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Harvard Professor Says We Need More Political Rancor... On The 'Boring' Issues

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Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton speak during the Democratic presidential primary debate Saturday at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. (Jim Cole/AP)
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton speak during the Democratic presidential primary debate Saturday at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. (Jim Cole/AP)

With less than two months until the New Hampshire primary, all the presidential candidates are heating up their rhetoric on issues like ISIS, health care and immigration. The constant debate can begin to feel exhausting.

But one Harvard professor says we actually need more debate — especially when it comes to issues that one might consider a little more dull — like accounting rules.

Guest

Karthik Ramanna, associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. His new book is "Political Standards: Corporate Interest, Ideology and Leadership in the Shaping of Accounting Rules for the Market Economy."

More

The New York Times: Ruling From The Shadows

  • "The raucous rivalry in Washington has its benefits: a political process thick with competition. By contrast, political competition in other important parts of our democracy is worrisomely thin."

Huff Post Business: How Thin Political Markets Undermine Democracy: An Interview With Harvard B-School's Karthik Ramanna

  • "For the last ten years, I've been engaged in evaluating our system of accounting rules. I studied numerous accounting issues largely outside the public's attention, such as accounting related to mergers and acquisitions, related-party transactions, and foreign currency translations."

The Wall Street Journal: CFO Moves: Financial Accounting Foundation, Allianz Life, RigNet

  • "The Financial Accounting Foundation, which is based in Norwalk, Conn., and oversees the Financial Accounting Standards Board and its governmental counterpart, named Charles Noski chairman of its board of trustees, effective Jan. 1. He will succeed Jeffrey Diermeier, whose term ends on Dec. 31. Mr. Noski was vice chairman of Bank of America Corp. until 2012, and serves as audit committee chair for Avon Products Inc. and Microsoft Corp."</li.

This segment aired on December 21, 2015.

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