New Arrivals: HG 1 - HG 9700.9999
Showing 26 - 50 of 89 new items.
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© 2015,The only complete history of the Eurobond market in print Bonds without Borders: A History of the Eurobond Market provides a big-picture understanding of the birth and growth of the world's largest international market for capital—Eurobonds. International capital investment is a hot topic and this unique book is an essential resource for anyone interested in understanding cross-border bonds. The narrative starts at the very beginning, with the origin of international debt financing in medieval Italian city-states. Tracing cross-border debt through the ages, Bonds without Borders covers the financing of the First World War, and the post – Marshall Plan innovation of Eurodollar bond issues. As the 50th anniversary of the Eurobond approaches, this successful financial instrument continues to dominate cross-border debt financing. Bonds without Borders looks back on how innovation in the Eurobond market has been able to overcome the challenges of Keynesian economics, oil crises, the Reagan and Thatcher eras, and even the current financial crisis. Looking to the future, global finance is only becoming more important as international economic events impact the world. This book provides fascinating insight into the path we have taken over the past five decades and the road to the future. The first ever full history of the Eurobond market Exclusive insights from the archives of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) A clear look at how well-developed financial products can withstand volatile economic and political environments Historical perspective on the current debt reduction versus growth debate Written by ICMA advisor Chris O'Malley, Bonds without Borders is backed by the Eurobond industry and is full of expert insights that are simply not available elsewhere. An absorbing read for anyone with an interest in Eurobonds or cross-border capital investment.
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© 2014,Credit to Capabilities focuses on the controversial topic of microcredit's impact on women's empowerment and, especially, on the neglected question of how microcredit transforms women's agency. Based on interviews with hundreds of economically and socially vulnerable women from peasant households, this book highlights the role of the associational mechanism - forming women into groups that are embedded in a vast network and providing the opportunity for face-to-face participation in group meetings - in improving women's capabilities. This book reveals the role of microcredit groups in fostering women's social capital, particularly their capacity of organizing collective action for public goods and for protecting women's welfare. It argues that, in the Indian context, microcredit groups are becoming increasingly important in rural civil societies. Throughout, the book maintains an analytical distinction between married women in male-headed households and women in female-headed households in discussing the potentials and the limitations of microcredit's social and economic impacts.
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© 2015,An accessible and thorough review of the international financial markets Life in the Financial Markets?How They Really Work And Why They Matter To You offers the financial services professional, and anyone interested in knowing more about the profession, an entertaining and comprehensive analysis of the financial markets and the financial services industry. Written by Daniel Lacalle'a noted portfolio manager with EcoFin and well-known media personality'the book goes beyond a simple summary and offers solid advice on the future of the global financial markets. This great resource also includes a review of effective strategies and forecasts the trends that represent potential opportunities for investors . The book reviews the recent history of the financial crisis and includes information on hot topics such as derivatives and high frequency trading. An in-depth section on investment banking is written from the perspective of a successful practitioner and provides clarity on several complex and overly politicized elements of the banking system. The author gives an expert's perspective on the debt markets, monetary policies, and quantitative easing, and helps explain the various issues surrounding sovereign debt, the Euro crisis, and austerity versus growth policies. Comprehensive in scope, this resource also offers an analysis of investment styles, from hedge funds to "long only" investments, as well as an in-depth look at corporate communication and its impact on markets and investments. Offers an engaging and comprehensive analysis of the financial services industry Includes information on the workings of the global financial system following the economic crisis Contains a review of complex banking systems Analyzes the various investment styles and answers the most common questions pertaining to investing
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© 2015,Money from Nothing explores the dynamics surrounding South Africa's national project of financial inclusion#151;dubbed "banking the unbanked"#151;which aimed to extend credit to black South Africans as a critical aspect of broad-based economic enfranchisement. Through rich and captivating accounts, Deborah James reveals the varied ways in which middle- and working-class South Africans' access to credit is intimately bound up with identity, status-making, and aspirations of upward mobility. She draws out the deeply precarious nature of both the aspirations and the economic relations of debt which sustain her subjects, revealing the shadowy side of indebtedness and its potential to produce new forms of oppression and disenfranchisement in place of older ones. Money from Nothing uniquely captures the lived experience of indebtedness for those many millions who attempt to improve their positions (or merely sustain existing livelihoods) in emerging economies.
