The World Cup in 2010 | The Pittsburgh G20 Summit | Special: Healthcare Tomorrow Feature

Holding Up the Invisible Hand

The Intersection of Business
and Public Policy

Winter 2010
Featuring
Prostitution in China (p. 8) Health IT Adoption (p. 20) Exploring Songdo (p.24)
By Adam Bao By Brian De By Christopher Lee
 [Winter 2010. Volume I, Issue I]

Editor-In-Chief From the Editor

Brian De
In this inaugural issue of Business Sphere Magazine, I proudly present to you
Editorial Directors a publication produced by Yale College students that addresses the complex-
Paul Joo ity of business as it relates to a wide variety of popular news. Business Sphere
Monish Shah
Magazine aims to serve as a platform for increasing awareness of the far-rang-
Managing Editor ing implications of business in social, economic, and political arenas.
Dominic Insogna
In this first issue we provide some perspectives on how public policy can have
Content Editor vast influence on business, ranging from finance to the World Cup in South
Travis Gidado Africa, to a variety of issues in the hotly discussed area of health care in the
United States. In creating a popular business magazine, we hope to provide
Design Director
unique student perspectives on current pressing issues.
James Murphy

Layout Editor-In-Chief The Editorial, Design, and Operations teams have come a long way in produc-
John Good ing this first issue, and I want to thank them for their tireless efforts especially
towards the end of the production cycle. Special thanks goes to my brother
Graphics Editor Sanjay, who has provided much of the artistic and technical inspiration for
Jamar Bromley Business Sphere Magazine. We hope for continued success and expansion in
2010!
Associate Layout Editor
Nico Barawid Brian De, Editor-In-Chief

Operations Director From the Yale College Business Society

Bing Han

Publishing Director
Connie Leong
Business Manager
Andy DeWitt
Distribution Manager
Lindsey Raymond
Administrative Editors
James Zhang
Vivek Raman
This magazine is published by Yale College
students. Yale University is not responsible
for its contents. The opinions expressed by
the contributers to BSM do not necessar-
ily reflect those of its staff or its advertis-
ers. The design and content of this maga-
zine are copyright of BSM and may not be
reprinted without express written consent.
The Yale College Business Society was founded to address the need for a sub-
stantive and holistic business education for future leaders at Yale. We quickly
recognized the value of a publication dedicated to fostering a comprehensive
understanding of business dynamics.
In early 2009, we launched Business Sphere Magazine with the goal of forging
a link between students at Yale and the business world. By exploring global
trends through a unique lens, the magazine aims to shed light on enterprise as
a powerful driver for universal development.
On behalf of YBS, I would like to thank Brian and the BSM team for working
tirelessly over the past semester on the inaugural issue. The magazine fills a
crucial niche here on Yale’s campus and I look forward to the long-term suc-
cess of Business Sphere Magazine.
James Zhang, YBS President
Business Sphere Magazine • PO Box 200118 • New Haven, CT 06520-0118
info@BusinessSphere.org • www.BusinessSphere.org

2 B Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010

 Holding Up the Invisible Hand
Contents

4 Spheres of Business
by James Zhang 20 Feature: Health IT Adoption
by Brian De

6 The World Cup in Africa

by James Zhang 23 Opinion: Tort Reform
by Christopher Sweeney

8 Feature: Prostitution in China

by Adam Bao 24 Feature: Songdo
by Christopher Lee

12 The Pittsburgh G20 Summit

by Dominic Insogna 27 Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke
by Lindsey Raymond

14 Ireland: The Celtic Tiger Disaster?

by John Good 28 Financial Booms and Busts
by Vivek Raman

16 Infographic:
Healthcare Tomorrow 30 Interview: Rustomjee Navroze
by Siddhant Jhunjhunwala

18 The Healthcare Debate

by Vikram Jairam

Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 3

[SpheresOfBusiness]
Compiled by James Zhang

Canada Germany
Export demand may return to positive terri- After being battered by the recession, Ger-
tory as commodity prices stabilize and U.S. many should see economic growth return
economic growth recovers. Trade policy may in 2010. However, the recovery will be
focus on diversifying export markets to de- tepid as government support of the labor
veloping nations. and car markets phases out.

GDP Growth: 2.1% GDP Growth 2.5%

GDP: $1.478 bn GDP: $3.196 bn
GDP/capita: $43,450 GDP/capita: $38,520

Venezuela Brazil
Despite a gradual global economic recovery, Thrifty economic management by the
Venezuela will remain mired in recession. ruling Workers’ Party has helped Brazil
With limited government revenues, Hugo avoid the worst blows of the recession and
Chavez is reaching the fiscal limit for his am- growth will resume in 2010.
bitious government stimulus plan.
GDP Growth: 5.8%
GDP Growth: -3.4% GDP: $1.669 bn
GDP: $333 bn GDP/capita: $8,480
GDP/capita: $11,660
4 B Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010
Information courtesy of The Economist and Goldman Sachs Corporation. Sources available upon request.
 Looking ahead to 2010
Russia
Russia was hit harder than most by plum-
meting oil prices during the recession, but
the economy may rebound due to the na-
tion’s large stimulus package, low interest
rates, and rallying oil prices
China
China will have to ward off the threats of
inflation, growing asset bubbles in shares
and real estate, and a bevy of bad loans,
all of which have been exacerbated by the
economic stimulus.

GDP Growth: 4.5% GDP Growth: 11.4%

GDP $1.414 bn GDP: $5.588 bn
GDP/capita: $10,030 GDP/capita: $4,170

India
India has grown through the global down-
turn due to a resilient domestic market and
low dependence on exports. A growing
fiscal deficit clouds an otherwise optimistic
outlook for India.
Australia
Australia has been one of the few coun-
tries to avoid the recession in 2009 due
to successful fiscal and monetary policies.
Growth in 2010 may be spurred by stronger
business investment and exports to China.

GDP Growth: 8.2% GDP Growth: 3.5%

GDP $1.468 bn GDP: $1.125 bn
GDP/capita: $1,240 GDP/capita: $52,290
Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 5
Source: Getty Images

The World Cup in Africa
South Africa needs to get it right in 2010
By James Zhang
On July 11th, 2010, football’s (soc-
cer for Americans) World Cup –
arguably the world’s premier sport-
ing event after the Olympics– will
kick off for the first time ever in an
African country. South Africa will
play host to the 19th FIFA World
Cup, a month-long tournament
featuring the top 32 national teams
from around the globe. While
South Africa’s economy will receive
a sizable direct boost from hosting
the 2010 World Cup, a successful
tournament will have an even larger
impact on the nation and the conti-
nent’s image abroad.
The World Cup is a prime example
of the commoditization of sport.
Because of marquee teams such as
Brazil, Netherlands, and Spain in
addition to the hyped matchup of
6 B
England vs. the US, the South Afri-
can government projects that over
450,000 international visitors will
make the trip to their nation. FIFA,
football’s world governing body, is
“
Projections show that
the World Cup will
provide the
South African econo-
my with a net boost of
$7.2 billion
while generating a
windfall $2.7 billion in
tax income from the
government.
Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010
International Perspectives
Source: www.fifa.com
set to cash in on the global popular-
ity of the World Cup by signing a
reported $2.8 billion in broadcast-
ing rights deals, a figure greater
than the broadcast deals for the last
two Cups combined. ABC/ESPN
forked over $100 million for the
rights to broadcast in English in the
US while Univision paid $350 mil-
lion for the same rights in Spanish.
In preparation for the tournament,
South Africa has invested $2.2 bil-
lion in building nine new stadiums
across the country and billions of
dollars more in upgrades for its
transportation infrastructure. Such
improvements have generated a
reported 415,000 jobs, a substan-
tial boost in a country with almost
a quarter of its workers unem-
ployed. Further, the government
has promised $225 million worth of
World Cup contracts to local small
and middle-sized businesses. Grant
Thornton, a global consulting firm,
projected that the World Cup would
provide the South African economy
with a net boost of $7.2 billion and
while generating a windfall of $2.7
billion in tax income for the gov-
ernment.
Although South Africa was unable
to avoid the collateral damage of
the recent global financial crisis and
dipped into recession for the first
time in 17 years, the nation is better
positioned than most because of the
World Cup. While other national
governments scrambled to imple-
ment stimulus packages to boost
domestic spending, South Africa
was already investing heavily into
modernizing its own infrastruc-
ture. The government hopes that
the structural improvements will
not only boost the local economy,
but also make South Africa more
attractive in the long term for both
investors and tourists.
After South Africa barely lost to
Germany in the bidding process
for the 2006 World Cup, FIFA
implemented the controversial and
short-lived policy to rotate World
Cup host nations among the vari-
ous regional conferences, beginning
with Africa. Critics questioned
the ability of any African country
in undertaking such a tremendous
logistical challenge and when FIFA
awarded South Africa the 2010
World Cup on May 15, 2004, inter-
national doubt overshadowed the
nation’s jubilance. With South Af-
rica’s high crime rate, substandard
transportation and accommoda-
tion infrastructure, and oft-delayed
stadium construction, rumors
circulated that FIFA was preparing
to move the cup elsewhere.
Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B
Five years later, the relocation ru-
mors came to naught as the nation
hosted the Confederations Cup, a
two-week tournament dress re-
hearsal held the summer before the
World Cup. A riveting final featur-
ing a 3-2 win by perennial favorite
Brazil over the upstart Americans
culminated a reasonably well run
event. Besides half-full stadiums
and minor logistical kinks, the only
public relations controversy was the
alleged robbery of hotel rooms of
the Egyptian national team. Event
organizers were eventually vindi-
cated when it was revealed by South
African authorities that the players
had actually been shortchanged
by prostitutes they had solicited to
celebrate a win.
Despite the significant strides made
in the 10 years since the country’s
first democratic elections and 15
years since the end of Apartheid,
South Africans continue to struggle
against negative perceptions. With
foreign direct investment in South
Africa, Africa’s largest economy,
only a fraction of what other emerg-
ing market countries receive, South
Africans suggest that the ignorance,
paternalism, and prejudice of
Westerners create an unfairly biased
view of their nation.
Organizers hope that the indi-
rect impact of hosting the world’s
biggest sport event barring the
Olympics will help change foreign
attitudes and unlock opportunities
for Africa and South Africa. With
the World Cup galvanizing infra-
structure development, poverty
alleviation, and black economic
empowerment, South Africa hopes
to leverage its role as Africa’s hub
for energy, aid, transportation,
communication, and investment to
lead Africa out of the dregs of the
international order.
A successful World Cup will go a
long way in building Africa’s self-
confidence and enhancing its in-
ternational profile. However, a cup
marred by violence would tarnish
reputations and perpetuate the mar-
ginalization of a continent and its
people. Either way, all eyes will be
on South Africa as the world’s most
popular sport comes to Africa.
James Zhang is a junior in Berkeley
College.
7
 Feature

