about the reliability of regional banks and led to a bank run on the now-defunct Signature Bank, he said.

"Every bank is highly levered. So what that means is that, as an example, if you put $100 in the bank, the bank puts the equivalent of less than $10 in either the physical or electronic vault," he said. "So if everybody rushed to the vault at the same time, the bank couldn't service everybody."

Special guest speaker is Lizanne Kindler, executive chair of Ann Taylor, Loft and Lane Bryant, and chief executive officer at Talbots. The moderator will be Lisa Kaplowitz, founder and executive director of the Center for Women in Business at Rutgers University.

At a celebratory event at Rutgers University’s Piscataway campus, Sundar Raman, founding director of the RSCL, said that participating students – all sophomores and juniors – will be matched with a company based on their respective preferences. Students will have the opportunity to receive academic training, one-on-one mentoring, participate in experiential learning projects, attend conferences and obtain internships.

“Supply chains have certainly made it to the main pages of the newspapers, and this only highlights the importance of supply-chain management. The tremendous challenges for supply chains across the globe have only underlined that everyone in the organization is impacted by the disruptions -- and therefore everyone should understand how supply chains operate,” says Rudi Leuschner, an Associate Professor in the department of Supply Chain Management at Rutgers Business School, in New Jersey.

Just like supply chains need continuous improvement and an eye towards the future, so do educational programs. The Mini-MBA: Digital Supply Chain Management certificate program, offered at Rutgers, is being updated to reflect the latest thinking and best practice.

“This course is suited for those who want to learn techniques for re-evaluating and analyzing the current global supply chain management strategy and operations of their organizations -- and develop and implement fresh ideas to enhance their supply chain management processes and practices -- to increase the supply chain’s resilience and position,” says Vickie Anderson, the program’s Global Manager.

Jobs which mostly consist of repetitive tasks, like data entry clerks and typists, may be the most likely to be automated, said Parul Jain, an associate professor of professional practice with the finance and economics department at Rutgers Business School.

https://www.business.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/documents/19-fastest-declining-jobs-parul-jain-nj.com.pdf

Alcohol sales provide some of the highest profit margins in the food service industry, and that’s especially true for fine dining restaurants that are trying to push the envelope, according to Morris Davis, an economist and academic director at the Center for Real Estate Studies at the Rutgers Business School.

“If you want experimental chefs trying new types of cuisine, those experimental chefs have to make money somehow,” Davis said. “If you remove the alcohol, then you have to make money via the food. That leads to fewer experimental restaurants because the food is more expensive.”

https://www.business.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/documents/long-pour-morris-davis-nj.com-sm.pdf

"America’s Obsession with Equity: When Merit Trumps Race." Interview with Heather Mac Donald at the Harvard Club, New York City, April 19, 2023

"Mark Castelino, professor at Rutgers University. I'm an Indian, and my country was ruled for 200 years by the white man from across the seas. In 1947 we got our independence. As a people and as a nation, we refused to look back but decided to forge ahead. Today three of my countrymen, who went to the same university I went to, run three of the largest companies in the world: Microsoft, Google, and IBM. Another two Indians became governors of two Southern States in this country, and another Indian is now prime minister of Britain. The quickest, now my advice to Harvard University and The New York Times: stop this narrative about race. Okay. It doesn't help the people you're trying to help. Take the message from the Indians who made it on merit, not on race."

In one study, [How to Reconnect for Maximum Impact, Jorge Walter, Daniel Z. Levin, and J. Keith Murnighan, February 23, 2016] executives who were told to seek advice from a dormant tie felt anxious beforehand, yet 90 percent of them reported afterward that the experience was enjoyable — and fun.

Rutgers University-New Brunswick ranked #13 among the Top 20 Public Colleges for Accounting Salaries.
These graduates earn higher pay than the median graduate in accounting.