The Wall Street Journal Education Program Weekly Review & Quiz Covering front-page articles from Feb 3-9, 2006 Professor Guide with Summaries Spring 2006 Issue #5 Developed by: Scott R. Homan Ph.D., Purdue University Questions 1 – 12 from The First Section, Section A Midwest Sweats Unusual Fallout Of Warm Winter By ILAN BRAT and AMY MERRICK February 4, 2006; Page A1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113902524592165150.html Unseasonably warm weather across the Midwest is altering company fortunes, lowering river levels, fanning concerns about crops and threatening to aggravate the effects of a five-year drought blamed for billions of dollars of damage. Much of the country has experienced an unusually warm winter, especially the Northeast and parts of the South. But the impact has been especially deep for the nation's middle section, where cities like Green Bay, Wis., and Kansas City, Mo., have set records for warmth and where many areas rely on agriculture. In January, the mercury failed to drop below 0 degrees Fahrenheit in Bismarck, N.D., for the first time since temperature tracking began in 1875. At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, the average temperature of 35.8 degrees Fahrenheit made last month the third warmest January on record -- behind those of 1880 and 1933. While the milder temperatures have spared homeowners some of the pain of high homeheating prices, the temperature and the drought could be big trouble for agriculture. The weather has caused some plants to come out of the ground abnormally early; daffodils are sprouting in Des Moines, Iowa. But without a protective snow cover, winter wheat, usually in its dormant stage this time of year, could be weakened if exposed to a cold snap, such as one predicted for next week. "That's where we get really scared, where we have no snow cover and we get arctic infiltration," said Al Dutcher, an agricultural meteorologist and state climatologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In Illinois and Iowa, subsoil moisture that helped many corn growers survive a rain shortage in 2005 is now depleted, leaving this year's crops in need of steady rains, said Jon Davis, a meteorologist with Chesapeake Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City, Okla. "It's certainly an issue over the next couple of months that bears some watching," he said. Crops also might be facing the prospect of an infestation of insects this spring, since cold weather isn't thinning pest populations. Marlin Rice, an entomology professor at Iowa State University, said he has met with farmers more than a dozen times in three weeks as their worries grow. "If they don't...protect against these rootworms, they'll have a greater probability of having insect damage," he said. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 1 of 21 In Texas, the drought has gotten so severe that 88% of the wheat is in poor or very poor condition, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. In southeast Oklahoma, fires last month destroyed more than 400,000 acres of pasture, wiping out many cattle ranchers' main source of hay. That could make it harder for ranchers to expand herds at a time when beef supplies are tight, said Chris Rice, an agronomist at Oklahoma State University. Concerns about crops have played into commodities markets too. Since mid-January, as warm weather has continued, futures contracts on wheat and corn have rallied about 10% at the Chicago Board of Trade, while soybean contracts are up more than 4%. The weather also is scrambling results for companies. Cargill Inc., one of the country's largest distributors of industrial salt for ice control, has seen sales "the slowest it's been in almost a decade," a spokesman said. 1. ________ across the Midwest is altering company fortunes, lowering river levels, fanning concerns about crops and threatening to aggravate the effects of a five-year drought blamed for billions of dollars of damage. a. Wild fire b. Unseasonably warm weather Correct c. Industrial pollution d. Snow drift 2. In January, the mercury failed to drop below 0 degrees Fahrenheit in _______ for the first time since temperature tracking began in 1875. a. Alaska b. New York City c. Chicago's O'Hare International d. Bismarck, N.D. Correct New Haven Swiss Fight Against Tax Cheats Aids Singapore's Banking Quest By EDWARD TAYLOR in Frankfurt and CRIS PRYSTAY in Singapore February 6, 2006; Page A1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113919488042365741.html For decades, the ultrarich looking for discreet banking services gravitated to Switzerland, where account secrecy was sacrosanct. But when Swiss authorities acceded to pressure from the European Union to discourage tax evasion, the door opened for a new challenger to woo the world's wealthy: Singapore. The tiny Asian nation has beefed up account secrecy protections, has changed trust laws and has begun allowing foreigners who meet minimum wealth requirements to purchase land and become residents. Now private-banking money is flooding in from at least three sources: Asians who have grown rich from the booming Asia-Pacific economy, foreigners seeking to invest and do business in Asia, and Europeans moving money from Switzerland for tax purposes. Swiss banks are expanding in Singapore to get in on the action. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 2 of 21 The money flow demonstrates how one nation, in the borderless world of international banking, can use banking regulation as an economic development tool -- and how complicated it is for tax authorities around the world to plug revenue leaks. "While tax authorities have increased surveillance and regulation in a bid to stem the flow of investment capital and profits to low-tax jurisdictions, it's easier to shift money around than it used to be thanks to technology," says Chris Edwards, director of tax policy at Cato Institute, a Washington think tank that favors free trade. "Both legal avoidance and illegal evasion techniques have become more accessible." In Singapore's asset-management business, which includes private-banking, total funds under management rose to more than $356 billion at the end of 2004, from $94 billion at the end of 1998, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the nation's financial regulator. Roman Scott, a director of Boston Consulting Group in Singapore, estimates private-banking assets account for about $125 billion of the total. Singaporean officials involved in the private-banking push say the new foreign depositors are attracted by Singapore's sound legal system, lack of corruption and transparent financial systems. Some Swiss private bankers also have been billing Singapore as a way around new taxes in Switzerland, Luxembourg and tax havens such as Jersey in the English Channel. Under pressure from the EU to crack down on tax evasion, Switzerland imposed a withholding tax last July on some accounts held by EU citizens. "Singapore is one way of getting around the withholding tax," said Raymond J. Baer, chairman of Zurich private bank Julius Baer Holding Ltd., in a September interview following the announced purchase of Banco di Lugano, a small Swiss bank with privatebanking operations in Singapore. Last week, Mr. Baer said that being in multiple jurisdictions enables the bank to serve an international clientele, and that the Singapore office was a platform for growth in Asia. "Singapore also offers a tax-friendly environment," he noted. 