Prostitution in China
Adam Bao explores an entrenched socioeconomic phenomenon that
developed after the Cultural Revolution
By Adam Bao lull in salacious activity would only prostitution has also been associ-
last until the end of the Cultural ated with an increase in sexually
After Mao Zedong took control Revolution. Deng Xiaoping’s “Open transmitted diseases, as well as
in 1949, the Community Party of Door Policy” in 1978 paved the way organized crime, violence, and gov-
China led a series of campaigns to for economic growth and also the ernment corruption.  Undoubtedly,
eliminate vices such as prostitu- revival of prostitution and other vic- prostitution constitutes a major
tion, drug use, and gambling. The es.  Currently, prostitution in China problem for the Chinese govern-
government effort was zealous in has proliferated to a sizable industry ment and its population.  Efforts
its revolutionary fervor, and by that represents a significant portion towards resolution should focus on
the 1970s, prostitution was almost of China’s service sector and GDP the very roots of the problem and
entirely eliminated. However, this output.  Unfortunately, the rise of lean towards control rather than

8 B Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010

 “
elimination, as the latter option HIV positive, an alarming rate con-
seems to be nearly impossible.  sidering the number of males that
Only 15% to 30% serve as their patrons.  About 6.4%
The number of sex workers in of men from ages 20 to 64 have
China is estimated to be upwards of female sex workers engaged in illegal sex, and of these
of ten million.  There are seven use condoms... men, many have multiple partners. 
tiers of female prostitutes, ranging Consequently, there is great poten-
from those who serve as consorts to tial for STDs to spread. 
Perhaps most visible of the tiers in-
influential businessmen in the first
clude the “falangmei”, or “hairdress-
tier to street hookers and brothel There are several reasons for the
ing salon sisters,” a brand of prosti-
maids in the last tier.  Of those situ- increasing rates of STDs in recent
tutes that offer clandestine sex while
ated in the middle tiers, most work years.  First, many prostitutes are
working in massage parlors, beauty
in karaoke houses, bars, night- poorly educated, and consequently
salons, health and fitness centers. 
clubs, restaurants, teahouses, and unfamiliar with the implications of
While visiting relatives in Shanghai
other entertainment venues.  Their unprotected sex.  Only 15% to 30%
this past summer, I encountered
services involve chatting, drink- of female sex workers use condoms,
some of these “falangmei.” Le-
ing, and dancing with their clients, and according to a national survey
gitimate businesses like hair salons,
and consequently, these women are of sexual behavior 46.9% of males
spas and massage centers during the
referred to as “sanpei xiaojie”, or “la- acknowledged regular condom
daytime swiftly transform them-
dies of the three accompaniments.” use during encounters with FSWs. 
selves as dusk settles and exhibit
While the “sanpei xiaojie” usually Such statistics reveal the high
“salon sisters” that are prostitutes.
limit themselves to legal services, likelihood of prostitutes passing on

they will also engage in sexual inter- STDs, or even clients infecting the
With the proliferation of prostitu-
course if the client is willing, and if prostitutes themselves.  Further-
tion in China, rampant increase
the price is right.  While these girls more, prostitutes are usually not
in STDs is increasingly a cause for
are widely regarded as prostitutes, in a position to refuse cliental sex,
concern.  According to the Ameri-
their legal professions give them even if the client refuses to wear a
can Sexually Transmitted Diseases
legitimacy that protects them from condom.  FSWs must choose be-
Association, up to 10% of female
the law. tween money and the possible risks
sex workers (FSW) in China are
of pregnancy, STDs, and HIV. More
often than not, they undertake the
risk for financial gain.

The problems that prostitution

Source: www.newamericamedia.com
raises center on two issues: the im-
morality inherent in prostitution
and its role in the spread of STDs. 
Past Chinese efforts have focused
on penalizing those involved in
prostitution, including 15 days of
administrative detention or civil
fines of 5000 RMB.  Finally, in 1991,
the government passed a decision
that strictly forbade the selling and
buying of sex, and later that same
year the “Decision on the Severe
Punishment of Criminals Who
Abduct and Traffic in or Kidnap
Women and Children.”  Such mea-
sures effectively made prostitution

Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 9


illegal, and criminal penalties in-
creased to a minimum of ten years
in prison and/or criminal fines of
up to 10,000 RMB.  Recently, with
focus on the prevalence of STDs in
China, the government also requires
offenders arrested for prostitution
and patronization to undergo man-
datory testing for sexually transmit-
ted diseases.  At other times, Chinese officials are
Despite its efforts, China has been
unable to curb, let alone eliminate
the problem of prostitution.  Al-
though prostitution is now illegal in
China, government officials and law
enforcers are often corrupt and hin-
der the fulfillment of law.  Because
interpersonal relationships are so
important in Chinese society, cor-
rupt officials sometimes ignore the
Source: www.newamericamedia.com
10 B
International Perspectives
existence of prostitution in certain
business premises and even tip off
suspected prostitutes against police
raids.   In one case, a deputy direc-
tor of the Labor Bureau of Tianjin
Municipal Government was ar-
rested for allegedly spending more
than $66,000 of public funds on
prostitutes in night clubs and hotels. 
often “reluctant or afraid to detain
and arrest overseas patrons in fear
of scaring away tourists, investors,
businessmen.”  Consequently, the
police force selectively arrests those
that appear to be locals.  Further-
more, in order not to besmirch the
government, most arrests seem
to have little connection with the Furthermore, prostitution is so
government initiated and state con- deeply entrenched because it em-
trolled work units.  powers women, allowing them to
gain a sense of independence and
material power that they would
otherwise be unable to attain. 
Generally, women tend to earn less
than men due to occupational dis-
crimination in China.  For example,
service-oriented occupations, such
as in hotels, nightclubs, restau-
rants, and bars employ many more
women than men. Women resort to
prostitution as a lucrative alterna-
tive. 
Viewed in economic terms, pros-
titution has become an important
industry that represents a signifi-
cant portion of China’s GDP. Ac-
cording to a study made by Niklas
Dougherty, China may have ten
million or more prostitutes. If every
prostitute makes about two hundred
yuan on average each day, then the
daily turn-around is about two bil-
lion yuan, or seven hundred billion
yuan a year. This represents about
Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010
5% of China’s GDP in 2004, which
Dougherty maintains is a “conserva-
tive estimate.” This raises serious
economic implications. The income
made through prostitution, al-
though untaxed, is transferred back
into the economy with personal
consumption and by the multiplier
effect, which eventually increases
GDP. Consequently, prostitution
provides social benefits for desti-
tute girls while benefitting China’s
economy; as a result, authorities
have strong incentives to leave pros-
titution as it is.
Consequently, due to the underly-
ing factors of prostitution, includ-
ing the raw, human desire for sex,
complete eradication is improbable.
More radical approach needs to be
a taken to stem the problem.  The
Chinese government must take a
multidimensional approach towards
regulating prostitution that focuses
on improvement of the female
employment situation, elimination
of state corruption, and preventa-
tive measures to curb STD spread.  that punish those who are found
The Chinese government should
seek to implement a compensation
system of sorts that creates job op-
portunities and gives aid to those
that require it.  It should promote
sexual education, perhaps as early
as in grade schools, since prostitutes
tend to hail from rural backgrounds
without any sort of high education.
There needs to be constant sur-
veillance within the government
levels.  Laws are only as strong as
those who enforce it, and a contin-
ued negligent approach will result
in powerless laws that are eas-
ily ignored by prostitution rings. 
Instead of increasing the severity
of punishment for those accused of
prostitution, laws should be passed
guilty of corruption.  Women who
choose prostitution have no other
choice but to sell their bodies and
accept the implications and associ-
ated stigma.  Government officials
are well off enough that they need
not turn to illegal actions in order
to improve their well-being.  Greed
is the root of corruption that facili-
tates prostitution in China.
Adam Bao is a sophomore in
Trumbull College.

