Business
School of Business:
Upcoming Events
Thursday, Apr. 1;
Tuesday, Apr. 27;
Thursday, May 6:
6:00 p.m.
Event: “MBA Informational Sessions”
Location: Logan House
Notes: Free and open to any students
interested in researching the Masters
of Business Administration degree at
Penn State Erie, the Behrend College.
Speakers: A 1 Warner, Director, MBA
Program; Ann Burbules, graduate ad
missions counselor
Registration encouraged: Please visit
http://behrend.psu.edu/mymba to pre
register.
World & National
Business News
Virgin Galactic sends sec
ond ship into space
Virgin Galactic flew another private
spacecraft into captive orbit when the
VSS Enterprise was carried by the
WhiteKnightTwo into space Monday
morning.
The ship is expected to go through a
much more rigorous flight test pro
gram than SpaceShipOne, its prede-
cessor.
SpaceShipOne's development in
volved two captive carries, several
glide tests the involved the ship being
released from several altitudes, and
then powered flight tests.
SpaceShipOne took its first flight on
June 21, 2004.
Virgin Galactic has yet to state a
date for the beginning of commercial
space flights. However, the company
has seaid that such flights could start
taking place before 2011.
The company says that after glide
flights are completed, the team will
start subsonic powered flights, super
sonic powered flights, and then even
tually suborbital space flights.
Following all of these tests, the
crafts will go through the long process
of getting certification from the Fed
eral Aviation Adminstration so they
can begin commercial passenger
spaceflights.
Madoff assautted in prison
Bernard Madoff was physically as
suited by another inmate in December,
reports the Wall Street Journal.
The Bureau of Prisons investigated
the incident, which involved interview
ing Madoff.
"In December he told staff he was
not assaulted, and an investigation
was completed following his state
ments, which corroborated his state
ments," said Traci Billingsley, a Bureau
of Prisons spokeswoman. "Not one in
mate has told staff he was assaulted."
Madoff was moved to the Butner,
N.C. prison's medical ward for treat
ment. He was treated for a broken
nose, fractured ribs and cuts to his
head and face, according to a felon
serving time in the prison.
He has since returned to the
medium security prison he originally
occupied, according to the Bureau of
Prisons.
Madoff, 71, plead guilty a year ago
and is currently serving a 150-year
sentence for running a fraud scheme
that cost investors billions of dollars.
Google to drop censored
search engine
After four years of helping the Chi
nese government by creating a special
search engine to help the government
censor Internet search results, Google
Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin has re
solved to discontinue the partnership.
Relations between Google and the
Chinese government were deteriorat
ing for some time. But a recent cyber
attack on Google was traced back to
Chinese hackers seemed to finally
break the dam.
In addition, China has been consis
tently increasing their interference
with Google's Internet operations
since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
On Monday, Google began to cease
censorship, rerouting all searches
from mainland China to a site based in
Hong Kong that the company is not
censoring.
The future of the relationship be
tween Google and China remains un
certain, but the two will mostly likely
continue to part ways.
Beacon Business Staff
Business Editor
Akeem Mclntosh • MIS major
Business Reporters:
Arica Christman • Marketing major
Harmilee Cousin 111 • Business Economics
& Finance major
Young
continued from front page,
Fannie Mae is a federal national
mortgage association which was es
tablished in 1938 as a government en
tity. It was “privatized” in 1968.
Freddie Mac is a federal home loan
corporation established in 1970.
Young stated that between these two
corporations along with the United
States government, ignited the flames
for the recession.
These corporations are considered
to be secondary markets, and accord
ing to Young, they are “generally a
good thing.”
“Secondary markets normally allow
short term investors to fund long term
loans,” he said. “This increases liquid
ity which means less risks, and ulti
mately allows foreign investors to find
domestic home borrowing.”
However, Young said, the two corpo
rations made several key mistakes.
“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac han
dled the secondary market in an incor
rect manner,” he said. “The main issue
arose when they began to ignore the
asymmetric information problems.
Two Views on
We all know the scheduling process here at Behrend
can be complicated at times.
As a marketing major I have found that without help
it can be challenging to schedule because you need to
make sure you have all your prerequisites first. When
I heard about the Major Event in almost all of my busi
ness classes I thought this would be a good thing to
take advantage of. And it was.
1 attended the Major Event last Monday which was
put on by the faculty of the School of Business. Per
sonally, I found it to be very helpful.
Considering the fact that the degree audit looks like
foreign language to me, it was nice to have someone
explain it in understandable terms and tell me upfront
exactly what I qeeded to take. ; .
At the event, tables Were organized by major/which 1
made theprocess quick and easy. All 1 needed to do
was bring my degree audit and the faculty helped from
there.
Overall, I was happy with my experience there even
if it was a short one. I got the information I needed and
now have a better idea of what to take next fall and my
future semesters here at Behrend.
In addition to figuring out what to schedule, I also
learned about how to go about getting a minor.