3. For decades, the ultrarich looking for discreet banking services gravitated to _____, where account secrecy was sacrosanct. a. England b. Denmark c. Switzerland Correct d. Spain 4. When European Union authorities acceded to pressure to discourage tax evasion, the door opened for _______ to woo the world's wealthy. a. Japan b. Singapore Correct c. Hong Kong d. Thailand Default Lines Pressuring Microsoft, PC Makers Team Up With Its Software Rivals By ROBERT A. GUTH and KEVIN J. DELANEY February 7, 2006; Page A1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113928066242466882.html © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 3 of 21 It takes only about five minutes to set up a new personal computer by clicking through a series of introductory screens. In that time, however, many consumers choose software and services they will often use for the life of their machine. Historically, Microsoft Corp. held great sway over this "first-boot sequence" as well as other software preinstalled in the factory. Now PC makers including Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. are beginning to take more control over this crucial real estate. They increasingly are trying to sell this space to service providers and software makers, such as Google Inc. After a year of sometimes tense negotiations with Google and PC makers, Microsoft has ceded ground on some key technical details. In what would be the most significant example of this shift, Google is in serious negotiations to get its software installed on millions of Dell PCs before they are shipped to users, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the deal being discussed, Google, of Mountain View, Calif., could pay Dell fees approaching $1 billion over three years, these people estimate. The terms might change and the discussions could fail. Any agreement would be the latest in a series of similar deals with computer manufacturers the giant Internet search company has signed. PC makers are turning their computers into the equivalent of a supermarket, capable of stocking products made by many companies -- for a price. The idea is similar to the way food companies pay grocers a fee to get space on store shelves and could help shift the balance of power in the software world. The company that stands to lose the most is Microsoft, which garners its largest source of revenue and profit from PC software. Microsoft for years has been able to exert significant control over what appears on the desktop because it produces the PCindustry's dominant operating system, the software brains behind a computer. Microsoft managers warned Chairman Bill Gates a year ago that if Google started paying PC makers to carry software, Microsoft's PC-software business could become "increasingly defunct," according to a company report viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The managers worry that PC makers will demand lower prices as they package software from rivals that duplicate elements of its operating system. Already, a consumer setting up a new H-P computer, for example, has the option to sign up for Earthlink's broadband access, AOL's online service, Symantec antivirus software and videogames from a start-up company named WildTangent. Those companies pay HP a set fee or a share of revenue, say executives at the companies. H-P also auctions off its space: Google pays it $1 for every PC that ships with a Google toolbar -- a strip that sits atop a browser and enables users to easily operate Google's search engine -- and another 75 cents the first time a home-computer user taps the service, says a person familiar with the matter. 5. PC makers are turning their computers into the equivalent of a ______, capable of stocking products made by many companies -- for a price. a. big box retailer b. supermarket Correct c. shopping mall © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 4 of 21 d. convenience store 6. According to a company report viewed by The Wall Street Journal, managers warned that if Google started paying PC makers to carry software, ______ software business could become "increasingly defunct". a. Microsoft's Correct b. IBM's c. Electronic Art's d. Dell’s GM, Ford Craft Plea For Limited Federal Assistance By LAURA MECKLER and DAVID ROGERS February 9, 2006; Page A1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113945176949069105.html As their woes mount, America's two big auto makers are making it clear they don't want or expect a bailout from Washington and instead have crafted a call for help that focuses on measures that could provide more limited assistance. Among specific areas where Detroit is seeking federal support: restraining health-care costs, promoting new fuel technologies and keeping exchange rates in line. To strengthen their case, General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers are couching their appeals as measures that would benefit all American manufacturers at a time when U.S. industry is coming under increasing pressure from globalization. "Most of the issues we're interested in Washington are shared by the majority of large manufacturers and large businesses," said Christopher Preuss of GM's Washington office. Some of their requests will gain a more sympathetic hearing than others. The political climate is greatly altered since 1980, when Chrysler Corp. was bailed out with $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees. GM and Ford are scrupulously avoiding talk of a bailout, and the current climate in Washington doesn't allow much room for federal intervention to support industry. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, isn't pushing any action in the near term. "I think we'll not knee-jerk on this thing. We'll watch, and if we're going to do something, we want to do something that will have a positive effect on the economy," he said in a brief interview. "They've got to try to cure themselves first." Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who has long championed the car makers' cause, agrees that nothing is on the immediate horizon, noting that President Bush in recent comments has ruled out any form of bailout. "I see no sign of the administration changing its position until the situation gets worse or Congress runs away from them, and then they'll rush to get ahead of the parade," he said. Even if Washington were to act soon, nothing the auto makers are seeking would provide a quick fix for their mounting woes -- yawning losses, shrinking market share and everrising employee-benefit costs. In recent months, GM and Ford have announced plans to cut more than 60,000 jobs and close nearly two dozen North American factories. Tuesday, GM said it was halving its dividend, cutting executive salaries and curtailing benefits for salaried workers. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 5 of 21 GM and Ford are playing to broader concerns about American manufacturing for several reasons. For one, the auto industry itself isn't the problem: The Japanese and other foreign auto makers continue to make big inroads in the U.S. market, boosting sales, market share and manufacturing presence while GM and Ford flounder. Were they to seek a bailout, "what kind of message is it to consumers: Buy our cars but we can't get our act together?" said one auto lobbyist. 7. In 1980 _______ was bailed out with $1.5 billion in federal loan guarantees. a. Chrysler Corp Correct b. General Motors Corp c. Ford Motor Co d. Subaru of Indiana 8. As their woes mount, _____________ are making it clear they don't want or expect a bailout from Washington and instead have crafted a call for help that focuses on measures that could provide more limited assistance. a. General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co Correct b. Toyota Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co c. Chrysler Corp and Ford Motor Co d. General Motors Corp and Chrysler Corp Pressured GM Slashes Pay, Benefits By JOSEPH B. WHITE and LEE HAWKINS JR. February 8, 2006; Page A1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113931664063967131.html DETROIT – Assailed by global competition and shackled to ever-rising employee pension and health-care costs, General Motors Corp. will halve its common-stock dividend, slash pay for its top five executives and curtail benefits for salaried workers. But even after these moves, plus already-announced plans to cut more than 30,000 North American jobs and slash costs by as much as $11 billion, GM still faces a daunting challenge: It must turn around its flagging North American auto business while trying to find a majority buyer for its big and profitable finance unit -- now hobbled by the junk rating on GM's debt -- bankroll job cuts at former parts unit Delphi Corp., and negotiate labor concessions with a reluctant union. As GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said yesterday, these times are "the most challenging in our 100-year history." As if to drive home that very point, Toyota Motor Corp. executives in Japan yesterday announced a record quarterly profit and outlined plans to pour a record amount of money into new vehicles and factories, mainly for the U.S. market. The two announcements add momentum to the drama playing out on a massive scale in the U.S. auto market. In the past few months, GM and rival Ford Motor Co. have outlined plans to cut more than 60,000 jobs and close nearly two dozen North American factories as they struggle to reverse widening losses in their core North American auto businesses. At the same time, many foreign auto makers, led by Toyota, have been boosting profits, hiring U.S. workers and gnawing at GM and Ford's market share. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 6 of 21 9. Assailed by global competition and shackled to ever-rising employee pension and health-care costs, _______ will halve its common-stock dividend, slash pay for its top five executives and curtail benefits for salaried workers. a. General Motors Corp Correct b. Toyota Motors Corp c. Ford Motor Co d. Chrysler Corp 10. _________ executives recently announced a record quarterly profit and outlined plans to pour a record amount of money into new vehicles and factories, mainly for the U.S. market. a. General Motors Corp b. Toyota Motors Corp Correct c. Ford Motor Co d. Chrysler Corp As China's Trade Clout Grows, So Do Price-Fixing Accusations By JOHN R. WILKE in Washington and KATHY CHEN in Beijing February 10, 2006 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113954082130170389.html Ten years ago, China's pharmaceutical firms had a sliver of the world's market for vitamin C. Today, China is the OPEC of vitamin C. Chinese manufacturers currently supply more than 85% of the vitamin C used in the U.S. Just like the oil cartel, they can heavily influence world prices. After a 2001 agreement among China's four largest producers, spot prices for vitamin C rose to as high as $9 a kilogram from lows of less than $3. Cooperation among competitors is illegal in the U.S. when it leads to higher prices for consumers. So far, about half a dozen civil antitrust suits have been filed against Chinese vitamin C manufacturers in various U.S. courts. Federal prosecutors in Texas are reviewing similar allegations, though the Justice Department hasn't yet decided whether or not to pursue criminal charges, people close to the inquiry say. As China becomes ever more dominant in manufacturing, its ability to dictate the prices of industrial and consumer products is steadily rising. As a result, Chinese manufacturers are increasingly running afoul of Western antitrust law in products from vitamin C to a mineral used in steel production. These legal struggles could become another point of tension in the U.S.-China relationship, which has been tested by disagreements over matters from textile tariffs to the trade deficit. Chinese companies deny breaking U.S. law and have hired U.S. law firms to mount a defense. The companies are expected to argue they are acting as agents of the Chinese government and therefore aren't subject to antitrust law. A Chinese © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 7 of 21 industry executive says the companies raised prices to stave off accusations they were "dumping," or illegally selling products abroad at below cost to win market share. 11. Chinese manufacturers currently supply more than ____ of the vitamin C used in the United States. a. 25% b. 45% c. 85% Correct d. 95% 12. About half a dozen civil ________ have been filed against Chinese vitamin C manufacturers in various United States courts. a. unfairness suits b. antitrust suits Correct c. disobedience suits d. trust suits Questions 13 – 17 from Marketplace Clever Gags Score High On Super Bowl Ads By SUZANNE VRANICA February 6, 2006; Page B1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113898059693064472.html Celebrities, animals and surprise endings dominated the advertising action during Super Bowl XL, but it was in-your-face humor that proved to be a winning play with many viewers this year. In early results of a reader poll last night on The Wall Street Journal Online, FedEx Corp.'s spot featuring a caveman crushed by a dinosaur after failing to use FedEx was scoring highest with respondents. In an interview, Bill Ward, professor of advertising at Michigan State University called it "pre-hysterical." Sprint Nextel Corp.'s ad showing a guy demonstrating the "crime deterrent" feature of his cellphone by hurling it at his buddy's face was running second in the online poll. "I loved it. It was so unpredictable," said Tony Smith, a 29-year-old teacher in Denver, of the Sprint spot, crafted by Omnicom Group Inc.'s TBWA\Chiat\Day. "They nailed it," said Toby Barlow, executive creative director at WPP Group PLC's JWT. "Superlative, it blew away my expectations." Anheuser-Busch Cos., which typically dominates the Super Bowl ad action, was also a high scorer with a clever commercial crafted by Omnicom's DDB that showed a group of guys bowing before a "secret" refrigerator they'd discovered that was full of Bud Light. That ad "broke through and was attention-grabbing," said Emily Raman, a 