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Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 11

 Business News

The Pittsburgh G20 Summit

The leaders of Group of Twenty nations with the largest economies con-
vened in Pittsburgh to discuss steps to solve the economic crisis
By Dominic Insogna to stem the crisis. More specifically, The G20 could hardly hope to solve
the G20 pledged reform and tighter the world’s economic problems in a
The last summit of the Group of regulation of financial markets, single summit, especially with the
Twenty Finance Ministers and Cen- emphasized international coopera- transition of presidential power that
tral Bank Governors, colloquially tion, and called for a larger active was taking place in the United States
known as the G20, took place this role of the International Monetary at the time. But riding the wave of
past September in Pittsburgh, PA. Fund and the World Bank in spear- optimism that followed the Wash-
The meeting, the third in a series of heading the international economic ington Conference and the message
ongoing summits held to discuss and recovery efforts, especially in poorer of “Hope” that that accompanied
devise a response to the financial countries. The Washington summit the inauguration of Barack Obama,
recession, addressed global eco- was generally regarded as a success, the group reconvened in London in
nomic issues ranging from massive garnering the praise of President 2009 to follow up their progress and
financial stimulus to bank regulation Barack Obama as “a historical meet- to keep pushing the global economic
to climate control. But what exactly ing,” and also earning the media recovery effort. The G20 countries
have leaders of the world’s most nickname “Bretton Woods II.” While were determined to resolve the three
powerful economies actually man- the Washington summit was in- main goals proposed in Washington:
aged to accomplish in their three deed a monumental and essential coordinate international economic
major summits? step down the road towards global policy, reform the global financial
economic recovery, it was a call for system, and reform international fi-
Founded in 1999, the group held change that would have to wait to be nancial institutions such as the IMF.
its first G20 Summit in Washing- acted upon. Finally in London, the seeds that
ton, D.C. in November 2008. In
response to the ongoing financial
shock of 2007, French Prime Min-
ister Nicholas Sarkozy and British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown took
the initiative in pressuring President
George W. Bush to hold a meeting in
Washington. Mustering the influ-
ence and intellect of the leaders of
the world’s largest economies, the
G20 set out to “enhance our coop-
eration and work together to restore
global growth and achieve needed
reforms in the world’s financial
systems.” Major achievements of the
Washington summit included com-
ing to an international consensus on
the origins of the financial crisis and Source: www.kremlin.ru
agreeing on measures to be taken

12 B Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010


the G20 had planted in Washing-
ton began to sprout as tangible and
satisfying agreements were made,
including a pledge of $1.1 trillion in
coordinated global economic stimu-
lus and enhanced regulations on the
financial system. Disagreements and
tensions between leaders were high
in London, with French President
Sarkozy at one point threatening to
walk out of the conference if tighter
“
The G20 countries
were determined to
resolve the three main
goals proposed in
Washington: coordi-
nate international eco-
nomic policy, reform
the global financial
system, and reform
international financial
institutions such as the
IMF.
Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 13
Source: www.g20pittsburghsummit.org/
regulations were not imposed on the
world financial system and bankers’
astronomical bonuses, which re-
warded much the risky behavior that
helped initially derail the financial
system. But ultimately the leaders
overcame their bickering and proved
that they could work together
towards a common goal, conclud-
ing the London summit with some
results to show for it.
In November 2009, the most recent
summit was held in Pittsburgh.
While not many novel decisions
were made, the G20 leaders built
on the progress made in London,
more definitively tightening finan-
cial regulation and granting more
power to international organizations
such as the IMF and the Financial
Stability Board. The most unex-
pected move was the decision to
replace the G8 with the G20 as the
main international caretaker of the
world’s economy. While this decision
popularly decentralized responsibil-
ity in orchestrating global economic
recovery, it also ensured deeper po-
litical divides and larger bureaucracy
within the movement. The group
concluded the Pittsburgh summit
by agreeing that that the work up
to that point was for from over, and
that financial stimulus could not be
withdrawn until economies were
more stable.
Through the coordinated efforts of
the G20, the current international
economic landscape is unrecogniz-
able compared to that of the era
before the financial collapse of 2007,
for better or worse. Critics accuse
the G20 of impotency and not go-
ing far enough in their reform and
recovery efforts. Many label the
G20 as just another acronym in the
alphabet soup of ineffective inter-
national economic organizations.
But the G20 summits, at least so
far, have ultimately been a success
-- a success in the broad sense that
they have accomplished what they
initially set out to do: prevent global
financial collapse, or at least reduce
its scale. The world was indeed dealt
a crippling blow in 2007, and is still
feeling the staggering repercussions.
However, as GDPs rise, unemploy-
ment wanes, and the economy
slowly speeds back up, it is clear that
the world has avoided the worst of
what could have been a crisis on par
with the Great Depression in scale.
Nonetheless it is inherently easier to
destroy than to create, and the frag-
ile state of the recovering economy,
along with any progress made at the
G20 summits, can be easily shattered
if caution is not taken. The economic
leaders of the world must keep both
their successes and failures in mind
as they prepare for the next summit
in Canada this June. They must keep
a watchful eye on what they have
accomplished, and strive towards de-
cisive and cooperative action to see
the global economic recovery all the
way through.
Dominic Insogna is a sophomore in
Berkeley College.

Ireland: The Celtic Tiger Disaster?
Ireland, once a booming market, is now one of the hardest hit by
the international financial crisis
By John Good
Over the past two decades, Ireland
has been transformed into a dy-
namic, high-tech economy with
one of Europe’s highest per-capita
GDPs. A well-educated, English-
speaking population combined
with favorable tax policies attracted
multinational firms who have es-
tablished research and development
facilities in the country. Ireland was
dubbed the “Celtic Tiger” because
of its rapid growth.
The Celtic Tiger Comes Alive
Climbing out of an economic mo-
rass of low living standards, high
unemployment, and high emigra-
tion, Ireland used “a combination of
sensible policies and pragmatism,”
according to the Heritage Founda-
tion. The core of these measures
“was a belief in economic openness
to global markets, low tax rates, and
investment in education.”
In direct contrast to the “economic
nationalism” that characterized
their immediate post-indepen-
dence, in the 1950s, Ireland’s official
policy moved to more integration
with global markets. The Heritage
Foundation analysis continues by
saying by “1956, to spur business
development, tax relief on profits
from export sales from Ireland was
offered for the first time. In 1958,
all controls on foreign ownership of
14 B
businesses were lifted.” The country
also lowered its import tariffs, and
by 1973, had joined both the Gen-
eral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(succeeded by the World Trade
Organization), and the European
Economic Community (now the
European Union). These new mem-
berships helped lifted Irish confi-
dence and sense of its own status.
These new low taxes and aggressive
attraction of foreign direct invest-
ment (by the Irish Industrial Devel-
opment Authority) brought over-
seas companies that took advantage
of abundant, English-speaking, and
low-cost labor. In addition, gov-
ernment expenditures expanded
rapidly as spending on education
and social services increased. How-
ever, high spending and domestic
demand, combined with an increas-
ing population, pushed inflation to
an average of 13.6% a year between
1971-1980. Inflation continued into
the 1980s, and unemployment was
growing as foreign investment was
not producing enough jobs to offset
failing domestic firms. Between
1980 and 1986, total public debt
reached 120% of GNP as annual
budget deficits were over 10%.
When Fianna Fail, the opposition
party, won the election in 1987, it
embarked on a program of severe
cuts across all government expen-
ditures, including social services.
Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010
Financial Analysis
While initially criticized, the auster-
ity measures eventually gained a
consensus for eliminating the deep
budget crisis. A pact with labor,
dubbed the Program for National
Recovery, helped to break the infla-
tionary spiral by lowering income
taxes and increasing take-home pay
without inflationary wage increases.
Thus, by the 1990s, Ireland was on a
path of sensible economic manage-
ment, and took advantage of the
global expansion that decade with
policies that encouraged competi-
tion and the attraction of highly-
skilled labor that could be inter-
national in focus. After 1987, Irish
growth averaged 6.5% per year.
Defanging the Tiger: Ireland in Crisis
However, it seems that this fiscal
model of low taxes and aggressive
industrial attraction needs contin-
ued high growth and increasing
asset prices to succeed. With real
estate and other asset values sky-
high, the carefully crafted model
was precarious; when they started
to decline in value in 2007, GDP
and public finances followed. In
January 2008, RGE Monitor (by
Nouriel Roubini) published “Is Ire-
land At Risk of a Financial Crisis?”
It pointed out that housing and
equity prices had declined precipi-
tously, and growth was done from a
heady 5.3% in 2006 to about 2.8%.
In addition, the current account
balance went from even in 2003
to a deficit of 5% of GDP by 2007.
Still, it pointed out that Ireland’s
declining public debt (down to only
35% of GDP in 2007) and relatively
strong fiscal position should help
it weather the storm, even if the
country couldn’t do much, being in
the Eurozone.
But by June 2009, BBC was report-
ing that Standard and Poors was
cutting its rating on Irish sover-
eign debt – for the second time in
the year. It was quoted as saying
“the fiscal costs to the government
of supporting the Irish banking
system will be significantly higher
than what we had expected.” This
referred to the seven billion euros
it had to provide to its two biggest
banks, which, for a country the size
of Ireland (4 million people and
$270 billion GDP), a huge amount.
The combination of these measures,
increasing social welfare payments
for the unemployed, and decreased
tax revenue of all kinds has made
for a budget deficit of 9.5% of GDP,
the highest in the EU and much
higher than the EU target of 3%.
So what happened? How did the
equation fall apart so rapidly?
Of course, the unexpected sever-
ity of the global downturn – much
more than even Roubini predicted
in January 2008, was a large part
of it. But Ireland also was fiscally
balanced and paying down its debt
when everything was great. After
nearly collapsing in the 1980s, it
relied on strong growth and rising
foreign investment (attracted by
its low taxes) to make the overall
equation work. Its Celtic Tiger
years as testament, the equation was
miraculously successful as long as
asset prices kept rising. This down-
turn showed how unsustainable that
Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 15
formula is in bad times.
In July, Morgan Stanley published
various scenarios that looked at
how sustainable Ireland’s public
finances would be going forward. It
says that, “currently planned poli-
cies, if maintained indefinitely, are
sufficient to maintain a bounded
debt/GDP ratio in both the short
and long run regardless of asset re-
covery. Net indebtedness as a share
of GDP peaks at around 107% in
2012 before declining.”
Fiscal Responses
Back in April, facing the balloon-
ing deficit, the Irish government
came up with an emergency budget
that both increases taxes and cuts
spending (notably different than the
late 1980s reaction of cutting both
taxes and spending). In April, pres-
sured by the EU (the EU finance
ministers had given Ireland a 2013
deadline to get back to a 3% deficit),
the government raised a number
of taxes and introduced new ones,
at the same time cutting social
spending. Rates on a previously
introduced income levy doubled,
taxes on cigarettes were raised by
25 cents, and on diesel by 5 cents a
liter. On the spending side, the early
childcare subsidy will be abolished
by 2010, and an allowance for
young jobseekers was cut in half.
Furthermore, the government an-
nounced it would create an asset
management agency that would buy
up 90 bn euros of bad loans from
Irish banks, or about 44% of the
economy (GDP). In the US, that
would translate to buying about $6
trillion of bad debt.
In June, in another report on the
heels of the (second) S&P down-
grade, Irish economist Ronan Lyons
looked at where tax revenues have
fallen the most, and they might be
made up most easily. He looked at
the 12 bn euro gap between the 47
bn collected in 2007 and the expect-
ed 35 bn for 2008. The smallest gap
is in the income tax, less than a bil-
lion euro, whereas shortfalls in taxes
dealing with international trade
and commerce – the corporate tax
and customs and excise taxes – are
much greater. He therefore argues
that raising Ireland’s much praised
corporate tax rate – from 12.5% to
15% - makes sense, as is the in-
troduction of a property tax. For
doubters, he points out that even
if public expenditures were cut by
10 bn euros, Ireland needs to raise
taxes by 12 bn to get back to even.
That looks unlikely anytime soon.
Ireland built its economy on the
conservative ideals of low taxes
and free markets, and became
very wealthy doing so. The only
English-speaking country that uses
the Euro, it was – and probably still
is – a natural location of Ameri-
can companies to put operations
focused on serving the continen-
tal European market. However,
the Irish government faces tough
choices because of this model, with
debt holders, the European Central
Bank, and ratings agencies telling it
to get its fiscal house in order, but
with the corporate community and
many Irish themselves urging them
to keep business taxes low, its tax
policies having been crystallized in
the minds of the public as the force
behind its stunning rise.
John Good is a senior in
Timothy Dwight College
 A Brief Synopsis of !

