Money Talking

The research model for a recent study on financial greed was simple: Swiss sociologists invited bankers to report the outcomes of 10 coin tosses while no one was watching.

Before subjects reported their outcomes, they were told which side — heads or tails — would be the winner of 20 dollars in each toss. In the first control group, these bankers seemed to tell the truth: subjects reported winning about 50 percent of the time.

But when subjects were reminded they were bankers — what they call "identity priming" in sociology — they seemed to lie a little. They won 58.6 percent of the time — an outcome that's statistically unlikely to be true: They were likely cheating.

As Deutsche Bank joins the ranks of banks punished for bad behavior this week, Money Talking's host Charlie Herman asks reporter Jessie Eisinger of ProPublica and Wall Street employee-turned-observer William Cohan — who wrote an article on the topic in this week in this week's Atlantic — whether Wall Street's culture has evolved since the financial crisis and whether or not it can be changed from the inside.

There's no doubt the two presidential hopefuls who entered the race this week are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. That's why it was so strange to hear Democrat Hilary Clinton and Republican Marco Rubio kick off their campaigns with uncannily similar economic messages: they say they want to fight for the working class.

This week, Clinton billed herself as the candidate for the "everyday American," criticizing CEOs' swollen salaries. Meanwhile, Rubio told NPR he wants the Republican party — which, he said, is portrayed unfairly as "a party that doesn't care about people who are trying to make it" — to transform into "the champion of the working class." 

Guest host Cardiff Garcia from the Financial Times probes whether the common messages we've heard actually match the candidates' records and asks how the two parties might tackle inequality differently. And guests Rana Foroohar from Time magazine and Joe Weisenthal from Bloomberg discuss ways to combat inequality with a messy tool not many politicians have been able to touch: the tax code.

Skirting office politics is for fools.

Business psychology professor Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic says there's no way around it: when you've got people, you've got politics. Humans, he says, are inherently emotional creatures and "office politics" is really just another name for human psychology.

"Maybe in a hundred years or 20 years, robots will take over for us, and they'll be less political, but at this stage, it's just us versus us," he said. 

In his article for the Harvard Business Review, "The Underlying Psychology of Office Politics," Chamorro says if you want to understand the place you work, you have to learn to play the game:

Even though politics are inevitable in the workplace, the best companies have collective psyches that encourage both competition and compassion. Chamorro says they strike a healthy balance of three fundamental human needs that drive human behavior:

When these three needs are in balance, employees are more engaged, and, in turn, they're more productive. Chamorro says while politics are inevitable in any organization, they don't have to be toxic.

"If you're too political," he said, "you'll self destruct." 

But the only way to change things is from the top.

"Senior leaders create culture in an organization," he said. "It's not a matter of hours or days or weeks. It takes months." Leaders can replace conniving employees and put in processes that make things more transparent and decrease the degree to which employees perceive the inevitable politics at play. For the employees at the bottom, you have to learn to play the game before you. And if the politics is too much, maybe it's time to find a new job.

"If you want to move up, you have to play the game," Chamorro says. "Once you get there, stop playing the Machiavellian game."

Leave it to economists to spin a story about the strong dollar as a troubling sign.

The dollar is strengthening faster than it has in nearly forty years: the euro-to-dollar exchange rate is almost back to 1:1. American tourists have more buying power overseas, imports are inexpensive, and acquisitions of foreign companies come at a cheap price. Just this week, Fedex bought Dutch package delivery company TNT.

But a soaring dollar bill also means buyers abroad are less interested in expensive American goods. If history's any indication, a strong dollar can be an omen of economic downturns ahead.

On this week's Money Talking, Rana Foroohar of Time magazine and Josh Barro of The New York Times explore the roots and risks of our strong American currency. And then a look at the future of TV as HBO's hit show Game of Thrones becomes available to viewers without cable. HBO's new stand-alone app, HBO Now, launched this week, is just one in a series of new platforms that's freeing content from cable providers and lets viewers watch traditional TV on a desktop in real time.

When social controversy strikes, good business sense says companies should sit in nonpartisan silence. Customers could fall on either side of a debate.

