A Wunch of Bankers

Author: Daniel Ziffer
Publisher: Scribe Us
ISBN: 9781925849363
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
It wasn't even the long list of scandals exposed to a horrified nation -- charging fees to dead people, ignoring blatant conflicts of interest, and taking $1 billion from customers in fees that banks were never entitled to. What made it so fascinating, so heart-breaking, and so enraging was the procession of faces through the witness box, and the team of counsel gazing into the dark heart of banking. Tearful victims, blank-faced executives, hapless regulators, and a couple of utter charlatans all had their day in court, watched by an audience of millions, and revealing -- in their stories -- the material to justify re-shaping the multi-trillion dollar financial services industry that forms a pillar of Australian life. A Wunch of Bankers covers not just the big shocks, but the small moments -- lost in the flurry of daily reporting -- that reveal how companies have used the law, limp enforcement, and basic human behaviour to take advantage of customers. Is there a phrase that judges how much life-insurance spruikers in call centres can terrify you about your impending death -- and the grief-stricken ruins of an estate you'll leave for your bereaved family -- while still being legal? Yes, there is. Was there a meeting in which a bank's executives ignored a warning of "Extreme" from its chief risk officer, to embark on an illegal scheme that accrued $3.6 billion in funds? There was. In A Wunch of Bankers, Dan Ziffer brings out the colour and grit of the royal commission's proceedings, and explores broader issues raised by the testimony

Banking Bad

Author: Adele Ferguson
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 1460711432
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description
Winner of the 2020 Davitt Award for True Crime/Non-fiction. Against all the odds, Australia held a royal commission into the banking and financial services industries. Its revelations rocked the nation. Even defenders of the banks were blindsided. Few people were more instrumental in bringing about the commission than journalist Adele Ferguson. Through her exposes in print and on television, she pursued the truth about funds mismanagement, fraud, lack of probity, and the hard-sell culture that took over the finance industry after deregulation in the 1980s. But it wasn't just light-touch regulators and crooked bankers growing fat on bonuses she put under the spotlight. It was also their victims - men and women who had lost everything, and had no recourse when they discovered empty accounts, egregious fees, forged documents and broken promises. Now in Banking Bad, Ferguson tells the full story of the power imbalance, toxic culture and cover-ups. She describes the long fight for justice by whistleblowers, victims and political mavericks, and she looks at the outcomes of the royal commission - the falls from grace, the damaging hubris, the scathing assessment of the regulators, and the colossal compensation bill - an estimated $10 billion. Finally, she asks whereto from here? In May 2019, the Coalition government, which resisted calls for a royal commission, was re-elected. Bank stocks surged and lending regulations were loosened. Will it all be business as usual from now on, or have our financial executives learned that their wealth cannot come at the expense of ordinary Australians? This is a book for every person with a bank account. PRAISE 'If you want a glimpse of the reality distortion that multi-millionaire bankers live in, you need to read Banking Bad.' - Scott Pape 'Ferguson's pacey writing style gives the book the air of a corporate thriller.' - Michael Rowland, ABC News Breakfast 'And for those of who anticipate that corporate Australia will lapse back into the state of complacency and misconduct revealed in the APRA CBA Report and the Hayne Royal Commission, ... should read the whole book for themselves - for no other reason than that it so clearly identifies the issues of governance and culture that seems to have escaped them for so long.' - Graeme Samuel, Professorial Fellow in the Monash Business School and former chairman of the ACCC '[Adele] recounts a colourful cast of bullies, thieves and crooks being rewarded extraordinary sums to rip off customers.' - Money Magazine

It's Your Money

Author: Alan Kohler
Publisher: Black Inc.
ISBN: 1743820747
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
You don’t need to be an expert to manage your money well, but you do need to know how to choose trustworthy advisers and services. In It’s Your Money, Alan Kohler, one of Australia’s most trusted financial experts, offers unique insights into and thorough analysis of the crisis in financial services. Having observed the industry first-hand for more than forty-five years, Kohler sees the big picture in a way no-one else can. With a sharp and unflinching eye, Kohler explains how the stage was set for corruption, breaks down the royal commission’s findings and unpacks what it means for you. He shares his investing philosophy and offers advice on all aspects of financial planning, including appraising financial plans, growing your superannuation, and finding ethical investments. He gives you the knowledge and insight you need to invest sensibly to protect and grow your money. It’s Your Money is an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to do more with their money.

Accelerando

Author: Charles Stross
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101208473
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 596

Book Description
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day. Struggling to survive and thrive in this accelerated world are three generations of the Macx clan: Manfred, an entrepreneur dealing in intelligence amplification technology whose mind is divided between his physical environment and the Internet; his daughter, Amber, on the run from her domineering mother, seeking her fortune in the outer system as an indentured astronaut; and Sirhan, Amber’s son, who finds his destiny linked to the fate of all of humanity. For something is systematically dismantling the nine planets of the solar system. Something beyond human comprehension. Something that has no use for biological life in any form...