28-year-old ad student at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill., who was watching the game with 35 other students. Another Bud Light spot, showing husbands pretending to be working on their roofs, also tickled ad executives and consumers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, as did the Budweiser spot showing a sheep streaking through a football game being played by © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 8 of 21 Clydesdale horses. "Well-done, classic Bud," said Steve Doppelt, creative director at MDC Partners Inc.'s Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners. Roughly 90 million people in the U.S. were expected to tune in last night to watch the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, and the close game kept many of them watching to the end. Such an audience, three or four times the viewership of most hit TV shows, makes the game a showcase for advertisers that can afford to pay as much as $2.5 million for a 30-second spot-up from $2.4 million last year. For that price and exposure, most Super Bowl marketers go extra lengths to produce memorable ads that will score highly with viewers in postgame media polls. With the Internet, a winning commercial can have legs far beyond the usual office chatter or water cooler buzz. Web sites such as ESPN.com and NFL.com will replay ads while companies like Anheuser-Busch will post their ads online shortly after the game so consumers can view or download them. 13. The only SuperBowl ad that was well received by the public was ____. a. Budweiser’s “streaking” sheep b. FedEx Corp's spot featuring a caveman c. Sprint’s “crime deterrent” cell phone feature d. All of the above were well received Correct Some Dos and Don'ts To Help You Hone Videoconference Skills By JOANN S. LUBLIN February 7, 2006; Page B1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113926795874466554.html Smile! A videoconference camera may be aimed at you. Thanks to better, cheaper technology, more Americans now conduct business -- ranging from global brainstorming meetings to screening interviews with search firms -- via videoconferencing. That means your video performance could help or hurt your career. Videoconferences represent "a great tool for far-flung managers to gain additional exposure and make a name for themselves back at corporate headquarters," says Jeffrey Schwartz, chief executive of ProLogis, an industrial real-estate investment trust in Denver, Colo. More than 25% of the REIT's 900 employees world-wide regularly take part in videoconferences, compared with fewer than 5% five years ago. Mr. Schwartz says his one or two videoconferences a week make him "a better leader." On the other hand, you risk making a fool of yourself if you forget that associates glued to screens in five countries can watch you twirl your hair, pick your nose, bite your lip, check your BlackBerry or scratch an armpit. "The camera magnifies and exaggerates everything," notes Peggy Klaus, a communication coach in Berkeley, Calif. You must be on your best behavior from "the moment you put your toe in that room" with the video camera. To improve your chances of shining on camera, I gathered videoconferencing etiquette tips from coaches, recruiters and frequent corporate users. Here are their best dos and don'ts: • Choose what you wear carefully. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 9 of 21 Adam Bauman, head of STI, a New York talent-management firm, often counsels executives at their homes via videoconferencing. Some don a shirt, tie and shorts for the sessions because they expect the screen to display only their upper torso. Then, he reports, they stand up to fetch something and get flummoxed because they've been caught wearing casual attire below the waist. Mr. Bauman urges executive clients to dress well top to bottom for videoconferences with recruiters -- and to refrain from wearing busy patterns during any video meeting. • Speak in crisp, conversational tones and pay close attention. When you want to sell an idea, it helps to lean a bit toward the camera. Women will do better if they perch on the edge of their seats throughout the session. Otherwise, "they look invisible," says Teri Cavanagh, president of TLC Connections, a Pocasset, Mass., concern that offers advice on marketing to women. • Both genders should maintain eye contact with remote viewers and live participants. You appear stiff if you stare at the screen constantly. But don't overcompensate. Distant watchers will notice if you gaze away frequently or seem detached for other reasons. "Be careful not to frown, slouch, put your chin in your hands or bob in the conference chair," says Lynthia Romney, president of RomneyCom, a public-relations firm in Westchester, N.Y. She recently facilitated a videoconference for a U.S. professional-services client involving 13 people in New York and London. Several felt irritated when two U.K. attendees left the room and a third leaned back in his chair. Ms. Romney finds such behavior "more distracting on camera than it might even be in person." • Never forget the video camera's powerful reach. A manager for a Wall Street firm described a good stock pick during one videoconference. The camera caught a dubious colleague rolling his eyes upward. That was unprofessional, Ms. Klaus says. But at a live meeting, the coach adds, "there's a chance not everyone in the room would have seen it." Oblivious that the camera was running ahead of their videoconference with San Francisco pay consultant Frank Glassner, top officials at a diversified French company debated the wisdom of his advice. He saw and heard every word. "Frank's here," Mr. Glassner says he chimed in, though, he adds, in this case the surprised executives "didn't lose a beat." An attorney working from another location for a big New York law firm fell asleep during an internal videoconference last December. As his head fell forward, "he almost brained himself on the conference table," a partner recollects. "We were all laughing." Luckily, no one heard him snore, though perhaps that's only because he had punched the mute button. • Avoid culturally insensitive gestures. Large hand and body motions make many Asians uncomfortable. They believe "you have to have long-term relationships" before you are demonstrative, explains Chris Duncan, global leader for communication resources at Dow Chemical. About 70% of the company's 43,000 global employees have access to Dow's more than 150 videoconferencing units. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 10 of 21 • Quell video interview jitters by practicing. Before you meet a recruiter on a videoconference, you might rehearse at a Kinko's. Enlist a distant friend to role play the recruiter, critique your body language and sharpen your delivery. Alternatively, make a video at home. Review the clip without any audio "to see where your little quirks are," Ms. Klaus recommends. And turn your back to the screen before you listen to your replies. If you sound like a mouse -- she dubs this "squeak speak" -practice boldness. 