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Healthcare Tomorrow

Financial
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For approximately 100 years, presidential
administrations in the United States have tried
to pass meaningful health care reform mea-

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uninsured people in the United States and the

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how people are denied coverage for common
preexisting conditions such as acne and hay
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questions remain unanswered, and many of
them boil down to a central, normative ques-
tion that no one has the answer to: Is medical
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evolves over the coming weeks and months.
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more information about our symposium sched-

re
uled to take place in early April.

Timeline ca
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campaigns on the Progressive Party ticket ad-
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into law the creation of Medicare and Medic-

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managed care organization that provides health
coverage through a contract with doctors, hos-
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1993 – President Bill Clinton unveils a plan
that would provide universal coverage based
on managed competition, in which private
or

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insurances compete in a regulated market. This

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and lobbying from interest groups.

July 14, 2009 - House Democrats introduce

Medicare
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legislation called “America’s Affordable Health

Choices Act” which promises to expand health
coverage, reign in the costs of Medicare, and
increase taxes for the wealthy.
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July 15, 2009 – The Senate Health, Education,

Labor, and Pensions Committee creates a bill
requiring Americans to obtain health insurance
and establishing a new government insurance
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plan, the “public option.”

October 29, 2009 – The House unveils a stag-

gering 1990 page bill that would cost $1.05
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November 7, the bill passes in the House in a
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its own Health bill that would cost $848 billion
over the next 10 years and extend coverage to
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Compiled by Vikram Jairam

The Healthcare Debate
A short summary of the proposals currently being debated in Congress
By Vikram Jairam
There is no doubt that the issue of
healthcare reform figured promi-
nently in the 2008 Presidential
election. It served as a harbinger
for the role this issue would play in
2009. For more than half a century,
politicians, leaders, and activists
have attempted to spark debate that
would ultimately shape the direc-
tion of our nation’s healthcare sys-
tem. Unfortunately, the healthcare
system in place is unsustainable and
costs have spiraled out of control
and consumed a significant portion
of the United States federal budget.
The current figures are staggering -
the United States spends 16% of its
GDP on healthcare, more than any
other industrialized nation. In 2007,
an estimated $2.26 trillion was spent
on health care in the U.S., result-
ing in a per capita expenditure of
$7,439. In turn, what are we receiv-
ing from this tremendous monetary
investment? The number of unin-
sured in America is a whopping 47
million. The World Health Orga-
nization ranks the U.S. health care
system 37th in the world, right next
to Slovenia. Furthermore, 62% of all
personal bankruptcies in America
list healthcare costs as a significant
contributing factor. Finally, the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
argued that at its current rate, Medi-
care spending will soon consume
the entire federal budget. Economi-
cally speaking, we are not yielding
a strong return on investment by
any standard. Given these startling
18 B
figures, it seems imperative that
there must be some type of health-
care reform; the real issue is how it
should be achieved. The two main
schools of thought in today’s debate
are those favoring government-
based versus free market reforms.
This article will examine the various
proposals set forth by proponents
of each idea as well as the current
healthcare reform bills being de-
bated on the Senate floor.
Government-Based Reforms
Many people believe the govern-
ment should play a larger role in
ensuring that its citizens have access
to adequate healthcare and insur-
ance, with an emphasis on coverage
for all. There are two proposals that
have been laid out to achieve this
goal: first is a single-payer system
and the second is the widely popular
public option, supported by Presi-
dent Barack Obama and other left-
leaning politicians.
Single-Payer System
A single-payer system is a service
in which a public agency, usually
the government, is responsible for
financing the healthcare costs of
a nation, resulting in the univer-
sal coverage of all citizens. Many
Americans support a socialized
single-payer model akin to that
of Canada, or the United King-
dom, whose healthcare systems are
ranked 30th and 18th, respectively,
by the WHO. The current Medicare
system that guarantees coverage to
America’s seniors is a single-payer
Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010
Healthcare Tomorrow
system. Medicare’s beneficiaries
generally enjoy the service, but at its
current rate, the program’s costs are
estimated to bankrupt the federal
trust fund within this century. One
single-payer proposal has been set
forth in Congress by representative
John Conyers Jr. D-MI, which mir-
rors the United Kingdom’s health-
care system. This will be financed
through taxes, which economist
Paul Krugman estimates would
eliminate the large administrative
costs associated with private health
insurance. However, this proposal
has not been met with much sup-
port. With America’s general aver-
sion to government involvement,
single-payer options have never
been widely popular; the idea is that
individuals should have the option
to choose to utilize public or private
healthcare services.
Public Option
Instead, the public option has en-
joyed much greater appeal as well
as political relevance in the nation’s
healthcare debate. The public option
is a public health insurance plan
that would be offered by the U.S.
government to compete with similar
private insurance plans in a health
insurance market place. This plan
would be restricted to people not
insured through either Medicare
or an employer-based scheme. The
public option would compete with
private insurers, which would create
downward pressure to lower prices
(i.e. premiums, deductibles, etc).
Many economists argue that certain
insurance companies hold mo-
nopolies in local markets and have
no existing competition. Especially
during today’s recession, where
thousands of people lose their
jobs, and subsequently their health
benefits daily, the idea of a public
insurance option that does not deny
coverage based on a wide array of
conditions has garnered much ap-
peal. President Barack Obama has
touted the public option through
much of the healthcare debate,
claiming “it could provide a good
deal for consumers, and would also
keep pressure on private insurers to
keep their policies affordable and
treat their customers better.” Those
criticizing the public option claim
it is unfair for private insurance
companies to compete with a large
government behemoth, and that the
public option will slowly drive pri-
vate insurers out of business. They
fear this would gradually lead to the
emergence of a single-payer system.
Market-Based Reforms
On the other side of the argument,
many believe universal health-
care with expanded coverage and
reduced costs can be achieved
through market-based reforms.
They distrust the inefficiency and
bureaucracy of the government and
instead place their faith in the abil-
ity of market forces to drive prices
down. There are two market-based
proposals I would like to examine:
first is consumer-directed health
care, and the other is a proposal cre-
ated by Senator Ron Wyden D-OR,
the Healthy Americans Act, a bill
endorsed by both parties as well as
prominent publications, including
The Economist.
Consumer Directed Health Care
Consumer Directed Health Care
(CDHC) is a health insurance
Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 19
program that allows members to
pay for routine services directly
through Health Savings Accounts
while paying a high insurance
deductible for catastrophic medi-
cal expenses. In short, consumers
would pay directly for the bulk of
their medical expenses with their
own money, as opposed to insur-
ance companies. Under full insur-
ance schemes, consumers may not
feel the entire monetary weight of
each medical procedure and thus,
may have a tendency to overutilize
medical services, a common ex-
planation for the high cost of care.
In theory, competing CDHC plans
would stimulate competition and
introduce free-market variables that
would drive the price of services
down. However, there are two main
criticisms of CDHC. First, crit-
ics believe consumers that are less
wealthy will avoid needed health-
care since they will be paying out
of their own pocket. Furthermore,
patients with chronic diseases who
will have to make several visits to a
physician will be adversely affected,
especially under a high-deductible
plan. The second criticism is that
CDHC would only work under full
pricing transparency – that is, if
patients are fully informed about
the prices of health services and can
make an informed decision when
purchasing various options. Cur-
rently, the insurance model masks
the true cost of health care services
from patients, leading to a situation
where we have no healthcare pricing
information. A transition to CDHC
would require this paradigm shift in
how health services are advertised.
Healthy Americans Act
The Healthy Americans Act (HAA)
is a bill that promises to provide
universal healthcare through both
private and public schemes. The
main provision of the Healthy
Americans Act is that citizens
would be allowed to opt out of their
employer-provided health insur-
ance, and instead would be given
money to shop around for other
insurance plans. The HAA also
employs the idea of the individual
mandate – that citizens who are fi-
nancially able must purchase health
insurance, which, in theory, diversi-
fies the risk pool, increases cover-
age, and lowers costs. The guarantee
to consumers of insurance coverage
means they cannot be rejected for
preexisting conditions and be left
without insurance. The CBO scored
the HAA as revenue neutral. Thus,
while CDHC proponents would
like to minimize the role of insur-
ance, the HAA proposed by Wyden
heavily regulates the existing health
insurance market. However, critics
lament this bill would signal the end
of the employer-based insurance,
which has been an integral part of
our healthcare system since World
War II. Thus, Wyden’s bill may be
seen as too radical to gain popular
appeal.
Comparison of Current Congressio-
nal Bills
It is now interesting to examine
the current bills proposed in both
chambers of Congress, the House
and Senate. The House healthcare
bill was approved on November 7th
by a vote of 220-215. The Senate
unveiled a bill on November 18th
that they debated the week of No-
vember 30th. If legislation is indeed
passed, this would hopefully signal
the end of the healthcare ordeal that
has gripped the nation for over a
decade, and the beginning of afford-
able healthcare for all Americans.
Vikram Jairam is a senior in
Morse College.
 Feature
Health Information Technology
Rethinking benefits that flow to providers is necessary before health IT
systems are widely adopted by physicians and hospitals
By Brian De
Medical records have evolved from Medical records have moved beyond diverse set of capabilities, streamlin-
their earliest forms, as kept by Hip- being mere databases of information ing and standardizing information
pocrates in the fifth century BC, and now include capabilities such as flows, and creating interoperable sys-
and they have taken on increasingly digitized administrative data man- tems have also come to be important
complex information with tremen- agement, clinical/patient data man- considerations for data management.
dous amounts of data, differential agement through electronic health As such, the broader term Health In-
access for personnel in a clinical records (EHR), clinical decision sup- formation Technology (HIT) is used
practice, and stricter privacy regula- port systems (CDSS), computer phy- to describe the comprehensive man-
tions governing patient information. sician order entry (CPOE), among agement of medical information and
many others. With the advent of this

