Finance and the finance industry Books

Book SynopsisTrain your brain to be a real contrarian and outsmart the crowd Beat the Crowd is the real contrarian's guide to investing, with comprehensive explanations of how a true contrarian investor thinks and acts and why it works more often than not. Bestselling author Ken Fisher breaks down the myths and cuts through the noise to present a clear, unvarnished view of timeless market realities, and the ways in which a contrarian approach to investing will outsmart the herd. In true Ken Fisher style, the book explains why the crowd often goes astrayand how you can stay on track. Contrarians understand how headlines really affect the market and which noise and fads they should tune out. Beat the Crowd is a primer to the contrarian strategy, teaching readers simple tricks to think differently and get it right more often than not. Discover the limits of forecasting and how far ahead you should look Learn why political controversy Trade Review“..a characteristically lively read….a good holiday read for any investor who suspects they may be stuck in their ways and in need of new insights” (Money Observer, July 2015) Table of ContentsPreface ix Chapter 1: Your Brain]Training Guide 1 Wall Street’s Contrarian Contradiction 4 The Curmudgeon’s Conundrum 5 There Is Always a But 6 Why Most Investors Are Mostly Wrong Most of the Time 8 The First Rule of True Contrarianism 12 The All-Seeing Market 13 Different, Not Opposite 14 The Right Frame of Mind 15 Check Your Ego 16 Chapter 2: For Whom the Bell Curve Tolls 19 Wall Street’s Useless/Useful Fascination With Calendars 23 Professional Groupthink 25 How the Contrarian Uses Professional Forecasts 26 Even the Best Fall Sometimes . . . 30 How to Beat the Street 39 Chapter 3: Dracula and the Four Horsemen of the Media Apocalypse 47 The Media’s Flawed Financial Eyesight 50 Dracula Around the Corner 53 Looking for Growth in All the Wrong Places 59 The Magic Indicator 62 War—What Is It Good For? 71 Don’t Be a Cow, Be a Contrarian 77 Chapter 4: Not in the Next 30 Months 81 Baby Boomer Bomb? 85 What About Social Security and Medicare? 86 But What if the “Lost Generation”Stays Lost? 90 What About Debt? 93 But What if Debt Causes Runaway Inflation? 98 But What if America Stops Innovating? 98 But What About Global Warming? 100 What About Income Inequality? 102 What if the Dollar Loses Its Place as the World’s Reserve Currency? 105 What the Markets Know 108 Chapter 5: Take a Safari With Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau 111 How the Elephant Got Its Tusks 114 Dumbo, Gross Margins and Other High]Flying Elephants 116 When Good News Dresses Up as Bad News 118 The Yield Curve Curveball 121 When Elephants Attack 127 A Brief History of Tragedy 127 When Textbooks Lie 129 It Can’t Be an Elephant If … 134 Chapter 6: The Chapter You’ll Love to Hate 137 Step 1: Ditch Your Biases 140 My Guy Is Best, Your Guy Is Worst and Other Unhelpful Opinions 141 A Magical Elephant Named Gridlock 145 (Not) Just a Bill Sittin’ on Capitol Hill 150 That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen 156 What’s Worse Than a Politician? 158 Why the Government Already Made the Next Crisis Worse 162 Chapter 7: Put Those Textbooks Away 169 Don’t Toss Your Textbooks—But Know Their Limitations! 172 The First Commandment: P/Es Aren’t Predictive 175 The CAPEd Crusader Is No Superhero 178 Small Beats All? 181 Fancy Formulas and Other Academic Kryptonite 184 Theory Isn’t Reality 189 If Not School, Where? 193 Chapter 8: Throw Away This Book! 197 Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Pop Star Economists 200 Classics Are Classic for a Reason 203 Philosophy and Econ 101 209 How to Learn From the Legends 216 Those Who Forget History . . . 225 Classics in the Twenty]First Century 230 Chapter 9: When Miley Cyrus Meets Ben Graham: Misadventures in Behavioral Finance 235 Where It All Began 238 The Beginnings of Behavioral Finance’s Drift 240 When Academics Met Capitalism and Marketing 240 Behavioral Finance and Tactical Positioning 242 Recency Bias and Sentiment 251 How to Gain a Tactical Advantage With Behavioral Finance 254 A Section for Stock Pickers 259 Know When to Say When 266 Getting Back to Self]Control 268 Chapter 10: The Negative Myopic Media 277 How to Use the News 281 What the Media Always Misses 285 In Technology (and Capitalism) We Trust 289 Parting Thoughts 290 Index 293

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Book Synopsis1. The Story of Small Business Lending.- Part I The Problem.- 2. Small Businesses Are Important to the Economy.- 3. Small Businesses and Their Banks: The Impact of the Great Recession.- 4. Structural Obstacles Slow Small Business Lending.- 5. What Small Businesses Want.- Part II The New World of Fintech Innovation.- 6. The Fintech Innovation Cycle.- 7. The Early Days of Fintech Lending.- 8. Technology Changes the Game: Small Business Utopia.- 9. Who will be the winners and Losers?.- 10. A Playbook for Banks.- 11. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).- Part III The Role of Regulation.- 10. Regulatory Obstacles: Confusion, Omission, and Overlap.- 11. The Regulatory System of the Future.- Conclusion.- 12. The Future of Fintech and the American Dream.     