14. A key tip for successful video-conferencing is _______. a. Choose what you wear carefully b. Quell video interview jitters by practicing c. Speak in crisp, conversational tones and pay close attention d. All of the above Correct Placating the Locals By THADDEUS HERRICK February 8, 2006; Page B1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113936129277167832.html ALBANY, Calif. -- On a recent Tuesday evening, developer Rick Caruso worked the living room of a Bay Area bungalow as if he were running for mayor. Yet his pitch to the 20 or so residents of this small town next to Berkeley was strictly business, not politics. Mr. Caruso's Los Angeles firm, Caruso Affiliated, wants to build a $300 million outdoor mall and apartments on 45 acres across the bay from San Francisco. Mr. Caruso has his work cut out for him: It's the same parcel that many residents envision as an extended coastal park. To defuse opposition, Mr. Caruso is offering to build a 25,000-square-foot YMCA, devote a portion of land for the park, and rebuild a pier. Wooing locals is nothing new to developers, though they often received a rubber stamp to build shopping centers and residential complexes as cities grew in the past 50 years. Today, however, the best prospects are increasingly urban and suburban redevelopment projects, on land often surrounded by residents with the money, the know-how and the will to fight. As a result, developers must run something akin to a political campaign to get their projects approved -- and in the process, give residents much of what they demand. "What else?" the tanned and trim Mr. Caruso, neatly dressed in a three-button blazer and black Dolce & Gabbana shoes, asked residents as he displayed sketches of the proposal. "What else do people want?" Making the neighbors happy is more time-consuming now. Developers who might have spent six months gaining community support for suburban projects several decades ago now are spending some three years undergoing the same process, said John McIlwain, senior fellow for housing at the Urban Land Institute, a Washington, D.C., land-use think tank. Urban redevelopments require similarly exhaustive battles, Mr. McIlwain said, though developers undertook few such efforts before the 1990s. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 11 of 21 15. Developers who might have spent six months gaining community support for suburban projects several decades ago now are spending _______ undergoing the same process. a. one year b. two years c. three years Correct d. four years Disney and the Great Wall By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and MERISSA MARR February 9, 2006; Page B1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113945367314769161.html Li Zeng, a fourteen-year-old Chinese tourist, wandered Hong Kong Disneyland yesterday and left after two hours. Mr. Li isn't that familiar with Mickey Mouse and his companions, and he and his father didn't take any rides, buy souvenirs, or eat food. "We don't understand this park," said the teenager, waiting for his tour bus. "We gave up looking at the map." Five months after Walt Disney Co. opened its Hong Kong theme park in a bid to tap the booming Chinese market, the cultural divide that separates Mickey and Mr. Li is still a major challenge. It is one that the company is trying hard to bridge, though with mixed results. The need to adapt was on display here last week. After Disney underestimated the number of people who would visit during mainland China's weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, vacationing crowds poured in, filling the park to its maximum capacity. Disney officials ordered the gates shut, and hundreds of angry guests from China who held valid tickets found themselves unable to enter. Some engaged in shouting matches with park staff, and at least one excluded family tried to pass a child over the park's wrought-iron fence. Before last week, Disney's problem wasn't too many visitors, but the flak it was getting for having too few. It drew public rebuke over low attendance from local politicians, who questioned the wisdom of the Hong Kong government's 57% stake in the park. Local retailers said they didn't get the sales boost they were expecting from the new tourists Disneyland had promised to draw. The company is "still learning" about Chinese culture, said the park's managing director, Bill Ernest, on Saturday during an emotional public apology for last week's ticket fiasco. Jay Rasulo, the head of Disney's theme-park division, notes it is early days yet and stresses the need to put such criticism in "context." He says overall guest experiences at the park are "some of the best in the world," with over 90% of the visitors Disney interviewed last week saying they had a positive time. "Part of the way we make people happy is that we listen, learn and adjust as necessary," said Mr. Rasulo. Chinese travel agencies also have noted some visitor befuddlement. "Many customers complain they do not know how to enjoy Disneyland," says Chen Mei, the international tours manager of the Ju Cheng agency, which brings groups to the park from the city of Zhongshan in southern China. Some mainland tourists show up at the park only to walk aimlessly around Main Street U.S.A. and snap a few photos with Marie the Cat -- a minor © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 12 of 21 character from the 1970's film "The Aristocats." Marie is familiar to some from the movie's repeat showings in southern China. She also happens to look like another Asian favorite, Hello Kitty. Even before last week's incident, Disney was changing the way it does business at the park. Disney invited in more Chinese celebrities and made sure they got VIP treatment. It cut the cost of tickets for local residents during a low period for tourists, and added a local promotion, artificial snow, to Hong Kong's subtropical climate. Disney also now produces marketing that includes the testimonials of real people who have visited the park, instead of just slick studio shots. To help confused visitors, since November Disney has started producing special "one-day trip guides" in Chinese, beyond the basic maps, to explain in clear terms exactly how to enjoy Disneyland -- and why it is enjoyable. "You can get together with family to relax and improve communication and relationships with the people you love," reads the guide. Disney hands out the fliers inside the park, and at other Hong Kong tourist attractions. Perhaps most significantly for park attendance, Hong Kong Disneyland is changing the way it works with Chinese travel agents. Most mainland Chinese still take vacations through package tours, and they make up about 50% of the Chinese visitors to the park. The guides who direct these tours frequently select hotels, restaurants, shopping stops and even tour destinations based on where they share in the profits. Because of lucrative deals with tour operators, one Hong Kong transvestite cabaret brags that its five-times-a-day $20 show draws more Chinese tourists on a regular basis than Disneyland. Mr. Ernest says Disney, which doesn't have much experience with such financial arrangements, now realizes that changing something as simple as how it offers dinners can make a big difference to the local travel industry. Many tour packages for visitors