A Demon of Our Own Design

Author: Richard Bookstaber
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 9780470393758
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Inside markets, innovation, and risk Why do markets keep crashing and why are financial crises greater than ever before? As the risk manager to some of the leading firms on Wall Street–from Morgan Stanley to Salomon and Citigroup–and a member of some of the world’s largest hedge funds, from Moore Capital to Ziff Brothers and FrontPoint Partners, Rick Bookstaber has seen the ghost inside the machine and vividly shows us a world that is even riskier than we think. The very things done to make markets safer, have, in fact, created a world that is far more dangerous. From the 1987 crash to Citigroup closing the Salomon Arb unit, from staggering losses at UBS to the demise of Long-Term Capital Management, Bookstaber gives readers a front row seat to the management decisions made by some of the most powerful financial figures in the world that led to catastrophe, and describes the impact of his own activities on markets and market crashes. Much of the innovation of the last 30 years has wreaked havoc on the markets and cost trillions of dollars. A Demon of Our Own Design tells the story of man’s attempt to manage market risk and what it has wrought. In the process of showing what we have done, Bookstaber shines a light on what the future holds for a world where capital and power have moved from Wall Street institutions to elite and highly leveraged hedge funds.

Bad Money

Author: Kevin Phillips
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780670019076
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
A survey of the role of America's financial sector in compromising the nation's global future examines the sources of rising debt, high mortgage rates, and increasing oil prices, making sobering predictions about the downfall of America as a world power.

Our Own Devices

Author: Gilles Messier
Publisher: XinXii
ISBN: 1989048706
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
Mid-century speculative retro fiction. The Second World War. Nuclear Power. Space Exploration. These powerful forces forever changed the course of history. In these nine new stories and three essays Messier explores our intimate and often fickle relationship with science and technology in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and how it came to define our past, present and future. Science + Fiction based on 20th-century history, with 27 archival photographs.

The Financial Crisis in Perspective (Collection)

Author: Mark Zandi
Publisher: FT Press
ISBN: 0133087492
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1044

Book Description
How the financial crisis really happened, and what it really meant: 3 books packed with lessons for investors and policymakers! These three books offer unsurpassed insight into the causes and implications of the global financial crisis: information every investor and policy-maker needs to prepare for an extraordinarily uncertain future. In Financial Shock, Updated Edition, renowned economist Mark Zandi provides the most concise, lucid account of the economic, political, and regulatory causes of the collapse, plus new insights into the continuing impact of the Obama administration's policies. Zandi doesn't just illuminate the roles of mortgage lenders, investment bankers, speculators, regulators, and the Fed: he offers sensible recommendations for preventing the next collapse. In Extreme Money, best-selling author and global finance expert Satyajit Das reveals the spectacular, dangerous money games that are generating increasingly massive bubbles of fake growth, prosperity, and wealth, while endangering the jobs, possessions, and futures of everyone outside finance. Das explains how everything from home mortgages to climate change have become fully financialized... how "voodoo banking" keeps generating massive phony profits even now... and how a new generation of "Masters of the Universe" has come to own the world. Finally, in The Fearful Rise of Markets, top Financial Times global finance journalist John Authers reveals how the first truly global super bubble was inflated, and may now be inflating again. He illuminates the multiple roots of repeated financial crises, presenting a truly global view that avoids both oversimplification and ideology. Most valuable of all, Authers offers realistic solutions: for decision-makers who want to prevent disaster, and investors who want to survive it. From world-renowned leaders and experts, including Dr. Mark Zandi, Satyajit Das, and John Authers

Business Law and Ethics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications

Author: Management Association, Information Resources
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1466681969
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1697

Book Description
In modern business environments, ethical behavior plays a crucial role in success. Managers and business leaders must pay close attention to the ethics of their policies and behaviors to avoid a reputation-crushing scandal. Business Law and Ethics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications explores best practices business leaders need to navigate the complex landscape of legal and ethical issues on a day-to-day basis. Utilizing both current research and established conventions, this multi-volume reference is a valuable tool for business leaders, managers, students, and professionals in a globalized marketplace.

Last Man Standing

Author: Duff McDonald
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439109710
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
In the midst of the most disastrous economic climate of Wall Street’s history, one executive has weathered the storm more deftly than any other: Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. In 2008, while Dimon’s competitors watched their companies crumble, JPMorgan not only survived, it made an astonishing $5 billion profit. Dimon’s continued triumph in the face of an industry-wide meltdown has made him a paragon of finance. In Last Man Standing, award-winning journalist Duff McDonald provides an unprecedented and deeply personal look at the extraordinary figure behind JPMorgan’s success. Using countless hours of interviews with Dimon and his full circle of friends, family, and colleagues, this definitive biography is by far the most comprehensive portrait of the man known as the Savior of Wall Street. Now, in an updated prologue, McDonald offers insight into the future of Wall Street and how Dimon will overcome the challenge of aggressive new regulation from Washington—and how he plans to continue to thrive as the world’s preeminent banker.

