Credit Card Fees

In an April 17th story in Transaction World Magazine, the reporter covers the issues of fees that credit card companies impose and the threat of identity theft. It can be argued that credit card companies have these fees to cover the cost of the ever increasing threat of identity theft. Michael Weathers, Vice President of Governance & Risk at Fidelity Information Services believes that there will be an effect on increased data security. “The legislative discussions of ‘usability’ are profound bills that shall affect not only the financial services community and its deployment of new technologies for years to come, but more importantly, consumers’ confidence that their most private financial data is rendered useless if lost or stolen,” says Mr. Weathers. “As history has shown, technology changes daily and U.S. consumers’ acceptance of new technologies that improve conveyance at reduced cost are thoroughly embraced throughout the country."

To read the full story, go here:
http://www.paradigmshiftpr.com/electronictransactions.htm

Japan vs. U.S. Cars Trade Dispute

Tony Gao, a professor at the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University that has done research on international trade issues in Asia, on the issue of a Japan vs. US auto trade dispute:

“Trade disputes are used by governments and political leaders to achieve both political and economical objectives. As trade disputes with major trading partners can have major benefits and costs, the choices of when to start a dispute, where (in which industry) to start the dispute, and with whom to start the dispute must be made in a careful and calculated way. We could trust that the government officials and political leaders have done thorough reviews of both the political and economic consequences of the dispute and the likelihood of success in achieving both political and economic gains.

“US Trade disputes with Japan still exist but they rarely occur in the automobile sector. Several reasons, in my view, have led to this development. First, major Japanese firms have effectively responded to the previous trade disputes between the two countries and have moved many of their factories into the US, thus employing US workers, making tax contributions, and endearing themselves with the local communities through various outreach efforts. Today the Japanese auto makers have made a lot of friends here and there and it's frankly rather hard to gain politically by doing battle with them again. Secondly, even though the Japanese firms direct grab market share from the US counterparts, hence the economic gains could be great, the lack of political support among votes and all constituents make the politicians think twice before enacting a trade war there. Thirdly, there are other better opportunities of making a political gain, such as starting a trade dispute with China or potentially India.

“Why China now? Because the political gains are far greater for political leaders, even though the economies between China and the US are largely complementary and China tends to sell to US what the US either does not want to product or can produce at a much lower advantage. Even though the consumers and major retailers and trading firms do benefit from trading with China, Chinese firms do not boast the same level of integration into the US economy and they simply don't have enough friends to advocate for them. The fact that China observes a different political system makes it an easier target for instigating trade wars.

“India could be the next in line as it could become a major potential partner in trade. Even though it's a democratic country, the future US politicians will not suffer from a lack of arguments for starting some major trade dispute with Indian firms.”

Below is Prof. Gao’s bio. Please let me know if you’d like to interview him.
Tao (Tony) Gao, Assistant Professor, Marketing Group. Professor Gao received a Ph.D. in marketing from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, an M.E. in business management from Harbin Institute of Technology (Harbin, China), and a B.E. in industrial and management engineering from Hebei University of Technology (Tianjin, China). Previously, he held faculty positions at Washburn University, Hofstra University, College of William and Mary, and Hebei University of Technology (China). He also worked with the China branch of Mitsubishi Corporation (a general trading company in Japan) in the areas of international trade and joint venture developments. Professor Gao conducts research primarily on the development, governance, and consequences of buyer-seller relationships, customer value and risk perceptions, international business strategies, and business ethics. He has published in Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Research in Marketing, International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, Journal of Relationship Marketing, Journal of International Business and Economy, Latin American Business Review, and Multinational Business Review. For his dissertation work on industrial buyer-seller relationships, he was a former winner of the National Association of Purchasing Management (now Institute for Supply Management) Doctoral Dissertation Competition.