from China include pre-arranged dinners. Tour operators typically get a cut of the meal costs. Without group dinner deals and significant commissions, Disney wasn't offering guides much financial incentive to funnel tourists into the park. Now Mr. Ernest says he is considering starting a "dining with Disney" program. Special group breakfasts with Disney characters are another option, he says. Disney is reaching out in other ways. When the Ju Cheng agency publicly threatened to sue over last week's ticket problem, Disney offered a conciliatory tone -- and refunds for people who couldn't come back on another day. "We are probably as critical on ourselves as anybody is with us," says Mr. Ernest. To build relationships, Disney is giving Chinese travel agents a 50% personal discount if they come visit its park and hotels. The company also beefed up incentives for tour operators to build a Disneyland visit into packages by increasing the margin it offered them to about $2.50 per adult ticket. And it changed its sales packages to include openended instead of just fixed-date tickets so operators wouldn't have to eat the cost of returned tickets. 16. To build relationships Disney is giving Chinese travel agents a ____ personal discount if they come visit its park and hotels. a. 20% b. 50% Correct © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 13 of 21 c. 70% d. 90% GM's Board Seeks to Add An African-American Director By JOANN S. LUBLIN and LEE HAWKINS JR. February 10, 2006; Page B1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113953799778670331.html The wheels are still turning inside the boardroom at General Motors Corp. Days after adding one director as another resigned, GM directors are seeking an AfricanAmerican to replace departing Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive Officer E. Stanley O'Neal, according to an individual close to the situation. The new director would add a 13th member to GM's board, and directors may not stop there. Board members "are going to get as many good minds as [they] can," the person close to the situation says. 17. Days after adding one director as another resigned, GM directors are seeking a(n) _________ to replace departing Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive Officer E. Stanley O'Neal, according to an individual close to the situation. a. African-American Correct b. Asian-American c. Hispanic-American d. Women Questions 18 – 23 from Money & Investing Getting Wise to Mortgages By JAMES R. HAGERTY and RUTH SIMON February 4, 2006; Page B1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113901128014664824.html A few entrepreneurs are developing new tools to help home buyers tackle one of the most confusing projects they face: figuring out whether a mortgage is a fair deal. Comparison-shopping for mortgages has long been a job only a masochist could love -- a world of "points," "ARMs" and a barrage of surprise fees. In recent years, it has become tougher amid the proliferation of complex new interest-only mortgages and others designed to enable buyers to delay more of the pain of paying off that debt. Now, as interest rates climb, it is important for mortgage borrowers to aggressively shop around for the best terms. Over 10 years, a difference of just 0.125 percentage point on the mortgage rate on a $500,000 loan can rack up more than $6,000 in extra interest payments. The problem for borrowers is that lenders have a vested interest in making it tough to compare rival offerings. "The general public, they think they know how to shop for mortgages," says Mike Stoffer, who owns a mortgage brokerage in North Canton, Ohio. "They have no clue." Some entrepreneurs are stepping in to give consumers some added muscle. One of the quirkiest tools available is a Web site, www.mtgprofessor.com1, by a maverick retired © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 14 of 21 finance professor who has made a hobby of skewering mortgage lenders. The site is a compilation of tutorials, calculators and a glossary defining everything from "balloon mortgage" (one that is payable in full at an early date) to "right of recission" (your right to back out of a refinancing within three days of closing). It also has some tart words for rogue lenders from Jack M. Guttentag, the Wharton professor emeritus behind the site. Example: In one passage, he compares parts of the mortgage market with a camel bazaar -- except that the chances of being fleeced by a camel dealer are smaller. 18. Over 10 years, a difference of just 0.125 percentage point on a $500,000 mortgage can rack up more than ________ in extra interest payments. a. $60 b. $600 c. $6,000 Correct d. $60,000 For Long-Term Investing Plan, Measure Real-World Return By E.S. BROWNING February 6, 2006; Page C1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113918337699965515.html Measured the usual way, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been flirting with a record lately. If only the real world worked that way. Stock indexes such as the Dow industrials and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index provide a good day-to-day measure of the market's progress. But for investors saving long term for retirement, the indexes tell only part of the story. In that real world, inflation, taxes and trading costs bite huge chunks out of the indexes' real returns, making them far lower than they seem. If you had invested one dollar in the S&P 500 back at the start of 1926, for example, you would have had $2,655.73 at the end of December 2005 -- a very nice gain. But after removing the effects of inflation, taxes and trading expenses, that $2,655.73 would be worth just $46.59, according to a study by Thornburg Investment Management in Santa Fe, N.M. The real buying power of your investment, in other words, would be far less than it seemed. 19. According to a study by Thornburg Investment Management if you had invested one dollar in the S&P 500 back at the start of 1926 it would be worth ______ after removing the effects of inflation, taxes and trading expenses. a. $46.59 Correct b. $465.90 c. $2,655.73 d. $2,655,730.75 Tech Titans Turn to Debt for Deals By BOBBY WHITE February 7, 2006; Page C1 © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 15 of 21 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113928096229666894.html To pull off its recent acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta Inc., networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. did something unusual: It said it would use some debt to finance the $6.9 billion deal for the television set-top box maker. That marks the first time that Cisco, one of Silicon Valley's most acquisitive companies, is using debt to finance a purchase. In the past, the San Jose, Calif., maker of switches and routers always bought companies using cash or stock. Cisco has in excess of $13 billion in cash and short-term investments. But the company said it isn't using much of that hoard for deals because a significant portion of the cash is located overseas and couldn't be repatriated because of tax issues, compelling it to turn to debt. A Cisco spokeswoman declined to comment on how much debt the company may issue for the