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© 2015,Connections among different assets, asset classes, portfolios, and the stocks of individual institutions are critical in examining financial markets. Interest in financial markets implies interest in underlying macroeconomic fundamentals. In Financial and Macroeconomic Connectedness, FrankDiebold and Kamil Yilmaz propose a simple framework for defining, measuring, and monitoring connectedness, which is central to finance and macroeconomics. These measures of connectedness are theoretically rigorous yet empirically relevant. The approach to connectedness proposed by the authors is intimately related to the familiar econometric notion of variance decomposition. The full set of variance decompositions from vector auto-regressions produces the core of the 'connectedness table.' The connectedness table makes clear how onecan begin with the most disaggregated pair-wise directional connectedness measures and aggregate them in various ways to obtain total connectedness measures. The authors also show that variance decompositions define weighted, directed networks, so that these proposed connectedness measures areintimately related to key measures of connectedness used in the network literature.After describing their methods in the first part of the book, the authors proceed to characterize daily return and volatility connectedness across major asset (stock, bond, foreign exchange and commodity) markets as well as the financial institutions within the U.S. and across countries since late1990s. These specific measures of volatility connectedness show that stock markets played a critical role in spreading the volatility shocks from the U.S. to other countries. Furthermore, while the return connectedness across stock markets increased gradually over time the volatility connectednessmeasures were subject to significant jumps during major crisis events. This book examines not only financial connectedness, but also real fundamental connectedness. In particular, the authors show that global business cycle connectedness is economically significant and time-varying, that the U.S. has disproportionately high connectedness to others, and that pairwisecountry connectedness is inversely related to bilateral trade surpluses.
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© 2014,Money travels the modern world in disguise. It looks like a convention of human exchange - a commodity like gold or a medium like language. But its history reveals that money is a very different matter. It is an institution engineered by political communities to mark and mobilize resources. As societies change the way they create money, they change the market itself - along with the rules that structure it, the politics and ideas that shape it, and the benefits that flow from it. One particularly dramatic transformation in money's design brought capitalism to England. For centuries, the English government monopolized money's creation. The Crown sold people coin for a fee in exchange for silver and gold. 'Commodity money' was a fragile and difficult medium; the first half of the book considers the kinds of exchange and credit it invited, as well as the politics it engendered. Capitalism arrived when the English reinvented money at the end of the 17th century. When it established the Bank of England, the government shared its monopoly over money creation for the first time with private investors, institutionalizing their self-interest as the pump that would produce the money supply. The second half of the book considers the monetary revolution that brought unprecedented possibilities and problems. The invention of circulating public debt, the breakdown of commodity money, the rise of commercial bank currency, and the coalescence of ideological commitments that came to be identified with the Gold Standard - all contributed to the abundant and unstable medium that is modern money. All flowed as well from a collision between the individual incentives and public claims at the heart of the system. The drama had constitutional dimension: money, as its history reveals, is a mode of governance in a material world. That character undermines claims in economics about money's neutrality. The monetary design innovated in England would later spread, producing the global architecture of modern money.
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© 2015,After the crisis of 2008, the social contract between the financial industry and everyone else was badly broken-perhaps, it seemed, irrevocably. Since then, banks have paid out billion-dollar settlements and Congress has passed some new laws, but a deeper rapprochement is still missing. John Taft has gathered some of the greatest financial minds of our time to explore how the industry can harness the same creative energy that invented credit default swaps and channel it towards the public good- in the form of a stable retirement system, investment strategies that protect the environment and reward responsible corporate behavior, and a financial industry with a culture of ethics, integrity and client focus. These perspectives, from a who's who of leaders in the field, offer a blueprint for a new kind of responsible finance that secures the future for everyone. Contributors include: * Robert Shiller on financial capitalism and innovation*Charles D. Ellis on restoring ethical standards*Sheila Bair on regulatory reform *John C. Bogle and Mary Schapiro on rebuilding investor trust *Judd Gregg on long-term fiscal imbalances *Barbara Novick on the retirement savings gap *David Blood on sustainable finance. With so much brainpower in the financial sector, the potential for change is limitless. A Force for Good is the call to action the industry sorely needs. -
© 2015,Unlike most investors, who live in fear of failure, Scott Fearon actively seeks it out. He has earned millions of dollars over the past thirty years shorting the stocks of businesses he believed were on their way to bankruptcy. In Dead Companies Walking, Fearon describes his foolproof formula for spotting these doomed businesses, and how they can be - extremely profitable investments. In his experience, corporate managers routinely commit six common mistakes that can derail even the most promising companies: they learn from only the recent past; they rely too heavily on a formula for success; they misunderstand their target customers; they fall victim to the magical storytelling of a mania; they fail to adapt to tectonic shifts in their industry; and they are physically or emotionally removed from their companies' operations. Fearon has personally interviewed thousands of executives who were headed, unknowingly, for bankruptcy - from the Texas oil barons of the 80s to the tech wunderkinds of the late 90s to the flush real estate developers of the mid-2000s. Here, he explores recent examples like JC Penney, Herbalife and Blockbuster Entertainment to help investors better predict the next booms and busts - and come out on top.