20 B Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010

its secure exchange between health
care consumers and providers.
Though political leaders differ
substantially on issues surrounding
health care reform, there is relative
agreement that HIT implementation
can lower costs and improve qual-
ity of health care through a variety
of mechanisms including decreased
medication errors, improved primary
and secondary preventive care, and
decreased utilization of care. To the
healthcare system as a whole, it is ex-
pected that National Health Expendi-
tures (NHE) are likely to increase by
around $14 billion over the next five
years as a result of widespread HIT
implementation. However, HIT will
help reduce NHE in the long-term –
as much as $88 billion in ten years.
Despite this, it is widely thought that
the benefits from HIT implementa-
tion flow mainly to insurance compa-
nies and consumers of health care.
There are also several market fail-
ures in HIT, including a fragmented
industry, a difficult-to-demonstrate
return on investment, and a first-
mover disadvantage, among many
others. Ultimately, there is asym-
metric risk and reward for HIT
adoption – providers pay for the HIT
solutions but may only experience
11 percent of the net potential gains.
As a result, this creates an incentives
problem – physicians and hospitals
choose to adopt HIT technologies in
lesser quantities than they would if
they realized the benefits. A sound
implementation plan will seek to
increase the readily apparent benefits
for potential adopters of HIT through
a variety of mechanisms – the most
obvious being a monetary subsidy
given to those who adopt or a pen-
alty given to those who fail to adopt.
Three different ways to do this are
proposed below.
Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 21
Promote integration through
DHHS certification
The Department of Health and Hu-
man Services (DHHS) will certify
HIT solutions to meet the “mean-
ingful use” criteria put forth for by
the American Recovery and Rein-
vestment Act of 2009. The existing
adoption evidence seems to indicate
that the flow of benefits to physicians
must increase for physicians to be
properly incentivized to adopt, and
it has been shown also that benefits
that flow to physicians are also passed
on to their patients in the form of
better quality care. Thus, one possible
solution is to redefine “meaningful
use” criteria to include benefits that
flow to physicians instead of merely
considering health outcomes. While
it is true that ultimately the goal of
HIT is to improve delivery of health
care, the adoption barrier needs to be
considered in the short-term as well.
“Advanced HIT” components that
increase the flow of benefits to
physicians, such as Computer Physi-
cian Order Entry, Clinical Decision
Support Systems, and others are
not entirely well-implemented into
complete HIT solutions despite their
documented benefits to quality and
costs. It may be in the best interest
of the DHHS to encourage integra-
tion of advanced HIT functionality
into the meaningful use criteria as
it becomes more explicitly defined
over the next several years. This could
be accomplished through financial
incentives given to developers to inte-
grate advanced capabilities into their
solutions, or merely by requiring
certain capabilities for certification.
Other ways to consider the physician
in meaningful use criteria should also
be kept in mind, so that physicians
themselves – the potential adopters of
such technologies – feel that HIT use
is indeed meaningful. Such solutions
will increase physician utility and the
marginal benefits of adoption, lead-
ing to increased willingness-to-pay
and quantities of HIT adopted.
Create a private sector nonprofit to
oversee standards
The importance of standards in the
HIT adoption problem cannot be
understated – namely, physicians
are much more willing to adopt
HIT solutions if they feel that their

systems can be used in conjunction
with other systems so as to streamline
workflows and avoid re-adoption of
expensive technologies in the future.
This would be result in an increase in
efficiency and profits over time. The
assurance of interoperable, standard-
ized HIT solutions would induce a
increase in flow of benefits to physi-
cians, thus leading to more adoption
and higher willingness-to-pay for the
expensive HIT systems.
In light of the problems presented
with standardization, one solu-
tion proposed is to create a neutral,
nonprofit organization in the private
sector with the authority to manage
all aspects of health data standards.
Work on standards would be coor-
dinated at this level, and standards
would be developed as a single,
integrated effort governed by process
rules. Governance could be provided
with a permanent staff at the top lev-
els of leadership (e.g. director, deputy
director, etc.) appointed by the Of-
fice of the National Coordinator of
Health Information Technology. This
setup would represent the different
US Standards-Development Orga-
nizations (SDOs), check that they
adhere to the scope of their work, and
include all other stakeholders in the
development of standards.
The operating budget could be a
combination of membership dues,
revenue from services, and govern-
ment funding. Previous evidence
in other markets, such as the de-
velopment of barcodes and coding
for grocery stores, or the develop-
ment of IEEE wireless standards
for computerized devices seems to
suggest that the private sector needs
to fuel development of standards,
and this solution effectively manages
22 B
the government’s role in creating a
private sector entity. The process of
appointing staff to the nonprofit also
allows for the possibility of involving
clinical expertise in the development
of standards.
Increase training and detailing
If the problem with HIT adoption is
in part psychological, measures to
increase physician perception of the
benefits of HIT may be just as use-
ful as features that bring about true
increases in benefits to physicians.
Additionally, more positive physi-
cian perceptions would also lead to
higher perceived efficiency, profits,
and patient welfare, thus increasing
physician utility. Thus, as a solution,
it may be in the best interest of the
Office of the National Coordinator of
HIT to use the $2 billion in discre-
tionary spending allocated by the
ARRA of 2009 (“for affiliated grants
and loans”) in part to inform physi-
cians about the current capabilities
of HIT, its integration, and its rapidly
improving state over the next sev-
eral years. This can be accomplished
through a variety of methods, includ-
ing subsidies to vendors for physician
detailing, or by creating and/or subsi-
dizing training courses for physicians
at all levels to become more aware of
HIT, its uses, and its benefits.
Rapidly changing HIT solutions need
to be met with rapidly disseminated
information through the above solu-
tions so that physicians are aware of
the true benefits of HIT. David Brail-
er, former Coordinator of HIT, argues
that aggressive adoption will lead to
better quality products and lower
costs, and subsequently more adop-
tion. Part of solving this HIT adop-
tion problem seems to be inertial,
so if the government can sufficiently
Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010
Healthcare Tomorrow
catalyze adoption, perhaps this would
lead to the desired improvements in
health care delivery after all.
The role of government
The bulk of the literature suggests two
possible roles for government, in-
cluding providing financial incentives
for HIT adoption, and the creation
of standards. While financial incen-
tives are definitely necessary in the
short term for physician adoption,
government should also have the role
of helping to involve all stakehold-
ers in the HIT adoption process so
as to reduce barriers to adoption.
This can be accomplished through
physician-benefit oriented reforms.
As for the creation of standards, the
bulk of evidence seems to suggest
that government involvement should
be limited; it appears that the private
sector needs to fuel development of
standards, and the proposed creation
of a nonprofit to drive standards de-
velopment addresses this concern. A
key role of government will be to dis-
seminate information as HIT rapidly
changes, and the proposed spending
on supporting physician detailing
and developing training programs at
all levels of a physician’s development.
The medical industry faces a myriad
of reforms; hopefully, Health Infor-
mation Technology implementation
will progress smoothly and reduce
costs for providers, insurance compa-
nies, and consumers alike.
Brian S. De is a senior in Berkeley
College.
Note: This article contains material derived from Professor Howard
Forman’s ECON467 seminar. Further reading and references available
upon request.