Scientific-Atlanta deal. 20. Cisco has in excess of ______ in cash and short-term investments. But the company said it isn't using much of that hoard for deals because a significant portion of the cash is located overseas and couldn't be repatriated because of tax issues, compelling it to turn to debt. a. $13 million b. $1.3 billion c. $13 billion Correct d. $130 billion No Excessive Pay, We're British By JESSE EISINGER February 8, 2006; Page C1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113936972675168065.html Every few months or so, news of a British executive-pay "furore" finds its way over here -- to the befuddlement of Americans. The sums that cause scandal in the United Kingdom wouldn't make the down payment on an American CEO's yacht. Americans harbor little doubt in their own minds that corporate-governance standards here are the best in the world. But the U.K. does a better job in reining in executive pay. The biggest difference is that in Britain, shareholders vote on executive compensation packages. And they regularly smack them down if they view them as excessive. The votes aren't binding, but companies mostly adhere to them. British corporate governance is superior in other respects. The roles of chairman and chief executive are divided at most large companies, leaving imperial crowns for the real royals. The disclosure on pay packages is better, and will continue to be so even if the Securities and Exchange Commission approves its much-needed proposal to improve how companies report compensation. Packages in Britain are more closely tied to performance. And, perhaps coincidentally and perhaps not, there hasn't been an implosion in the U.K. on the scale of Enron or WorldCom since the early 1990s. The average CEO's pay is significantly higher here, mainly because American CEOs regularly score huge options bounties. But even when you scrub the data for the outliers, English CEOs still trail their counterparts in the U.S. -- though not by as much. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 16 of 21 The total compensation of the median CEO in the top 100 British companies (those in the FTSE 100 stock index) equaled $4.9 million last year, according to Peter Jauhal, a senior executive-compensation consultant for Hewitt Associates in London. The poor dears -have you seen prices for flats in Mayfair these days? In the U.S., the median CEO of the Standard & Poor's 500 companies had a total compensation of $6 million in 2004, according to the Corporate Library. True, American companies are, for the most part, bigger and more complex. 21. In the US, the median CEO of the S&Ps 500 companies had a total compensation of $6 million in 2004 whereas the total compensation of the median CEO in the top 100 British companies equaled ________ last year. a. $3.5 million b. $ 4.2 million c. $4.9 million Correct d. $5.6 million Street Sleuth Applebee's to Research Analysts: 'Do Not Call' By RANDALL SMITH February 9, 2006; Page C1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113945565174769226.html One day last summer, just before Applebee's International Inc. was due to report monthly sales data, one of the restaurant chain's franchise operators was contacted by a junior stock analyst from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. In an email, analyst Andrew Kim, who worked for a Lehman fund that does proprietary trading on behalf of the Wall Street firm, asked an Applebee's operations manager in Tennessee for "a better understanding of the business from the franchisee's perspective." Most public companies welcome extra attention from stock-research analysts, believing it's a plus if Wall Street is telling investors about their stock. But some restaurant companies such as Applebee's are pushing back against what they consider disruptive efforts to get a jump on key sales data. That's why Carol DiRaimo, the Applebee's investor-relations director, contacted Mr. Kim and told him such employee contacts are "inappropriate." Mr. Kim didn't know monthly sales data were about to be reported, a person familiar with the events said, and Lehman said Mr. Kim "acted in a totally appropriate manner." But Ms. DiRaimo says sales-trend data from a big franchise operator could be "material nonpublic information" that should be disclosed to all investors. Although interviews with company employees have long been a staple of Wall Street research, they pose a greater challenge in the wake of rules aimed at leveling the playing field for the average investor. Foremost among them is the Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation Fair Disclosure, which bars public companies from selectively sharing market-moving information. Besides Wall Street firms, hedge funds and other traders looking to get an edge have taken to conducting or commissioning "channel-check" surveys that quiz a company's line employees and others about customer traffic and other performance measures. Many © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 17 of 21 surveyors back off when confronted by angry managers, but some don't, and others return to calling or otherwise contacting employees later. 22. The Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation Fair Disclosure, bars public companies from selectively sharing _________. a. inventory information b. market-moving information Correct c. sales information d. bank account information Attention: Deficit By JUSTIN LAHART February 10, 2006; Page C1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113953581680670276.html America's trade gap with the rest of the world looks to have widened by more than $100 billion last year. Ho-hum. If the recent past is prologue, Wall Street won't react much when the Commerce Department releases the mammoth trade-deficit figures this morning. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC estimate the U.S. had a trade deficit of $64.7 billion in December, up from November's $64.2 billion. That would bring the total trade deficit for 2005 to $726 billion, versus $618 billion in 2004. If anything, the December estimate may be on the low side. Even though energy costs slipped slightly that month, as some have pointed out, the volume of crude-oil imports rose, offsetting the price decline, according to J.P. Morgan's economists. Moreover, port activity suggests it was a healthy month for other imports. And Boeing, a big swing factor in the monthly trade numbers, shipped fewer planes to overseas customers. The growing trade deficit means the U.S. is consuming far more than it makes. To keep doing that, it borrows. The rest of the world has so far been a willing lender -- so much so, in fact, that investors are quite confident that the foreign financing of the deficit won't end anytime soon. 23. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC estimate the US had a trade deficit of ________ in December. a. $6.7 million b. $64.7 million c. $6.7 billion d. $64.7 billion Correct Questions 24 – 26 from Personal Journal, Section D Hotels Take Know Your Customer to New Level By AVERY JOHNSON February 7, 2006; Page D1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113927947660466836.html The days of an anonymous hotel stay are coming to an end. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 18 of 21 For the past few years, hotels have been asking guests about their preferences on amenities like bedding and what to stock in the minibar. Now they are going a step further: discreetly monitoring what guests do during their stays and then recording that information in computer systems that are shared by the hotel company's different properties. The efforts range from logging the kind of fruit that is left on room-service plates, to noting that a guest is sniffling and sending hot tea to his room. While such doting service is great comfort to some travelers, some privacy-conscious customers are resisting the new nosiness. In November, Marriott International Inc.'s Ritz-Carlton launched a central system called "Mystique" that for the first time shares its staff's observations about guests with all of the company's 60 hotels (In the past, these were jotted down in a notebook at one hotel but not effectively acted on at another around the world). Eight other Marriott brands -- from the high-end JW Marriott to the SpringHill Suites -- last month rolled out a system that sends information about guest preferences to 2,600 hotels (previously, the JW Marriott in Phoenix might know that a guest likes feather pillows, but a Fairfield Inn across the country where the guest has never stayed would not). Hilton Hotels Corp. is researching a radio-frequency identification system that it will test next year; the idea is, guests will carry a micro-chipped card in their pocket that will inform the front desk when they walk into the hotel, allowing for quicker identification and check-in. What is generating the most concern is the reliance on sharp-eyed-and-eared employees to pick up on and record clues. The hotel industry calls its data-collection procedures "capturing" information, but some travelers worry they amount to snooping. Others find the close attention a little unnerving. Peter Chang, a 29-year-old consultant from Los Angeles, recalls one experience where a Ritz-Carlton bartender heard him say he likes an expensive wine called Opus One, and a complimentary half-bottle was waiting for him when he returned to his room not long after. "It literally just showed up," he says. 24. The hotel industry is attempting to boost their customer service by learning more information about their guests. The process of gathering this information is called______. a. “spying” b. “snooping” c. “big brothering” d. “capturing” Correct Investing Like the Pros Do: Combining Index Funds With Alternative Strategies By JONATHAN CLEMENTS February 8, 2006; Page D1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113935946547767791.html There is -- apologies for the pun -- a beta way to invest. If you're like many mutual-fund investors, you own a mix of actively managed stock funds that tap into a host of market sectors, such as large companies, small stocks and foreign shares. And, of course, you are hoping to beat the market. © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 19 of 21 Problem is, a lot of what you're paying for isn't stock-picking skill, but basic market exposure -- and you could get that a whole lot cheaper by buying market-tracking index funds. Indeed, institutional investors have woken up to this fact. It explains their enthusiasm for not only prosaic index funds, but also exotic investments like hedge funds and venture capital, where returns depend less on the market and much more on the investment manager's skill. Slashing costs. As regular readers know, I believe the odds of beating the market over the long run are so slim that it isn't worth the effort. But if you're going to try, at least go about it in an intelligent fashion. That brings me to a key concept. Every fund's performance can be split into two parts. First, there's the return that a fund should get simply because it is invested in the market. A fund's sensitivity to market movements is captured by a statistical measure known as "beta." Second, there's the performance that can't be explained by the fund's market exposure. This "unexplained" return, which reflects the manager's luck or skill, is often dubbed "alpha" by academics and Wall Street experts. 25. Every fund's performance can be split into two parts known as _____. a. alpha and omega b. alpha and beta Correct c. alpha and indexa d. alpha and delta Employers Step Up Efforts to Lure Stay-at-Home Mothers Back to Work By SUE SHELLENBARGER February 9, 2006; Page D1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113944168155168836.html A growing number of employers are taking major steps to help women with an age-old problem: Returning to the work force after taking time off to raise kids. Booz Allen Hamilton, Lehman Brothers, Deloitte & Touche and Merrill Lynch, among others, are working to lower the barriers with targeted recruitment, special retraining, mentoring, and new kinds of employment relationships designed to keep ex-employees tied to the firms. While such programs amounted to a trickle in the past, they've now grown to a stream, and a few employers are beginning to reap results. When Susan Siverson quit her Wall Street human-resource job at a banking concern last April to stay home with her twin toddlers, she had no intention of returning for years. If asked then, "I would have said, 'You'd have to drag me kicking and screaming,' " she says. But a campaign by Lehman Brothers to woo at-home mothers like Ms. Siverson -inviting her to an executive luncheon for ex-Wall Streeters, contacting her repeatedly and offering flexible work -- changed her attitude. She thought, "Maybe this is a tenable option for me," she says. She became a part-time consultant for the firm last month. A need for skilled employees, particularly in accounting, consulting and finance, is leading big employers in these fields to get creative. Although their new programs are © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 20 of 21 open to both women and men, they're drawing more females because skilled women are more likely to leave high-paying jobs in the first place, to raise children and for other reasons. In a study of 13,838 employees, Watson Wyatt, Arlington, Va., found women ages 25 to 40 making over $75,000 a year were nearly 20% more likely to leave their jobs than men. Female turnover was 11.4% a year, compared with 9.6% for men. But research also shows these women seek to return to the work force fairly quickly, as long as they have a workable and appealing setup. A survey of 2,443 women and 653 men, co-authored by Sylvia Ann Hewlett of the Center for Work-Life Policy, found women who take career breaks are only out of the work force for 2.2 years, on average. And only 5% of mothers who return even want to go back to their former employers; instead, they seek flexibility at smaller firms or by starting their own businesses. 26. In a study of 13,838 employees, Watson Wyatt, Arlington, Va., found women ages 25 to 40 making over $75,000 a year were ______more likely to leave their jobs than men. a. nearly 2% b. nearly 10% c. nearly 20% Correct d. nearly 25% © Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. WSJ Professor Guide: Page 21 of 21