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© 2015,Catastrophes ranging from the travesties of financial markets and the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil well to the tsunami that struck northern Japan and the levees breaking in New Orleans are examples of the limits of knowledge. Author Randy Martin insists that the expertise erected to prevent these natural and social disasters failed in each case. In Knowledge LTD , Martin explores how both the limits of knowledge and the social constructions of culture reflect the way we organize social life in the face of disasters and their aftermath. He examines this crisis of knowledge as well as the social movements that rose up in its wake. Martin not only treats derivatives as financial contracts for pricing risk, but also shows how the derivative works in economic terms, where the very unity of the economy is undone. Knowledge LTD ultimately points to a more comprehensive reordering of the once separate spheres of economy, polity, and culture. Martin provides a new way of understanding the social significance of the all-pervasive derivative logic.
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© 2014,The landscape of commodity markets has drastically changed in recent years. Once a market of refineries, mines and farms, it has been transformed into the market of hedge funds, exchange traded funds, and commodity trading advisors. How did it affect the commodity markets? Are commodity investments still as beneficial as 20 or 30 years ago? The Financialization of Commodity Markets makes an attempt to answer these questions. First, it explores the fundamentals of passive and active investment strategies in commodity markets, discusses sources of return, benchmarks, and performance. Second, it investigates the structural changes in commodity markets which took place during the last decade, and their impact on expected returns, risk, or correlations with other asset classes. Finally, it examines the importance of financialization for commodity investors.
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© 2015,Efficiently Inefficient describes the key trading strategies used by hedge funds and demystifies the secret world of active investing. Leading financial economist Lasse Heje Pedersen combines the latest research with real-world examples and interviews with top hedge fund managers to show how certain trading strategies make money--and why they sometimes don't. Pedersen views markets as neither perfectly efficient nor completely inefficient. Rather, they are inefficient enough that money managers can be compensated for their costs through the profits of their trading strategies and efficient enough that the profits after costs do not encourage additional active investing. Understanding how to trade in this efficiently inefficient market provides a new, engaging way to learn finance. Pedersen analyzes how the market price of stocks and bonds can differ from the model price, leading to new perspectives on the relationship between trading results and finance theory. He explores several different areas in depth--fundamental tools for investment management, equity strategies, macro strategies, and arbitrage strategies--and he looks at such diverse topics as portfolio choice, risk management, equity valuation, and yield curve logic. The book's strategies are illuminated further by interviews with leading hedge fund managers: Lee Ainslie, Cliff Asness, Jim Chanos, Ken Griffin, David Harding, John Paulson, Myron Scholes, and George Soros. Efficiently Inefficient effectively demonstrates how financial markets really work. Free problem sets are available online at http://www.lhpedersen.com
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© 2015,Venture deep into the heart of finance's weird and wonderful paradoxes Dinosaur Derivatives and Other Trades is an entertaining and compelling tour de force highlighting the paradoxes inherent to the modern financial system. Presented as a series of striking case studies, this book explores certain enigmatic or philosophical puzzles in the finance industry; some of these puzzles may seem slightly absurd at first glance, but all are very relevant to the way finance is conducted in the real world. Each story highlights specific hypocrisies or moral dilemmas that lie at the heart of the system, guiding readers through the challenges of finance by way of innovative and memorable paradigms. Written in clear, accessible language, this book doesn't claim to offer original financial theory or philosophy as such, but instead deepens the reader's understanding of the system and stimulates independent consideration of the current state of affairs. The financial world, so often viewed as a rather dull place, is secretly alive with possibilities of strange and sometimes wonderful conundrums. There is the possibility, for instance, of a Manhattan auction house selling derivatives to buy swift-swimming predators known as Megalodons (thought to be extinct for millions of years). This book explores this and other curious propositions to point out the paradoxes of finance. Explore the meaning of "value" in different contexts Learn what the Old Testament can teach us about risk and uncertainty Examine an alternative take on the 2007/2008 credit crisis Consider how the "financial innovation" trend impacts the industry To truly understand something, it is necessary to crawl deep into the metaphorical underbelly and have a look around. Dinosaur Derivatives and Other Trades provides the itinerary, and the insightful discussion that stimulates curiosity.
