Is Suze Orman giving out bad investment advice? Should you ever not refinance rates drop? Is dilution of stock a bad thing for the early stockholders? Should you dollar cost average? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen evaluate three pieces of widely given investing advice and drill down for why each one is actually bad investment advice. Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual Find All Else Equal on the web: https://ww...
Apr 17, 2024•23 min•Ep. 47
What could be the reason to delay investing in an option that will make you money? How do your investment opportunities expand when you make that choice? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss the concept of real options in finance, focusing particularly on investment decision-making. They also address the challenge of valuing growth options in uncertain investment environments, emphasizing the importance of flexibility and the potential to c...
Apr 03, 2024•26 min•Ep. 46
Why should climate risk be singled out for mandatory disclosure by the SEC, and how does this change the investment landscape? Can climate disclosure legislation walk the fine line between transparency and information overload? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen welcome Lawrence Cunningham, Research Professor of Law Emeritus at GW Law and special counsel with Mayer Brown LLP, to explore the arguments for and against the Securities and Exchange Co...
Mar 13, 2024•27 min•Ep. 45
Today, we’re sharing a special episode from If/Then , the new podcast from our friends at Stanford Graduate School of Business. If/Then is made for curious people looking for answers to challenging questions, featuring experts and thought leaders engaged in cutting-edge research on topics like AI, immigration, sustainability, and power - all framed around an if/then statement that captures the guest’s incisive, sometimes surprising, takeaways. Like this episode, where Stanford Professor of Organ...
Mar 04, 2024•29 min•Ep. 44
There has been a rising trend in the importance of private debt as a way of financing companies. But what are the differences between private debt and public debt? Why is it increasing in popularity? What advantages does it offer over traditional banking models? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen welcome Laurence Gottlieb, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Fundamental Advisors LP, for a discussion about why the private debt markets have e...
Feb 28, 2024•28 min•Ep. 43
Without a residual claimant, who sets the agenda of a non-profit organization like a university? Who makes sure that the organization follows that agenda rather than serving the interests of the administrators running the organization? Who are the stakeholders in a non-profit organization, and how does the organization prioritize their competing interests. In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen welcome Daniel Diermeier, Chancellor of Vanderbilt Unive...
Feb 14, 2024•29 min•Ep. 42
Picture a workforce driven not by the promise of a paycheck, but by a shared sense of purpose and the thrill of contributing to something greater than themselves. How can you can ignite a passion in a team that money simply can't buy. In this episode, based on a question from a listener, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen welcome Lieutenant General Thomas Bostick, was the 53rd Chief of Engineers of the United States Army and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Co...
Jan 31, 2024•25 min•Ep. 41
Today, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss five common mistakes financial decision-makers often make. There is much misinformation and bad advice in financial markets. In this episode, Jonathan and Jules discuss strategies for avoiding bad advice and making better decisions. Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual Find All Else Equal on the web: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/business-podcasts/all-else-equal-making-better-decision...
Jan 17, 2024•30 min•Ep. 40
For the end of the year, Jules and Jonathan are taking some well-deserved time off, and wanted to rerun a past episode they love for the new audience who has joined since then. Imagine being able to see through all the layers of corporate decision-making to uncover whether businesses should prioritize profits for shareholders or the well-being of a wider community. In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen are joined by Alex Edmans, professor of finance...
Jan 03, 2024•26 min•Ep. 39
For the end of the year, Jules and Jonathan are taking some well-deserved time off, and wanted to rerun a past episode they love for the new audience who has joined since then. Is it possible to unravel the paradox of disagreement in rational decision-making? How should we dissolve discord? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen are joined by Robert Aumann, mathematician, professor, and Nobel Prize winner, as they discuss acknowledging errors and emb...
Dec 27, 2023•35 min•Ep. 38
For the end of the year, Jules and Jonathan are taking some well-deserved time off, and wanted to re-present a past episode they love for the new audience who has joined since then. Investing in stocks isn’t just prowess in numbers but a mental marathon as well. But prowess in numbers isn't all there is; this episode also explores the mental marathon of investment. It's a master class in economic acumen that will challenge the way you see the numbers, with the promise to elevate your understandi...
Dec 20, 2023•29 min•Ep. 37
What happens when universities and step off the sidelines and take a stance on contentious issues? Are they boarding a roller coaster that they can’t ever get off? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen welcome John Etchemendy, former Provost of Stanford University, for a discussion about Institutional Neutrality, and the long-term unseen costs of any stance institutions elect to take. Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqu...
Nov 29, 2023•25 min•Ep. 36
It turns out your airline ticket prices might be affected by common ownership in mutual and index funds, but how? In this episode, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen welcome Martin Schmalz, Professor of Finance and Economics at Oxford Saïd and Academic Area Head for the FAME faculty group (Finance, Accounting, Managerial Science, and Economics) for a discussion about Common Ownership, and the unseen power it holds in asset management for the corporate world. Subm...
Nov 23, 2023•28 min•Ep. 35
What accounts for the recent growth of private firms? In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen welcome Eric Zinterhofer, Founder of Searchlight Capital Partners, to discuss the fundamental tradeoff between Public Equity and Private Equity, and how having a manager with more skin in the game creates greater returns, but at a cost of greater risk. Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqu...
Nov 01, 2023•29 min•Ep. 34
In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss the second half of the retirement equation, after going over how much you need to save, they now elaborate on how to think about investing what you have saved, and what theories make for optimizing your own personal risk exposure. They explain the importance of holding a diversified portfolio and tailoring the overall risk of that portfolio to you own personal n...