Opinion: Tort Reform and Cost Reduction
Current medical malpractice tort litigation obstructs reform
By Chris Sweeney
Medical malpractice tort litigation
reform is currently a hot political
topic in the United States because
of the implications reform could
have on health care costs. The law in
America dictates that tort litigation
requires those responsible for harm-
ing or injuring others to compensate
the affected party, often in the form
of large cash payments. More spe-
cifically, tort litigation allows pa-
tients who have been misdiagnosed
or improperly treated to file a suit
against their doctors in order to seek
compensation not only for lost wages
while in the hospital, but also for
things that are much more difficult to
define, such as pain and suffering.
Although some states have paved the
way for reform by capping the maxi-
mum amount of money that can be
paid out for a malpractice suit, many
states have yet to do so, which occa-
sionally results in multi-million dol-
lar settlements. These suits affect the
entire medical system by driving up
costs and adversely affecting doctors’
behavior out of fear of such lawsuits.
As Americans, we have a clear need
for tort litigation reform as a means
of driving down medical expenses
and protecting the doctors that do so
much for our everyday health.
The amount of money paid out for
malpractice lawsuits in the United
States is staggering. In 2007, the
actuarial consulting firm Towers
Perrin gathered data on medical
malpractice tort litigation and found
that costs and payments exceeded
Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 23
$30.4 billion for that year alone. 52%
of awards made exceeded $1 mil-
lion, with the average award coming
out to roughly $4.7 million. These
numbers are all the more staggering
when one considers that, according
to a report made in 1999 by the Insti-
tute of Medicine, roughly one out of
one hundred hospitalizations led to
serious injury. Of that relatively small
number of cases, only 4-7% of those
injured filed suits. These numbers
indicate that the huge litigation costs
and compensation payments are
stemming from lawsuits made by a
select few people.
Even though the aforementioned
numbers might already seem outra-
geous, they do not even scratch the
surface of the costs that come from
malpractice lawsuits. Many doctors
engage in what is called “defensive
medicine,” or the practice of ordering
expensive and potentially unneces-
sary tests/examinations in order to
hedge against the possibility that a
patient has serious health issues. The
Pacific Research Institute estimates
that doctors spend $200 billion per
year on defensive medicine practices,
a number which dwarfs the costs of
malpractice litigation. Upon a closer
look, a 2007 study by the Massa-
chusetts Medical Society found that
a staggering 48% of Massachusetts
doctors surveyed admitted that they
changed some of their daily practices
in order to avoid lawsuits! Not only
are these adverse changes extremely
expensive, they are also unneces-
sary in many cases. It is a sad state
of affairs when doctors, who work to
Healthcare Tomorrow
maintain our good health, feel obli-
gated to protect themselves from the
people they are trying to help; clearly,
something must be done.
Unfortunately, there is no “silver bul-
let” solution that will fix every prob-
lem and reduce costs. However, there
are a few small steps that should be
taken to help move the process in the
right direction. One action involves
instituting a set of universal caps for
malpractice awards based on the type
of injury suffered. This standardized
system would be a fair way to deter-
mine how much should be awarded
and also help differentiate among
different types of malpractice cases
while providing some protection to
the medical community by limiting
liability. These standards could be es-
tablished by a board of medical pro-
fessionals and lawyers, which would
remove many steps from the costly
litigation process by classifying cases
based on relevant facts and histori-
cal precedents before they ever make
it to court. Additionally, by limiting
the medical community’s liability, it
could eliminate a large portion of the
costs associated with defensive medi-
cine practices. If a doctor or practice
knows that it will only be liable up
to a certain predetermined amount,
the standardized payout caps could
create an incentive for doctors to run
tests that might be unnecessary at a
less frequent rate, resulting in fewer
costs for all.
Chris Sweeney is a senior in
Berkeley College.
 Feature

Songdo: Master Planned City

In an effort to increase foreign direct investment, South Korea is plan-
ning a multi-billion dollar city with with all the latest technology

By Christopher Lee
How does one build a modern
“city upon a hill”? Develop it with
“smart” buildings that monitor their
own energy use? Beautify it with
parks, bike trails and ocean-fed ca-
nals? Install a city-wide data network
that accepts a single smart-card
house key for a subway ride, movie
rental, parking meter and more?
Welcome to Songdo City, an entire
master-planned city currently under
construction 40 miles west of Seoul.
South Korea is not just playing Sim
City on a hill of mud. Songdo City
is one of South Korea’s latest and
most important ventures to increase
foreign direct investment in the
country. Gale International, a U.S.
real estate firm, and Posco, a Korean
steelmaker, are the main backers of
its development. Built on a 1,500
acre man-made island off the coast
of Incheon, the city has been des-
ignated by the South Korean gov-
ernment as a Free Economic Zone.
With a hefty price tag of $35 billion,
it comes with state-of-the-art facili-
ties built with cutting edge technolo-
gy and top-notch cultural amenities,
next to architectural features mod-
eled after New York’s Central Park
and Venetian canals.
Touted as the largest development
project undertaken by the private
sector in world history, the complet-

24 B Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010

ed city is expected to have 9,000 new
homes and 50 million sq. ft. of office
space. Gale International estimates
that the city will eventually house
65,000 residents and employ 300,000
workers. A top priority is making
Songdo a lush, “walkable” city; 40%
of the land has been allocated for
“green space.” If all goes according
to plan, Songdo will be environmen-
tally green as well. With a pneumatic
garbage disposal pipeline, extensive
rain collecting irrigation system and
fuel cell-powered buses, the entire
city is being built to meet the U.S.
Green Building Council’s LEED
certifications.

Through subsidies, tax incentives

and loosened regulations, Songdo
has drawn nearly $60 billion in
finance and investment during the
past six years. This money has been
put to use on a variety of novel
projects, which include a centrally
located 100-acre park boasting a
mile-long canal filled with 85,500
tons of purified seawater. Aside from
conserving freshwater, the canal will
also allow for a water taxi system
run by solar-powered boats.
But that’s not all. Developers also
hope to make Songdo avant-garde
in data networking. Data network
giant Cisco will commit $2 billion
over the next 3-5 years to coordinate
transportation, security, healthcare
and other municipal services within
a strategic common network –a con-
cept known as the “Ubiquitous City”
(U-City). By establishing its Global
Center for Intelligent Urbanization
in Songdo’s signature Northeast Asia
Trade Tower (NEATT), Cisco will
also provide the tools necessary to
construct intelligent buildings that
will monitor their own energy use
and employee resource-consump-
tion data. Cisco’s chief globalization
officer Wim Elfrink has touted this
Source: www.prweb.com
as a globally replicable model for
future “Smart+Connected” Commu-
nities based on Songdo. In his words
to Forbes, “It’s an adjacent business
we expect a lot from.”
Though many of the projects will
not be completed until about 2015,
current developments are already
placing Songdo in the limelight.
Against tough competition, Songdo
succeeded in becoming one of the
top candidates for the G-20 sum-
mit in November 2010. According
to Incheon FEZ Commissioner Lee
Heon-Seok, “[Songdo] would be
able to accommodate 700,000 people
with 512,000 locals in its 230 multi-
story buildings with up to 40 floors.”
Convensia, the architecturally inno-
vative convention center, itself holds
up to 10,000 people and provides
parking for 5,000 cars.
Songdo’s housing market has met
similar success so far. In May, an
estimated 45,000 visitors converged
on Songdo in a single weekend to
examine five new apartment com-
plexes. In 2006, the first 2,600 apart-
ments opened for purchase were
oversubscribed eightfold. In spite
of the current global market con-
traction, Songdo will bring another
1,000 units to the market this year.
Despite the superior quality and
popularity of the development, the
project as a whole has met several
obstacles along the way. One major
issue has been the mixed-use of
retail, commercial and residential
space in the new buildings. The top
thirty floors of the NEATT were
originally intended for residential
use. Construction of the tower was
temporarily halted in July of this
year, when revisions in the govern-
ment’s regulations on condominium
sales caused Morgan Stanley, Kook-
min, and Woori banks to pull out
due to fears of decreasing profitabil-
ity. Gale deliberated with govern-
ment officials to secure all necessary
permits to complete construction,
which is now slated for summer
2010.

Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 25


Another issue surfaced regarding
enrollment in Songdo’s Interna-
tional School. Hoping to attract
more foreign families into the city,
the government set a quota limit on
the number of Korean students who
could attend the school. Although
the school was designed to accom-
modate 2,100 students, only 30%
were allowed to be Korean. As of
February this year, only 50 of the 744
foreigners registered in Songdo were
still of school age. Insufficient enroll-
ment delayed the opening of the
school, which is currently on hold
due to concerns from the Korean
Ministry of Education regarding the
reputation of the school operator,
Vancouver International Primary
and Secondary School.
Beyond its city limits, Songdo faces
additional challenges from neigh-
boring competitors. In a statement
to Reuters, Samsung Economic
Research Institute fellow Soojong
Kwak voiced concern over the fact
that the rapid development of South
Korea’s six FEZs ran the danger
of “overheated competition”. The
Incheon, Yellow Sea, Busan-Jinhae,
Saemangeum-Gunsan, and Gwang-
yang FEZs are all marketing their
high-tech and logistical capacity to
become a business hub for northeast
Asia. According to Kwak, “The ad-
vantage from local arbitrage against
China is close to zero,” and the South
Korean zones will face stiff competi-
tion from their rivals in China.
As of yet, however, Songdo con-
tinues to draw new converts. In
January 2009, the national govern-
ment changed the law so that with a
minimum investment of $30 million,
foreign manufacturers in the FEZs
could receive full exemption from all
26 B
taxes for up to five years, and an ad-
ditional two years of half-exemption.
In October, the government opened
the Incheon Bridge to cut travel time
from Incheon International Airport
to ten minutes. According to Berna
Biotech CFO Mark Slijpen, both the
city’s proximity to the airport and
the tax exemptions within its FEZ
played a key role in Berna’s decision
to commit $30 million earlier this
year.
Meanwhile, the Gyeonggi Provin-
cial Government is planning the
construction of a 90-mile Great
Train Xpress (GTX) rail line in and
around Seoul, Incheon and Songdo.
Expected to cut travel time between
the cities by at least half, the GTX
will hopefully expedite business and
communication between Songdo
and the Seoul metropolis. The total
cost of this project is estimated to be
roughly $12 billion.
Some skeptics fear that Songdo may
follow the fate of previously master-
planned cities such as Canberra and
Brasilia, and end up as an “urban
theme park.” Others are skeptical
about the effectiveness of the FEZs
in improving South Korea’s econo-
my. According to Reuters, several
analysts voiced concerns regard-
ing the absence of more expansive
reform of barriers to foreign own-
ership in Korea beyond the FEZs.
Randall Jones, head of the Japan and
Korea desk at the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Devel-
opment, emphasizes that the FEZs
should not “distract policymakers
from these more important priori-
ties.”
Will Songdo be able to sustain its
current and projected growth? Will
Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010
Business News
the national government success-
fully continue its efforts to make
Songdo FEZ more marketable to
the global business community?
Developers at Gale certainly hope
so. Although Gale CEO John B.
Hynes might not plan on seeing
a return on the firm’s investments
for the next couple years, he and
others at Gale believe that Songdo
will attract more residents as it
lures more corporations to create
new jobs. Professor Jongryn Mo of
Seoul’s Yonsei University notes that
the national government is already
“in a big bind, and can’t pull out of
the project.”
In terms of long-term financial
sustainability, it may also be in the
city’s best interest to diversify its
economy by attracting a range of
manufacturers and service provid-
ers that will increase stability as
well as profitability. Songdo could
improve its economic stability by
securing investment from a num-
ber of industrial firms with less
elastic demand for labor. Songdo
would also increase its chances of
success by studying the real estate
market from a long-term perspec-
tive. Considering examples such
as San Francisco’s experience with
plummeting real estate prices and
surplus office space in the global
market contraction of the 1970s,
developers might also want to exer-
cise caution when determining the
fine line between demand driven
by speculation and long-term de-
mand in the market.
Christopher Lee is a sophomore in
Branford College.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
From Spelling Bee Champ to Savior of the Economy
By Lindsey Raymond
As Chairman of the Federal Reserve,
Ben Bernanke may have one of the
highest-pressure jobs in the world.
On the other hand, Bernanke may
be the best prepared Federal Reserve
Chairman in history.
Bernanke, born December 13, 1953,
displayed flashes of brilliance as a
student in South Carolina. At age
eleven, Bernanke won the South
Carolina State Spelling Bee. Class
valedictorian in high school, Ber-
nanke chose to continue his educa-
tion at Harvard University. Bernan-
ke graduated from Harvard in 1975
summa cum laude with a B.A. in
economics and he later received his
Ph.D. in economics from MIT with
a thesis entitled “Long-Term Com-
mitments, Dynamic Optimization,
and the Business Cycle.”
Bernanke then went on to teach
at Stanford’s Graduate School of
Business and New York University,
before settling down at Princeton,
where he obtained tenure and served
as chair of the Economics Depart-
ment from 1996 to 2002. A former
editor of the American Economic
Review, Bernanke also wrote four
textbooks on economics during his
time at Princeton and is among the
50 most published economists in
the world. A member of the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System from 2002 to 2005, Bernanke
was appointed Alan Greenspan’s
successor in February 2006.
Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 27
Bernanke’s academic expertise is
particularly pertinent in the current
economic crisis. He wrote exten-
sively on the causes of the Great
Depression, arguing that financial
disruptions during the early 1930s
reduced the availability of credit,
depressing aggregate demand.
Bernanke’s “financial accelerator”
theory, which explains how slight
economic downturns are worsened
by lending restrictions, strengthens
his argument about the importance
of credit availability during depres-
sions. Bernanke’s interest in credit
led to the idea of a “savings glut,”
or that a worldwide oversupply of
savings finances the current US ac-
count deficit and keeps interest rates
low. Today, Bernanke is primarily
identified by his stance on inflation.
Bernanke was recently criticized by
the media for being soft on inflation
after saying, “People know that infla-
tion erodes the real value of the gov-
ernment’s debt, and therefore, that it
is in the interest of the government
to create some inflation.” In the same
2002 speech, Bernanke stated the
government can always avoid defla-
tion by issuing more money, earning
him the nickname “Helicopter Ben.”
Under Bernanke, the Federal Re-
serve has engaged in some of the
most controversial monetary and fis-
cal policy measures in recent memo-
ry. On September 7, 2008, Bernanke
was involved in the seizure of Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac, committing
up to $100 bn to each corporation
in order to backstop any capital
Business News
shortfalls. Just 7 days later, Bank of
America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch
for $50 bn was overshadowed by
the decision of Bernanke and then
Secretary of the Treasury Henry
Paulson to let financial services in-
dustry giant Lehman Brothers fold.
On September 16, 2008, an $85 bn
loan was extended to rescue Ameri-
can International Group (AIG). The
loan was heavily scrutinized because
AIG was an insurance company, not
a bank, and therefore not under the
jurisdiction of Bernanke. The Fed
also introduced a temporary pro-
gram of low-cost overnight loans to
investment banks, poured almost
$300 bn into global credit markets,
announced a program to buy up
companies’ unsecured debt, and
attempted to shore up confidence
in money market mutual funds.
Although inflation will be one of the
most important concerns moving
forward as the Federal Reserve be-
gins to unwind its stimulus package,
Bernanke’s response to the financial
crisis has been generally approved of
by economists and led to his reap-
pointment as Federal Reserve Chair-
man by President Obama.
Bernanke’s most difficult tasks lie
ahead. Given his drive towards aca-
demic success, it is unsurprising to
see that Bernanke is fully committed
to doing whatever it takes to steer
America out of the recession.
Lindsey Raymond is a sophomore in
Timothy Dwight College.