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© 2015,Rebecca L. Spang, who revolutionized our understanding of the restaurant, has written a new history of money. It uses one of the most infamous examples of monetary innovation, the assignats âe"a currency initially defined by French revolutionaries as âeoecirculating landâe#157;âe"to demonstrate that money is as much a social and political mediator as it is an economic instrument. Following the assignats from creation to abandonment, Spang shows them to be subject to the same slippages between policies and practice, intentions and outcomes, as other human inventions. But Spangâe(tm)s book is also a new history of the French Revolution, one in which radicalization was driven by an ever-widening gap between political ideals and the realities of daily life. Money played a critical role in creating this gulf. Wed to the idea that liberty required economic deregulation as well as political freedom, revolutionary legislators extended the notion of free trade to include âeoefreedom of money.âe#157; The consequences were disastrous. Backed neither by the weight of tradition nor by the state that issued them, the assignats could not be a functioning currency. Ever reluctant to interfere in the workings of the market, lawmakers thought changes to the material form of the assignats should suffice to enhance their credibility. Their hopes were disappointed, and the Revolution spiraled out of control. Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution restores economics, in the broadest sense, to its rightful place at the heart of the Revolution and hence to that of modern politics.
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© 2015,In the spirit of Wendy Mogel's The Blessing of a Skinned Knee and Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman's Nurture Shock, New York Times "Your Money" columnist Ron Lieber delivers a taboo-shattering manifesto that explains how talking openly to children about money can help parents raise modest, patient, grounded young adults who are financially wise beyond their years. For Ron Lieber, a personal finance columnist and father, good parenting means talking about money with our kids. Children are hyper-aware of money, and they have scores of questions about its nuances. But when parents shy away from the topic, they lose a tremendous opportunity--not just to model the basic financial behaviors that are increasingly important for young adults but also to imprint lessons about what the family truly values. Written in a warm, accessible voice, grounded in real-world experience and stories from families with a range of incomes, The Opposite of Spoiled is both a practical guidebook and a values-based philosophy. The foundation of the book is a detailed blueprint for the best ways to handle the basics: the tooth fairy, allowance, chores, charity, saving, birthdays, holidays, cell phones, checking accounts, clothing, cars, part-time jobs, and college tuition. It identifies a set of traits and virtues that embody the opposite of spoiled, and shares how to embrace the topic of money to help parents raise kids who are more generous and less materialistic. But The Opposite of Spoiled is also a promise to our kids that we will make them better with money than we are. It is for all of the parents who know that honest conversations about money with their curious children can help them become more patient and prudent, but who don't know how and when to start.
