Sept. 6, 2002
Networking
Excerpts From Recent Radio and Television
Interviews With Members of the GW Community.
Paul Butler, professor of law
[As heard in an interview on CNBCs The News with Brian
Williams July 25, responding to the decision of accused Sept.
11 conspirator Zaccarius Moussaouis decision to represent himself.]
The judge has ruled time and time again that he is competent. It's a
fairly low standard, but its based on a constitutional right,
and in this case there is a kind of battle of constitutional rights.
One, Mr. Moussaouis right to defend himself. On the other hand,
hes got a right to a fair trial. And ironically, he may be undermining
that right to a fair trial with insistence on defending himself. This
is a case that will challenge even an experienced criminal defense attorney.
There are complicated national security and constitutional issues, and
Mr. Moussaoui, no matter how committed or intelligent he is, is simply
in over his head.
Darryl Jenkins, director, Aviation Institute
[As heard in an interview on CNBCs The News with Brian
Williams Aug. 12, responding to recent declarations of bankruptcy
in the airline industry.]
Since the third quarter of 1999, we have seen the airline industry as
a whole begin to lose money again. And thats partially because
of the dot-com explosion, and we lost some of our high-fare-paying business
travelers. So we were in distress before Sept. 11, and Sept. 11 really
made things quite unbearable.
[F]or the next year, travelers are going to have very good deals
as long as we have excess capacity. In the short run, one of the big
problems we have is there are just too many planes in the air, too many
seats out there in relationship to how many travelers we have. And so
as the airlines as a group begin pulling in capacity, we are going to
see losses continue in to the future.
Susan Phillips, dean, School of Business and Public Management
[As heard in an interview on CNNfns Market Call,
Aug. 13, responding to questions about potential Federal Reserve actions.]
There are limits as to what monetary policy can do. A lot of the kinds
of problems that were seeing right now are probably not going
to be as influenced by interest rates.
I think theres a good deal of overhanging uncertainty regarding
the corporate governance whats going to happen with various
corporations. Were seeing daily headlines on that. The stock markets
having gone down, I think, has shaken peoples confidence somewhat.
Thats not only on the household sector, but also, and I think
most importantly, on the business side.
Right now a lot of corporate executives are checking their balance sheets.
Theyre not as much focused on expansion at the moment. Thats
what the Fed has to balance: whether were going to see a turnaround
as we kick into fall, or if were going to see more of a downward
spiral. So, that is, I suspect, what the Fed is debating today.
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