If I had any advice to give to those of you who did
not attend this event it would be to definitely get in
touch with your advisor before you schedule just to
double-check and make sure you’re not going to get
screwed.
What some people don’t know is that some classes
are only offered during certain semesters and this can be a big problem. If
you feel that your advisor isn’t doing a good job you can always ask for an
other advisor or even talk to other faculty members within your major for
help.
It never hurts to ask; because no one wants to end up staying for an extra
semester for one or two classes.
Carroll coaches students on "Money Game"
Penn State Behrend Marketing
Adam Carroll, author of “Winning the Money Came."
Lenders typically received worse in
formation - and less of it.”
An “OH NO stage” was reached, he
said, when the cash assets for multiple
banks substantially decreased.
This happened after they lent out a
substantial amount of home owner
loans which people were unable to
repay.
Two students share advice on scheduling for next year
AMANDA TAKACH
sophomore marketing major
Daniel Smith / The Behrend Beacon
Economist Andrew Young spoke to a packed REDO 180 regarding the economic collapse.
“Get in touch with your
advisor before you
schedule, just to double
check. Make sure you’re not
going to get screwed.”
Amanda Takach
„;it:sjyorth,sp#inig,.,vvith
your aidvisor 1 tg help ypU stay
on track... rather than
staying here for another
semester taking classes you
had no idea you needed to
take to graduate.
ARICA CHRISTMAN
If there’s one game that we are
all playing as college students,
it’s the “money game,” and we
should know the rules.
Adam Carroll, co-author of the
book “Winning the Money
Game” was a featured speaker at
Behrend Wednesday, and his
goal was to make us all wealthy.
Carroll, who had personal ex
perience with debt from his friv
olous college spending, blasted
his obligations to smithereens in
less than three years while still
living an impeccable lifestyle.
To students, he gave these
words of wisdom: No. 1, remem
ber, “Time is on your side,” he
“The federal government made good
on the debts of Fannie and Freddie,”
he said, “which led the general public
and even some government officials to
believe that the government backed
them the entire time, which was not
true.
The housing “bubble” burst mainly
due to people believing that Fannie
the Major Event:
Aar6n Morelli
choosing classes that help me graduate on time.
Meeting with your advisor or even speaking with
a faculty member in the same field of study can help greatly since they have
dealt with similar situations and understand students’ confusion with the
whole process.
Overall, it is definitely worth speaking with your advisor to help you stay
on track at Penn State Behrend rather than staying here for another se
mester attempting to take classes you had no idea you needed to take to
graduate.
said, “the difference between a
$1 million retirement and a $lO
million retirement is the pennies
that you put away today.”
Secondly, “don’t borrow from
tomorrow.”
Carroll stunned students with
statistics such as “the average
college student carries $2,700 in
debt on their credit card bal
ance.” This is because students
and much of America are spend
ing their “ifcome,” money that
they do not have.
In order to keep you from fol
lowing this path, Carroll recom
mends, “If you can eat it, drink
it, or wear it, it doesn’t go on
plastic.”
“If you can do in two years
what most people won’t do, you
business /c pnrlei
Behrend Beacon TF
March 26, 2010 #
www.thebehrendbeacon.com ■
and Freddie were backed by the gov
ernment, Young said, and many took
out loans in which they could not pay
back.
“Fannie and Freddie are intended to
increase profits, but they provided res
idential mortgages to low-income, and
undeserved areas, and this is not good
for profits,” Young said.
AARON MORELLI
freshman international business major
At Penn State Behrend I have found scheduling
to be difficult. As a freshman, the FTCAP program
greatly aided in the entire scheduling process, but
when my second semester came I felt as if Penn
State’s scheduling system was seriously lacking.
Last Monday, my RA told me about the Major
Event where the advisors from each business major
came and helped answer students’ questions about
scheduling.
At the event there was free food and tons of stu
dents in the same boat that I was in, along with other
students in the same field of business that I am.
Feeling overwhelmed from the entire scheduling
process, I thought it was in my best interest to at
tend. And it was.
While attempting to decipher my degree audit
*, *4|hd look at Penn State’s scheduling website I had
virtually no idea what I was doing. Although I was
not completely off track, I found that I was planning
on scheduling classes that I didn’t need and not
scheduling the classes that I actually needed.
When I met with the faculty member that taught
in the International Business major, I learned about
a handful of requirements that I have to meet by my
junior year.
During the first semester I met with my advisor
and felt like I was taking the right classes, but
throughout the semester I forgot most of the advice,
and I fell off track a little. Now, I feel confident in
will be able to do what most peo
ple can’t for the rest of your life.”
This is a testimonial made by
Carroll that can be truly life
changing if students take it to
heart. He advises students to
take that 10 percent of their pay
check and put it away because
“compound interest is the Bth
Wonder of the World”, and to
apply for the scholarships that so
many times go unused because
of lack of applicants.
There was nothing but positive
remarks from students who now
have the knowledge they need to
be in control of their finances,
and have the tools they need to
blast away their debt.