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© 2015,In this revised, updated, and expanded edition of his New York Times bestseller, Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller, who warned of both the tech and housing bubbles, now cautions that signs of irrational exuberance among investors have only increased since the 2008-9 financial crisis. With high stock and bond prices in the United States, and rising housing prices in many countries, the post-subprime boom may well turn out to be another illustration of Shiller's influential argument that psychologically driven volatility is an inherent characteristic of all asset markets. In other words, Irrational Exuberance is as relevant as ever. But Irrational Exuberance is about something far more important than the current situation in any given market because the book explains the forces that move all markets up and down. It shows how investor euphoria can drive asset prices up to dizzying and unsustainable heights, and how, at other times, investor discouragement can push prices down to very low levels. Previous editions covered the stock and housing markets--and famously predicted their crashes. This new edition expands its coverage to include the bond market, so that the book now addresses all of the major investment markets. This edition also includes updated data throughout, as well as Shiller's 2013 Nobel Prize lecture, which puts the book in broader context. In addition to diagnosing the causes of asset bubbles, Irrational Exuberance recommends urgent policy changes to lessen their likelihood and severity--and suggests ways that individuals can decrease their risk before the next bubble bursts. No one whose future depends on a retirement account, a house, or other investments can afford not to read it. For more information, including new developments and regular data updates, please go to www.irrationalexuberance.com
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© 2014,Two professors combine their fascinating and cutting-edge research in behavioral science to explain how money can buy happiness-if you follow five core principles of smart spending. Most people recognize that they need professional advice on how to earn, save, and invest their money. When it comes to spending that money, most people just follow their intuitions. But scientific research shows that those intuitions are often wrong. Happy Money offers a tour of research on the science of spending, explaining how you can get more happiness for your money. Authors Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton have outlined five principles-from choosing experiences over stuff to spending money on others-to guide not only individuals looking for financial security, but also companies seeking to create happier employees and provide "happier products" to their customers. Dunn and Norton show how companies from Google to Pepsi to Charmin have put these ideas into action. Along the way, Dunn and Norton explore fascinating research that reveals that luxury cars often provide no more pleasure than economy models, that commercials can actually enhance the enjoyment of watching television, and that residents of many cities frequently miss out on inexpensive pleasures in their hometowns. By the end of this "lively and engaging book" (Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness ), you'll be asking yourself one simple question every time you reach for your wallet: Am I getting the biggest happiness bang for my buck?
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© 2015,A real-life political thriller about an American financier in the Wild East of Russia, the murder of his principled young tax attorney, and his dangerous mission to expose the Kremlin's corruption. Bill Browder's journey started on the South Side of Chicago and moved through Stanford Business School to the dog-eat-dog world of hedge fund investing in the 1990s. It continued in Moscow, where Browder made his fortune heading the largest investment fund in Russia after the Soviet Union's collapse. But when he exposed the corrupt oligarchs who were robbing the companies in which he was investing, Vladimir Putin turned on him and, in 2005, had him expelled from Russia. In 2007, a group of law enforcement officers raided Browder's offices in Moscow and stole $230 million of taxes that his fund's companies had paid to the Russian government. Browder's attorney Sergei Magnitsky investigated the incident and uncovered a sprawling criminal enterprise. A month after Sergei testified against the officials involved, he was arrested and thrown into pre-trial detention, where he was tortured for a year. On November 16, 2009, he was led to an isolation chamber, handcuffed to a bedrail, and beaten to death by eight guards in full riot gear. Browder glimpsed the heart of darkness, and it transformed his life: he embarked on an unrelenting quest for justice in Sergei's name, exposing the towering cover-up that leads right up to Putin. A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade, Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world.
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© 2013,One of our foremost economic thinkers challenges a cherished tenet of today's financial orthodoxy: that spending less, refusing to forgive debt, and shrinking government--"austerity"--is the solution to a persisting economic crisis like ours or Europe's, now in its fifth year. Since the collapse of September 2008, the conversation about economic recovery has centered on the question of debt: whether we have too much of it, whose debt to forgive, and how to cut the deficit. These questions dominated the sound bites of the 2012 U.S. presidential election, the fiscal-cliff debates, and the perverse policies of the European Union. Robert Kuttner makes the most powerful argument to date that these are the wrong questions and that austerity is the wrong answer. Blending economics with historical contrasts of effective debt relief and punitive debt enforcement, he makes clear that universal belt-tightening, as a prescription for recession, defies economic logic. And while the public debt gets most of the attention, it is private debts that crashed the economy and are sandbagging the