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UCLA prof talks on U.S. business, government
September 28, 2007
Professor of History and Economics Naomi R. Lamoreaux will speak at the third annual Dale E. Benson Lecture in Business and Economic History on Monday, October 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Scandinavian Cultural Center.
In her lecture, “From the Borough of London to Enron: Problems of Corporate Goverance in Historical Perspective,” Lamoreaux will lay out the two fundamental dangers that threaten corporations: expropriation by greedy rulers and expropriation by greedy managers.
The talk will use a series of other scandals - from Dartmouth College to Enron - to trace the history by which corporations in the United States obtained greater protection against expropriation by the government than by managers.
“I think there has been a lot of media coverage on our scandals,” said Lamoreaux last week. “But we have a tendency to forget about different types of scandals in other countries.
“I think from the point of view of an investor, it’s scarier to have a government intervening with a company than worrying about getting ripped off by the CEO,” she said.
Lamoreaux is the author or editor of five books and more than forty-eight essays or articles. Throughout her career, Lamoreaux’s publications have been devoted to the history of American financial and business organizations.
Her second book, “Insider Lending: Banks, Personal Connections, and Economic Development in Industrial New England” won the Alice Hanson Jones Prize awarded by the Economic History Association for the best book on North American economic history published in 1993-1995. Lamoreaux has also served as president of the Business History Conference and vice president of the Economic History Association.
Lamoreaux earned her bachelor's degree from the State University of New York-Binghamton and her master's and doctorate degrees from Johns Hopkins University. She currently is working on multiple projects that include how businesses choose their organizational forms, patterns of inventive activity in the U.S. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the origins of privacy in the United States.
Lamoreaux’s lecture includes a question-and-answer period, and it will be followed by a reception. The lecture and reception are free and open to the public.
The lecture series is named for Dale E. Benson, a 1963 PLU graduate who, after earning a doctorate from the University of Maine and teaching history for several years, started a long and prosperous career at an investment banker. Currently, Benson is the senior portfolio manager of the Benson Value Team of Wells Fargo Capital Management. Benson is also involved in many charitable and community activities and serves as a member of the PLU Board of Regents.
Benson frequently expressed an interest in establishing an endowed chair in business and economic history at PLU, and through that chair, instituting a lectureship that would regularly bring to campus outstanding members of the academic and business community. Accordingly, the Benson Family Foundation of Portland, Ore., created the Dale E. Benson Lecture in Business and Economic History, which was inaugurated during the 2005-06 academic year.
This report was compiled by Barbara Clements of University Communications. Questions, comments, story ideas? Please call Clements at ext. 7427.
The talk will use a series of other scandals - from Dartmouth College to Enron - to trace the history by which corporations in the United States obtained greater protection against expropriation by the government than by managers.
“I think there has been a lot of media coverage on our scandals,” said Lamoreaux last week. “But we have a tendency to forget about different types of scandals in other countries.
“I think from the point of view of an investor, it’s scarier to have a government intervening with a company than worrying about getting ripped off by the CEO,” she said.
Lamoreaux is the author or editor of five books and more than forty-eight essays or articles. Throughout her career, Lamoreaux’s publications have been devoted to the history of American financial and business organizations.
Her second book, “Insider Lending: Banks, Personal Connections, and Economic Development in Industrial New England” won the Alice Hanson Jones Prize awarded by the Economic History Association for the best book on North American economic history published in 1993-1995. Lamoreaux has also served as president of the Business History Conference and vice president of the Economic History Association.
Lamoreaux earned her bachelor's degree from the State University of New York-Binghamton and her master's and doctorate degrees from Johns Hopkins University. She currently is working on multiple projects that include how businesses choose their organizational forms, patterns of inventive activity in the U.S. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the origins of privacy in the United States.
Lamoreaux’s lecture includes a question-and-answer period, and it will be followed by a reception. The lecture and reception are free and open to the public.
The lecture series is named for Dale E. Benson, a 1963 PLU graduate who, after earning a doctorate from the University of Maine and teaching history for several years, started a long and prosperous career at an investment banker. Currently, Benson is the senior portfolio manager of the Benson Value Team of Wells Fargo Capital Management. Benson is also involved in many charitable and community activities and serves as a member of the PLU Board of Regents.
Benson frequently expressed an interest in establishing an endowed chair in business and economic history at PLU, and through that chair, instituting a lectureship that would regularly bring to campus outstanding members of the academic and business community. Accordingly, the Benson Family Foundation of Portland, Ore., created the Dale E. Benson Lecture in Business and Economic History, which was inaugurated during the 2005-06 academic year.
This report was compiled by Barbara Clements of University Communications. Questions, comments, story ideas? Please call Clements at ext. 7427.