Deenie

Author: Judy Blume
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481410377
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Originally published by Bradbury Press in 1973.

Numerical Methods in Computational Finance

Author: Daniel J. Duffy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119719720
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 551

Book Description
This book is a detailed and step-by-step introduction to the mathematical foundations of ordinary and partial differential equations, their approximation by the finite difference method and applications to computational finance. The book is structured so that it can be read by beginners, novices and expert users. Part A Mathematical Foundation for One-Factor Problems Chapters 1 to 7 introduce the mathematical and numerical analysis concepts that are needed to understand the finite difference method and its application to computational finance. Part B Mathematical Foundation for Two-Factor Problems Chapters 8 to 13 discuss a number of rigorous mathematical techniques relating to elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations in two space variables. In particular, we develop strategies to preprocess and modify a PDE before we approximate it by the finite difference method, thus avoiding ad-hoc and heuristic tricks. Part C The Foundations of the Finite Difference Method (FDM) Chapters 14 to 17 introduce the mathematical background to the finite difference method for initial boundary value problems for parabolic PDEs. It encapsulates all the background information to construct stable and accurate finite difference schemes. Part D Advanced Finite Difference Schemes for Two-Factor Problems Chapters 18 to 22 introduce a number of modern finite difference methods to approximate the solution of two factor partial differential equations. This is the only book we know of that discusses these methods in any detail. Part E Test Cases in Computational Finance Chapters 23 to 26 are concerned with applications based on previous chapters. We discuss finite difference schemes for a wide range of one-factor and two-factor problems. This book is suitable as an entry-level introduction as well as a detailed treatment of modern methods as used by industry quants and MSc/MFE students in finance. The topics have applications to numerical analysis, science and engineering. More on computational finance and the author’s online courses, see www.datasim.nl.

American Kleptocracy

Author: Casey Michel
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250274532
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
A remarkable debut by one of America's premier young reporters on financial corruption, Casey Michel's American Kleptocracy offers an explosive investigation into how the United States of America built the largest illicit offshore finance system the world has ever known. "An indefatigable young American journalist who has virtually cornered the international kleptocracy beat on the US end of the black aquifer." —The Los Angeles Review of Books For years, one country has acted as the greatest offshore haven in the world, attracting hundreds of billions of dollars in illicit finance tied directly to corrupt regimes, extremist networks, and the worst the world has to offer. But it hasn’t been the sand-splattered Caribbean islands, or even traditional financial secrecy havens like Switzerland or Panama, that have come to dominate the offshoring world. Instead, the country profiting the most also happens to be the one that still claims to be the moral leader of the free world, and the one that claims to be leading the fight against the crooked and the corrupt: the USA. American Kleptocracy examines just how the United States’ implosion into a center of global offshoring took place: how states like Delaware and Nevada perfected the art of the anonymous shell company, and how post-9/11 reformers watched their success usher in a new flood of illicit finance directly into the U.S.; how African despots and post-Soviet oligarchs came to dominate American coastlines, American industries, and entire cities and small towns across the American Midwest; how Nazi-era lobbyists birthed an entire industry of spin-men whitewashing trans-national crooks and despots, and how dirty money has now begun infiltrating America's universities and think tanks and cultural centers; and how those on the front-line are trying to restore America's legacy of anti-corruption leadership—and finally end this reign of American kleptocracy.

Banking Law in Australia

Author: Alan L. Tyree
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780409344899
Category : Banking law
Languages : en
Pages : 630

Book Description
"Banking Law in Australia, 9th edition is a popular banking law text used by law and business students in elective subjects. This book provides a clear and concise commentary on the history, current practice and future directions of banking law. The text seeks to engage students and practitioners with new material about the Personal Properties Securities Act, electronic payments and greater discussions of consumer-minded issues."-- Wolters Kluwer CCH Website.

The Onion Book of Known Knowledge

Author: The Onion
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 031613323X
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Book Description
Are you a witless cretin with no reason to live? Would you like to know more about every piece of knowledge ever? Do you have cash? Then congratulations, because just in time for the death of the print industry as we know it comes the final book ever published, and the only one you will ever need: The Onion's compendium of all things known. Replete with an astonishing assemblage of facts, illustrations, maps, charts, threats, blood, and additional fees to edify even the most simple-minded book-buyer, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge is packed with valuable information -- such as the life stages of an Aunt; places to kill one's self in Utica, New York; and the dimensions of a female bucket, or "pail." With hundreds of entries for all 27 letters of the alphabet, The Onion Book of Known Knowledge must be purchased immediately to avoid the sting of eternal ignorance.

Development Beyond Neoliberalism?

Author: David Alan Craig
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134363761
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
This book is among the first to take the poverty reduction paradigm as its central focus. Offering a comprehensive introduction, overview and critique, it traces the emergence of the framework and illustrates its consequences with global case studies.