recovery--mortgages, student loans, consumer borrowing to make up for lagging wages, speculative shortfalls incurred by banks. As Kuttner observes, corporations get to use bankruptcy to walk away from debts. Homeowners and small nations don't. Thus, we need more public borrowing and investment to revive a depressed economy, and more forgiveness and reform of the overhang of past debts. In making his case, Kuttner uncovers the double standards in the politics of debt, from Robinson Crusoe author Daniel Defoe's campaign for debt forgiveness in the seventeenth century to the two world wars and Bretton Woods. Just as debtors' prisons once prevented individuals from surmounting their debts and resuming productive life, austerity measures shackle, rather than restore, economic growth--as the weight of past debt crushes the economy's future potential. Above all, Kuttner shows how austerity serves only the interest of creditors--the very bankers and financial elites whose actions precipitated the collapse. Lucid, authoritative, provocative--a book that will shape the economic conversation and the search for new solutions. -
© 2014,The U.S. dollar's dominance seems under threat. The near collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008-2009, political paralysis that has blocked effective policymaking, and emerging competitors such as the Chinese renminbi have heightened speculation about the dollar's looming displacement as the main reserve currency. Yet, as The Dollar Trap powerfully argues, the financial crisis, a dysfunctional international monetary system, and U.S. policies have paradoxically strengthened the dollar's importance. Eswar Prasad examines how the dollar came to have a central role in the world economy and demonstrates that it will remain the cornerstone of global finance for the foreseeable future. Marshaling a range of arguments and data, and drawing on the latest research, Prasad shows why it will be difficult to dislodge the dollar-centric system. With vast amounts of foreign financial capital locked up in dollar assets, including U.S. government securities, other countries now have a strong incentive to prevent a dollar crash. Prasad takes the reader through key contemporary issues in international finance--including the growing economic influence of emerging markets, the currency wars, the complexities of the China-U.S. relationship, and the role of institutions like the International Monetary Fund--and offers new ideas for fixing the flawed monetary system. Readers are also given a rare look into some of the intrigue and backdoor scheming in the corridors of international finance. The Dollar Trap offers a panoramic analysis of the fragile state of global finance and makes a compelling case that, despite all its flaws, the dollar will remain the ultimate safe-haven currency. -
© 2014,Since 2008, economic policymakers and researchers have occupied a brave new economic world. Previous consensuses have been upended, former assumptions have been cast into doubt, and new approaches have yet to stand the test of time. Policymakers have been forced to improvise and researchers to rethink basic theory. George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate and one of this volume's editors, compares the crisis to a cat stuck in a tree, afraid to move. In April 2013, the International Monetary Fund brought together leading economists and economic policymakers to discuss the slowly emerging contours of the macroeconomic future. This book offers their combined insights. The editors and contributors--who include the Nobel Laureate and bestselling author Joseph Stiglitz, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen, and the former Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer--consider the lessons learned from the crisis and its aftermath. They discuss, among other things, post-crisis questions about the traditional policy focus on inflation; macroprudential tools (which focus on the stability of the entire financial system rather than of individual firms) and their effectiveness; fiscal stimulus, public debt, and fiscal consolidation; and exchange rate arrangements. -
© 2014,Identify mistakes standing in the way of investment success With so much at stake in investing and wealth management, investors cannot afford to keep repeating actions that could have serious negative consequences for their financial goals. The Five Mistakes Every Investor Makes and How to Avoid Them focuses on what investors do wrong so often so they can set themselves on the right path to success. In this comprehensive reference, readers learn to navigate the ever-changing variables and market dilemmas that often make investing a risky and daunting endeavor. Well-known and respected author Peter Mallouk shares useful investment techniques, discusses the importance of disciplined investment management, and pinpoints common, avoidable mistakes made by professional and everyday investors alike. Designed to provide a workable, sensible framework for investors, The Five Mistakes Every Investor Makes and How to Avoid Them encourages investors to refrain from certain negative actions, such as fighting the market, misunderstanding performance, and letting one′s biases and emotions get in the way of investing success. Details the major mistakes made by professional and everyday investors Highlights the strategies and mindset necessary for navigating ever-changing variables and market dilemmas Includes useful investment techniques and discusses the importance of discipline in investment management Provides additional content and resources on a companion website A reliable resource for investors who want to make more informed choices, this book steers readers away from past investment errors and guides them in the right direction. -