Financial Booms and Busts
The credit crunch of 2008 and beyond
By Vivek Raman
The world has recently seen some
of the most extraordinary financial
events in over half a century. We
have witnessed the largest corpo-
rate bankruptcy of all times in the
form of Lehman Brothers. We have
seen the United States government,
reputed for its promotion of free-
market, cowboy-style capitalism,
bail out several financial institutions
like Bear Stearns and insurance
and mortgage giants such as AIG,
Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, in
an unprecedented series of actions
that the growing number of critics
are dubbing as socialism. Indeed,
we are going through what seems
like the mother of all bubble-and-
bust cycles, and the entire world
is convinced that the financial and
corporate landscape of the United
States will change forever. Some
are even saying that the days of US
dominance are over, and that it will
never recover to the level of pros-
perity it, as a nation, had achieved
before the disastrous credit crunch.
This worldview is unfounded, unre-
alistic, and simply untrue. To sub-
stantiate such a contrarian claim,
this article will analyze common
catalysts that have driven virtually
every historical bubble-and-bust cy-
cle. It will then relate these catalysts
to the current crisis, proving that
this crisis is simply another boom
28 B
and bust cycle; just as the U.S. has
recovered from previous crises, it
will recover this time as well. Final-
ly, the article will end with a discus-
sion on how current governmental,
public, and private policy will shape
the future of the United States and
global financial landscape.
Time and again throughout history,
we have seen common phenomena
occur that help bubbles grow. These
catalysts include: feedback loops fu-
elled by human overconfidence and
greed, easy availability of money
and credit, excessive amounts of
borrowing and lending, huge levels
of leverage that are always justifiable
at the time, financial innovation
to create the illusion that risk has
disappeared, governmental policy
decisions that fuel the bubble and a
believable story that sounds absurd
in hindsight but is universally ac-
cepted at the time.
Scholars of all financial crises, rang-
ing from the Dutch tulip mania to
the Great Depression to the spec-
tacular bubble economy of Japan
in the 1990s and its ensuing bust,
will attest to these common factors
manifesting themselves to cre-
ate speculative bubbles. The tulip
mania was fuelled by the believ-
able story that tulip prices would
rise forever. Excessive leverage was
a symptom of Long Term Capi-
Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010
Business News
tal Management’s downfall in the
Asian crisis. Easy availability of
money and credit was blatantly
present in the Gilded Age bubble
that preceded the Great Depres-
sion. The credit crisis of 2008 is no
different. Let us briefly examine the
major catalysts and their specific
role in the current crisis.
One is the easy availability of
money and credit and excessive
amounts of borrowing and lending:
the underlying housing boom that
gained momentum in the early part
of this decade encouraged those
who previously did not own homes
to jump on the bandwagon of real
estate speculation. This required
borrowers to take out massive loans,
and lenders were all too happy to
comply and write as many loans as
possible to boost short-term profits.
Huge levels of leverage were a
recipe for disaster. Bear Stearns and
Lehman Brothers were leveraged
30:1, meaning they borrowed $30
for each dollar that they had. This
seems foolish, but leverage is a feed-
back loop: if one firm takes on le-
verage and makes additional profit,
other firms need to do the same or
they lose their competitive edge and
subsequently market share.
Financial innovation created the il-
lusion that risk was eliminated. The
creation of securitization to spread
“
By subsidizing and
incentivizing home
purchases rather than
home rentals, the gov-
ernment itself fueled
the housing bubble
that culminated in the
catastrophic bust.
risk to thousands of counterparties
coupled with the invention of intri-
cate financial products like collat-
eralized debt obligations (CDOs)
and even collateralized debt obliga-
tions of an existing basket of CDOs
(CDO squared) eliminated risk
via hedging mathematically and
theoretically, but in reality, the in-
ability to price these products and
to assess the complex risks arising
from their arrival in the financial
marketplace created a false sense of
financial invincibility.
Governmental policy decisions
helped create the bubble. The Bush
administration undertook the am-
bitious task of creating a “home-
ownership society” in which every
American that wanted a home
could own it. Therefore, by subsi-
dizing and incentivizing home pur-
chases rather than home rentals,
the government itself fueled the
housing bubble that culminated in
the catastrophic bust.
Virtually every American, whether
the layman from Main Street or a
banker on Wall Street or even the
“maestro,” the deified Alan Greens-
pan himself, believed that home
prices in the United States would
never go down. There has never
been, and likely never will be, any
asset on the market whose price
will never go down. However, Wall
Street’s bets, borrowers’ mortgages,
and the whole subprime market
itself were all based on the then-
believable assumption that home
prices would never decline.
This bubble-and-bust cycle has all
the same attributes of historical
cycles. The government and the
Federal Reserve have responded
appropriately, with huge monetary
injections akin to pumping steroids
into the financial system, and the
United States will recover despite
all the naysayers’ cries of doom
and destruction. As Michael Lewis
states in his book, Panic: The Story
of Modern Financial Insanity, “How
many times does the end of the
world as we know it need to arrive
before we realize that it’s not the
end of the world as we know it?”
This brings us to the final point of
this article: a brief speculation of
the future, of how the landscape of
the financial sector and corporate
America will change in the after-
math of this undeniably destructive
credit crunch. As noted earlier, the
Federal Reserve has admirably in-
jected liquidity into a financial sys-
tem that had suffered the equivalent
of a heart attack, thereby preventing
a complete global financial melt-
down. Such strong, quick action
was absolutely necessary and helped
avoid another Great Depression.
Moreover, the Federal Reserve,
having learned from mistakes made
during the Depression, has the tools
to prevent rapid hyperinflation
by restricting the money supply
and preventing the unfathomable
amount of liquidity from reaching
the consumer market. Therefore,
the risk the United States runs is
not that of an inflationary scare,
or even necessarily of following
Japan’s fate into a prolonged state of
deflation and low growth. Instead,
the main risk the U.S. runs is that of
an echo bubble forming as a result
of the government’s current poli-
cies. Indeed, 2009 has shown us a
massive recovery in stocks as well as
commodities, bonds, and basically
all paper and hard asset markets.
These have been largely fuelled by
the unprecedented zero percent
interest rate set by the Federal
Reserve, which will likely have un-
intended consequences in precipi-
tating another bubble. If another
bubble starts forming, the world
will quickly forget about the current
credit crisis and volumes of pro-
posed legislation that would help
solidify the financial system, such
as regulating derivatives like CDSs
and CDOs and imposing stronger
capital requirements and leverage
limits, will likely not be passed into
law. Just as the low interest rates
from the tech bubble contributed to
an even bigger housing bubble, we
need to prepare for the Fed’s even
stronger reaction to the credit crisis
forming a super-bubble that could
come even closer to wiping out the
global financial system.
Vivek Raman is an accelerated junior
in Davenport College.

Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 29


Make Way for the Indian Juggernaut
Rustomjee Navroze, of Tata Motors India, uncovers the powerful ambition
steering India’s automobile industry
By Siddhant Jhunjhunwala
Business Sphere Magazine (BSM):
Mr. Navroze, how would you
describe India’s role in the global
automobile sector?
Rustomjee Navroze (RN): It’s been
revolutionary. As any business
student would tell you, the previ-
ous few decades have seen the Asian
tiger economies of Korea and Japan
invade and successfully conquer niche
automobile markets in the developed
world. 2009 has undoubtedly been the
year of India, and we at Tata Motors
believe that the time has come for
India to lead as the vanguard of an
automobile revolution. The automo-
bile sector in Asia is still very much in
its growth phase; the Indian market
grew by an astounding 10% overall
during the year. And we need to cater
to these huge emerging markets with
very different needs—the 1-lakh
($2,145) Tata Nano car is such an
example. Not only has the response
in this niche sector of small vehicles
been far greater than anticipated, but
the excitement has actually translated
into very large pre-booking orders for
the Nano.
BSM: But surely for a company with
as global a vision as Tata Motors,
positioning well on the internation-
al market will be important too.
RN: Absolutely. I feel a tremendous
milestone was achieved this year
with the acquisition of Ford Motor’s
Jaguar and Land Rover. Economically,
30 B
it is a huge achievement for Indian
companies to be participating in such
high-stakes transactions. Politically,
there now exists tremendous good-
will between Ford and Tata. And
emotionally, of course, it remains a
matter of huge pride and prestige that
cars that are synonymous with luxury
now sit gleaming in showrooms in
Mumbai through an Indian firm—in
all aspects, this has been a giant leap
for Tata. The fact that India remains
relatively buffered from the current
economic crisis spewing in the USA
and the UK has definitely made it
a desirable investment sink. While
there was a significant drying up of
liquidity felt in this sector as well
during the current economic environ-
ment, investment flows into India
still reached a record level of 20% at
120,000 crores ($25 bn).
BSM: Looking at Asia’s past and
future trends concerning the four-
wheel automobile industry, what are
your immediate thoughts?
RN: Looking into India’s past history
within this business sector, it does
seem unfortunate that large-scale
and hugely beneficial projects like the
Tata Nano still find a political span-
ner in the works sometimes—while
India is flourishing commercially, our
government needs to be updated and
steer the country rather than act as a
deadweight on the shoulders of young
India. Having said that, the measures
taken by them to curtail the economic
Business Sphere Magazine | Winter 2010
International Perspective
crisis have definitely been partially
successful, a consequence that formed
the crucial groundwork for the suc-
cess of Tata this year, along with many
other Indian companies. It is also
important to observe the growing
role of public-private partnerships in
Indian development: from the fields
of energy and electricity to those of
infrastructure, private companies
stepping in to provide competitive
services have become an essential part
of the business landscape, provid-
ing an excellent example of how the
public and private sectors of India
can reinforce each other. This same
vision for an India that forms a shin-
ing beacon of efficiency is what we
at Tata cherish. Looking at Asia as a
whole is formidable; the sheer human
capital in terms of labour and exper-
tise, when combined with the rate at
which Western technology is being
imported and absorbed, is explosive.
Historically, there have always been
two superpowers competing against
each other on the globe. But that plot
is about to change and transform into
a one-hero game, and that sole player
will be Asia. It is so fascinating to see
the immense potential that is brewing
within the countries of this region.
The West should be analyzing the
combined power of the Asian nations
and the consequences Asian growth
will soon have on the power balance
of the globe.
Siddhant Jhunjhunwala is a
sophomore in Pierson College
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Yale College Yale Undergraduate

Business Society
Initiatives:
Asia Tomorrow - An annual conference
that brings to campus an array of today’s
esteemed leaders in business, govern-
ment, and academia to explore current
issues facing Asia.
Healthcare Society
Initiatives:
Healthcare Tomorrow Conference - An
annual conference that aims to discuss
current issues in healthcare and, especially
relevant today, current reform efforts and
proposals.

YBS “mini-MBA” Speaker Series - A year- Healthcare Tomorrow Speaker Series - A

long speaker series structured to emulate speaker series to discuss reform as it
a typical MBA curriculum with regular progresses through the different levels of
speakers, panels, and other collaborative Congress and political discussion.
events.

Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Service Initiatives - Community-wide ef-

- A collaborative effort between YBS mem-
bers and local chapters of the national
high school business-interest organization
to promote business education around the
country.
forts to increase awareness of healthcare
and how it will change at the patient-phy-
sician level.

Contact: james.zhang@yale.edu Contact: vikram.jairam@yale.edu

Business Sphere Magazine is supported by the Yale College Business Society (YBS) and the
Yale Undergraduate Healthcare Society (YHS). If you are interested in sponsoring or adver-
tising in Business Sphere Magazine please contact us at info@BusinessSphere.org

Winter 2010 | Business Sphere Magazine B 31

 A sia T omorrow C onference
The Future of Sustainable Enterprise

Hosted by the Yale College Business Society

March 27th, 2010
Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Yale University

Learn from the insights and experiences of those who have made
it to the top of academia, business and politics. Listen to our key-
note speakers, including Daniel Esty, Rakesh Mohan, and Kishore
Mahbubani, as they share insights on sustainable capitalism today
and in the years ahead. Get the chance to interact face-to-face with
dozens of top leaders, and gain valuable networking opportunities.

Visit asiatomorrow.org and

yale.edu/business Yale College
Business Society