The House of Dimon

Author: Patricia Crisafulli
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470924691
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Book Description
A behind-the-scenes look at Wall Street's top banker Following the eleventh-hour rescue of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon's profile reached stratospheric levels. And while the deals and decisions he's made have usually turned out to be the right ones, his journey to the top of the financial world has been anything but easy. Now, in The House of Dimon, former business journalist Patricia Crisafulli goes behind the scenes to recount the amazing events that have shaped Dimon's career, from his rise to prominence as Sandy Weill's protŽgŽ at Citigroup to the drama surrounding his purchase of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. Each step of the way, this engaging book provides insider accounts of how Dimon successfully acquired and integrated companies, created efficiencies, and grew bottom-line results as the consummate hands-on manager. Includes interviews with Dimon himself, Sandy Weill, and colleagues who've known Dimon over the course of his career Shows how Dimon's management style and talent for taking calculated risks have allowed him to excel where many others have failed Places Dimon in the context of contemporary Wall Street, an environment that has destroyed several top CEOs During one of the most difficult and tumultuous periods in Wall Street history, Jamie Dimon has survived and thrived. The House of Dimon reveals how he's done it and explores what lies ahead for Dimon, as he attempts to grow JPMorgan in the face of the unrelenting pressures of Wall Street.

Booms and Busts: An Encyclopedia of Economic History from the First Stock Market Crash of 1792 to the Current Global Economic Crisis

Author: Mehmet Odekon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317475763
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1020

Book Description
This timely and authoritative set explores three centuries of good times and hard times in major economies throughout the world. More than 400 signed articles cover events from Tulipmania during the 1630s to the U.S. federal stimulus package of 2009, and introduce readers to underlying concepts, recurring themes, major institutions, and notable figures. Written in a clear, accessible style, "Booms and Busts" provides vital insight and perspective for students, teachers, librarians, and the general public - anyone interested in understanding the historical precedents, causes, and effects of the global economic crisis. Special features include a chronology of major booms and busts through history, a glossary of economic terms, a guide to further research, an appendix of primary documents, a topic finder, and a comprehensive index. It features 1,050 pages; three volumes; 8-1/2" X 11"; topic finder; photos; chronology; glossary; primary documents; bibliography; and, index.

ECONned

Author: Yves Smith
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0230105734
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Book Description
Why are we in such a financial mess today? There are lots of proximate causes: over-leverage, global imbalances, bad financial technology that lead to widespread underestimation of risk. But these are all symptoms. Until we isolate and tackle fundamental causes, we will fail to extirpate the disease. ECONned is the first book to examine the unquestioned role of economists as policy-makers, and how they helped create an unmitigated economic disaster. Here, Yves Smith looks at how economists in key policy positions put doctrine before hard evidence, ignoring the deteriorating conditions and rising dangers that eventually led them, and us, off the cliff and into financial meltdown. Intelligently written for the layman, Smith takes us on a terrifying investigation of the financial realm over the last twenty-five years of misrepresentations, naive interpretations of economic conditions, rationalizations of bad outcomes, and rejection of clear signs of growing instability. In eConned, author Yves Smith reveals: --why the measures taken by the Obama Administration are mere palliatives and are unlikely to pave the way for a solid recovery --how economists have come to play a profoundly anti-democratic role in policy --how financial models and concepts that were discredited more than thirty years ago are still widely used by banks, regulators, and investors --how management and employees of major financial firms looted them, enriching themselves and leaving the mess to taxpayers --how financial regulation enabled predatory behavior by Wall Street towards investors --how economics has no theory of financial systems, yet economists fearlessly prescribe how to manage them

More Money Than God

Author: Sebastian Mallaby
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408809753
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 497

Book Description
Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge-find managers have emerged as the stars of twenty-first century capitalism. Based on unprecedented access to the industry, More Money Than God provides the first authoritative history of hedge funds. This is the inside story of their origins in the 1960s and 1970s, their explosive battles with central banks in the 1980s and 1990s, and finally their role in the financial crisis of 2007-9. Hedge funds reward risk takers, so they tend to attract larger-than-life personalities. Jim Simons began life as a code-breaker and mathematician, co-authoring a paper on theoretical geometry that led to breakthroughs in string theory. Ken Griffin started out trading convertible bonds from his Harvard dorm room. Paul Tudor Jones happily declared that a 1929-style crash would be 'total rock-and-roll' for him. Michael Steinhardt was capable of reducing underlings to sobs. 'All I want to do is kill myself,' one said. 'Can I watch?' Steinhardt responded. A saga of riches and rich egos, this is also a history of discovery. Drawing on insights from mathematics, economics and psychology to crack the mysteries of the market, hedge funds have transformed the world, spawning new markets in exotic financial instruments and rewriting the rules of capitalism. And while major banks, brokers, home lenders, insurers and money market funds failed or were bailed out during the crisis of 2007-9, the hedge-fund industry survived the test, proving that money can be successfully managed without taxpayer safety nets. Anybody pondering fixes to the financial system could usefully start here: the future of finance lies in the history of hedge funds.