Oct 19, 2023•24 min•Ep. 33
With recent strikes making big news, what are the complexities at hand when Unions become involved in the labor force? Some are well known but other effects, both good and bad, have been less obvious. Exact data can be hard to discern, but In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen talk with Larry Katz of Harvard University about how labor unions have functioned in the past, the current union landscape with an o...
Oct 05, 2023•27 min•Ep. 32
How much are you supposed to save for retirement and how do you get there? What is the different advice for people with different plans or risk tolerances?In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss the ins and outs of long term investing, and how to make a working retirement plan that will work for you. Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual Find All Else Equal on the web: ht...
Aug 30, 2023•27 min•Ep. 31
Are you breaking some basic rules of communication without knowing it? What are the things you can start doing right now to communicate better? In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen are joined by Matt Abrahams, lecturer at Stanford GSB, and host of the highly influential podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart for a discussion about becoming a more effective communicator and presenter. Submit your questions to the s...
Aug 02, 2023•26 min•Ep. 30
A lot has been written and said about CEOs and their compensation, but who are they really and how did they get there? According to the data, what are the most likely paths to become one? In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen are joined by Dirk Jenter, Professor of Finance at the London School of Economics, for a fascinating discussion of CEOs, including the surprising truths about who rises to the rank of ...
Jun 29, 2023•33 min•Ep. 29
Humans respond to incentives, and so incentives predict behavior and sometimes the behavior can be detrimental. In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss a range of less obvious examples of how incentives produce negative externalities — long legal contracts, negative news stories, dumb traffic lights, overly pessimistic disaster prediction and other examples. Submit your questions to the show here: htt...
Jun 14, 2023•26 min•Ep. 28
The speed at which AI is getting smarter is on everybody's mind these days. In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss with Stanford Professor Michal Kosinski what we should expect from the coming wave of AI technology, how it relates to the research on "Theory of Mind" and whether and how it potentially could be regulated. Submit your questions to the show here: https://bit.ly/AllElseEqual Find All Else...
May 31, 2023•30 min•Ep. 27
When COVID-19 shut down the world economy in 2020 many wondered where it had begun and why the pandemic had even started in the first place. In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss with Matt Ridley (biologist and author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19) about the possible origins of the coronavirus pandemic, and the reasons that the thinking on what the origin is has changed over time. ...
May 17, 2023•29 min•Ep. 26
Financial bubbles are episodes where the value of something (like stocks, tulips or cryptocurrency) shoots up very rapidly, but then peaks and comes crashing down. The problem has never been seeing them in hindsight, but rather identifying one while in the middle of it. In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss with Will Goetzmann (Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies at the Yal...
May 03, 2023•29 min•Ep. 25
It takes a long time to build up credibility, but you can lose it in an instant. What would it take to justify lying to the public for their own good, and are the benefits worth the costs? In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen discuss the costs and benefits of the government lying to its own citizens. They then discuss the topic with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (Professor of Medicine at Stanford University's Medic...
Apr 12, 2023•32 min•Ep. 24
The FDIC and Federal Reserve have recently intervened to stop another banking crisis. In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen dig in to see what failed. What causes bank runs? Are the government subsidies of banks worth it? Is a bank the right way to finance risky investments or are they historical artifacts. Their guest Amit Seru, The Steven and Roberta Denning Professor of Finance and Senior Associate Dean ...
Mar 24, 2023•34 min•Ep. 23
Note: if you are hearing the wrong audio try redownloading the episode or listen here . What reach does marketing really have? In the murky waters of cause and effect marketers have to figure out where to put their resources and what impact they can make on consumers. In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen talk about how to measure the impact advertising has, and how not to measure it. They then discuss with...
Mar 15, 2023•27 min•Ep. 22
It can be tempting to think one thing causes another because they happen in succession, but there’s a lot to unwrap in the idea of causality. In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen explain the difference between correlation and causality, and examine cases where it is tempting to assume one thing caused another, but the reality is quite different or even the opposite. They then discuss with Guido Imbens (Nob...
Mar 01, 2023•28 min•Ep. 21
Risk is an inherent part of all business decisions and understanding ways this risk can be reduced is essential to succeeding in today’s business environment. In this episode of All Else Equal: Making Better Decisions, hosts and finance professors Jonathan Berk and Jules van Binsbergen explain how to assess risk and discuss smart ways of diversifying it away. But sometimes diversification comes at a cost to productivity and the hosts present this as the fundamental tradeoff of corporate finance....
Feb 15, 2023•21 min•Ep. 20
Cryptocurrency is increasing in popularity but still confusing to many consumers and finance professionals alike. On this episode of All Else Equal, finance professors Jules van Binsbergen and Jonathan Berk admit they don’t understand why some central banks are introducing digital currencies and why there would be need in our economic system. To help answer these questions they speak with Kevin Warsh, a former governor for the Federal Reserve and current Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institute a...
Feb 01, 2023•26 min•Ep. 19
In science, we often hear about new discoveries or theories that could change our way of thinking. In the business world, a start-up might promise a revolution in a specific industry, if it can get the right investments. So, when is it worth believing or betting on one of these new theories, and when is it a waste of time? In this episode of All Else Equal, Jules and Jonathan discuss how we can all use the principle of Occam’s Razor (the idea that the simplest theory is often the correct one) in...
Jan 18, 2023•30 min•Ep. 18