© 2013,Today's financial system is considerably more complex than in years past, as new financial instruments have been introduced that are not well understood even by the people and institutions that invest in them. Numerous high-risk opportunities are available, and the number of people who unwittingly wander into such ventures seems to grow daily. There is also the realization that people's lives are affected by the financial system without their overt participation in it. Despite no active participation, pensions can be emasculated by a sudden decline in interest rates, or a rise in rates can increase the monthly payments on a mortgage, credit cards or other debt. This book looks at the history of the American banking system, including the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, the implementation of deposit insurance, along with certain other provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, the Bretton-Woods agreements, the forces of technological innovation and the Dodd-Frank Act, passed by Congress in 2010 for regulatory reform. This book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate level students that want to gain a broad understanding of how the financial system works, why it is important to the economy as a whole, and what its strengths and weaknesses are. Also, readers should gain an understanding of what the Federal Reserve, other regulators and other central banks are doing, and will be in a position to critique their actions and say with some depth of understanding why they agree or disagree with them. -
© 2013,A clear, concise, illustrated guide to the workings of the global economy. Money is big news. Banks have collapsed, the property bubble has burst and national debts are at unimaginable levels. The Book of Money will help readers understand what is happening and how it affects them. It is a practical, understandable guide to all the nuances of the world of finance written for the lay reader. Financial journalists Daniel Conaghan and Dan Smith present authoritative, insightful, insider knowledge in a clear manner. They provide up-to-date coverage of the most important economic issues that affect us all. Topics include: History of economics Supply and demand Bank collapses, the property bubble and the global meltdown Stock markets, hedge funds Inflation, deflation, hyperinflation Pensions Coinage and paper money Economic forecasting Interest rates Economic class, the welfare state How countries cope with debt Electronic trading Microfinance Personal finance and tax systems Globalization The International Monetary Fund and World Bank How credit ratings work Can money buy happiness? Explanations are presented in a uniquely visual style. Numerous color illustrations, graphs, charts, timelines and Jargon Buster boxes aid in comprehension. Profiles describe key figures, and panels focus on special topics such as the Global Meltdown and PayPal. The Book of Money is an authoritative, straightforward guide to the complex world of global finance. It is an ideal introduction for the average reader new to the topic and a reliable, up-to-date review for those with some knowledge. It is an essential purchase for a large audience eager to understand our complex world. -
© 2014,A detailed guide to financial market performance during financial crises With the financial markets seemingly careening from one crisis to another, it's vital for today's investors and traders to have an historical perspective on market performance during times of great turmoil. In this book, Tim Knight provides an exhaustive analysis of financial market behavior prior, during, and following tumultuous events since 1600. Making copious use of charts and basic technical analysis, Knight demonstrates how external shocks tend to create extreme reactions in the financial markets and how these predictable reactions provide opportunities for investors and traders to profit. Knight traverses five centuries of financial market history, from Tulipmania in the 1600s to the contemporary sovereign debt crisis. He looks at each event from the prism of the financial markets, examining the market climate prior to the event, during the event, and following the event. Draws essential lessons from history providing investors and traders with guidelines to better navigate markets in today's tumultuous times Offers valuable insights on understanding and anticipating market responses to shocks and crises Companion website with a Q&A section contains charts from key moments in past financial crises and asks readers to choose whether to go long, short, or step aside If you're looking for a better way to make it today's dynamic markets, look no further than this timely book. -
© 2014,Why did the financial crisis happen? Why did no one see it coming? And how did our banks lose so much of our money? What's being done to sort out the banking industry? And will it work? These are the questions that industry experts Adrian Docherty and Franck Viort cover in Better Banking: Understanding and Addressing the Failures in Risk Management, Governance and Regulation . They give a clear and thorough run-through of some of the key concepts and developments in banking, to enable the reader to understand better this vital yet perilous industry. Without excessive detail or jargon, they explain the most important issues in risk management, regulation and governance and build a comprehensive description of how failings in these areas resulted in the current financial crisis. In order to make the diagnosis clear, the authors illustrate their descriptions with a series of informative case studies. The book revolves around a critique of the current regulatory developments, which the authors feel will be ineffective in fixing the structural flaws in banking. Crucially, and as the title of the book suggests, they set out their own series of proposals to contribute to the development of a better, safer and more effective banking industry. Docherty and Viort's book fills an important gap in the literature on banking and its role in the current financial crisis. It is at once a history, a primer, a critique and a manifesto. It does not take sides but works through a constructive diagnosis towards ideas that could lead to major improvements in the quality and stability of the financial world. Better Banking: Understanding and Addressing the Failures in Risk Management, Governance and Regulation is a technical yet accessible book that seeks to engage interested readers of all kinds -- students, professionals, bankers and regulators but also politicians and the broader audience of citizens outside the banking industry, who are keen to inform themselves and understand what needs to be done to avoid a repeat of this crisis.