But this week, just as Indiana passed a "Religious Freedom" law and Arkansas considering passing a similar law, a tidal wave of strong denouncements from Fortune 500 CEOs — from Apple's Tim Cook to Wal-Mart's Doug McMillon — was almost immediate. In their view, the laws would let businesses refuse service to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender customers. Marriott's CEO Arne Sorenson went as far as to call Indiana's move "an idiocy." 

Money Talking host Charlie Herman asks why corporations would suddenly feel the need to speak out, and guests Cardiff Garcia of the Financial Times and Heather Landy of Quartz suggest the outpouring of CEO opinion could mean the role of American business in social politics is shifting.

Our statement on Arkansas #HB1228 pic.twitter.com/KFPd91ejdo

"Our internal policies have and will continue to stand up against #discrimination" http://t.co/vfXmIGzZKy #s4egala pic.twitter.com/IW25DYXwws

There’s something very dangerous happening in states across the country. http://t.co/QJTkCuZVdo

Today we are canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana to face discrimination. http://t.co/SvTwyCHxvE

Angie's List will withdraw campus expansion proposal due to passage of #RFRA http://t.co/N4s7mFhhl6

An Open Letter to States Considering Imposing Discrimination Laws http://t.co/2iNMMP0aIt

Statement from #FinalFour coaches regarding the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act ... #RFRA pic.twitter.com/zOiX8oh99Q

Unacceptable. "Defying Criticism, Arkansas Legislature Passes Bill on Religious Freedom", via @nytimes http://t.co/wLn98jt42E

Joint Statement from NBA, @WNBA, @Pacers and @IndianaFever pic.twitter.com/vqABvR6ua6

Today we support the @HRC’s statement against laws undermining #Equality. We seek a society of tolerance, peace & prosperity for all. #RFRA

Would you rather scratch out your eyes than deliver bad news at work? Most people would. Navigating a difficult conversation is tough but it's a key skill for leaders. Karen Dillon, former editor of the Harvard Business Review, explains how to handle those tough talks you've been putting off.

A move by Wall Street's top female executive for a job at Google could mean finance isn't the biggest game in town anymore. And Senator Ted Cruz is the first out of the gate to announce he's running for president. Does his entry into the race hint at the economic debates in the months ahead?

More than six years after the financial crisis, CEOs at Wall Street firms are reflecting on what happened. But only some of them. Money Talking learns who’s talking, and who’s not. Plus, how to get into the right state of mind when it comes to doing your best work.

Head to the self-help section in any bookstore and you’ll find no shortage of titles on the value of positive thinking. An entire industry exists to remind us that if we can just reorient our mindset, the possibilities are endless.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the workplace, says Alexander Caillet, an organizational psychologist on the faculty of Georgetown University’s Institute of Transformational Leadership and co-author of the Harvard Business Review article, “How Your State of Mind Affects Your Work Performance.” 

“Ninety-four percent of the leaders surveyed report that the top three states of mind for effective performance and relationships are calm, happy and energized,” said Caillet to WNYC’s Charlie Herman, host of Money Talking.

He’s referring to research he conducted with Jeremy Hirshberg and Stefano Petti on how the state of mind of those in leadership roles impacts the entire organization. Leaders admit that stress and anxiety can sometimes help in the short-term to motivate people into action. Over the long-term, however, it’s simply not a workable approach to achieving an organization’s objectives. And it’s especially bad for relationship building.

Leaders with lower states of mind, defined as frustrated, disappointed and tired, are aware of these limitations, but get trapped into repeating patterns. Caillet recommends three practices leaders can adopt to shift to a higher state of mind, which he defines as happy, content and optimistic. 

“Leadership is a public act,” says Caillet. If leaders are anxious and stressed, so is everyone else at work. States of mind are contagious.

Caillet says that leaders report that under higher states of mind, “they get better results, decisions get made, the meetings are quicker and people tend to collaborate more and be less defensive and reactive.”

We’re all going to be in a lower state from time to time, but acknowledging it and using these tools to break out of it are critical for organizational success.

As cyber attacks become ubiquitous, "cyber insurance" is becoming increasingly popular for companies big and small.