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Book SynopsisEverything you need to easily get a handle on economic indicators In today's volatile, often troubling economic landscape, there are myriad statistics and reports that paint an economic picture that can sometimes resemble a work by Jackson Pollock. These complex and often-conflicting reports could vex even the savviest investor.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 What Not to Read 4 How the Book Is Organized 4 Part I: Figuring Out the Economy 4 Part II: Making Money, Spending Money: Employment and Consumer Indicators 4 Part III: The Essence of Business: Product and Service Indicators 5 Part IV: Inflation, Productivity, Interest Rates, and Commodities: Oh My! 5 Part V: International Intrigue: Indicators beyond the United States 5 Part VI: The Part of Tens 6 Icons Used in This Book 6 Where to Go from Here 6 Part I: Figuring Out the Economy 7 Chapter 1: Introducing Economic Indicators 9 Understanding What Economic Indicators Are 10 Reading the economy through economic indicators 10 Cycling through economic ups and downs 11 Identifying What Indicators Indicate 12 Tracking consumer spending 12 Looking at the big picture 13 Eyeing manufacturing 14 Counting up the number of bought, sold, and newly built homes 15 Monitoring inflation 15 Measuring productivity 16 Looking at loans and commodity purchases 16 Following worldwide economies 17 Knowing How to Start Following Economic Indicators 18 Analyzing the data 19 Tracking economic indicator release dates 19 Chapter 2: Explaining Economic Jargon 21 Identifying Types of Economic Indicators 21 Summarizing economic results 22 Surveying for information 22 Indexing the economy 24 Understanding How Economists Analyze the Data 27 Measuring growth 27 Annualizing reported data 29 Smoothing data with moving averages 32 Massaging Economic Data to Make the Results More Useful 35 Adjusting for inflation 35 Adjusting for seasonal fluctuations 37 Considering the Timeliness of Economic Indicators 37 Leading indicators make forecasts 38 Coincident indicators are no coincidence 38 Lagging indicators can’t foretell the future 39 Looking into the Future with Consensus Forecasts 39 Finding consensus forecasts 40 Analyzing the accuracy of the consensus 40 Amending and Modifying Data with Revision Reports 41 Revising previous reports 41 Changing benchmarks 42 Cha-Ching: Money, Interest Rates, and the Economy 43 Understanding the Fed’s monetary measures 43 Setting short- and long-term interest rates 44 Chapter 3: Understanding the Big Picture: The Economy and Its Footprints 45 Taking a Closer Look at the Business Cycle 46 Identifying the phases of the cycle 46 Growing into expansion 49 Slowing into recession 49 Reviewing the Key Financial Markets 50 Investing in stocks 50 Holding bonds 53 Trading commodities 55 Tracking currencies 56 Figuring Out What’s What in Economic Reports 57 Finding what’s important in each report 58 Seeing how reports are assembled 59 Showing Economic Fashions without the Runway 59 Understanding market sensitivity 60 Determining an indicator’s accuracy and timeliness 61 Seeing who’s interested in what 61 Part II: Making Money, Spending Money: Employment and Consumer Indicators 65 Chapter 4: Counting Jobs and Unemployment 67 Tracking the BLS Employment Situation Report 68 Counting workers and the unemployed 68 Highlighting key parts of the jobs report 73 Deciphering employment numbers 75 Predicting market reactions due to employment changes 77 Looking at Unemployment Insurance Claims 79 Keeping track of unemployment insurance claims 80 Smoothing jobless claim fluctuations 81 Analyzing the claims numbers 82 Determining how the market may react to increased claims 82 Eyeing the ADP National Employment Report ® 84 Reviewing key parts of ADP’s jobs report 85 Comparing the ADP and BLS reports 86 Figuring out how the market will react to the ADP report 87 Advertising for Jobs: The Conference Board Help Wanted Online Index 88 Measuring the availability of jobs online 88 Predicting how the market will react 89 Collecting the BLS Mass Layoff Statistics Report 90 Surfing Monster Employment Indexes 91 Chapter 5: Survey Says: Considering Consumer Sentiment, Confidence, and Comfort 93 Trying to Figure Out Consumers 94 Surveying UM’s Consumer Sentiment Index 95 Eyeing the importance of this index 95 Considering the consumer’s expectations 96 Correlating consumer sentiment and spending: What the data mean 97 Looking for unexpected changes 99 Knowing how the markets will react 100 Understanding the Consumer Confidence Index 100 Seeing how people feel about the economy 101 Looking for happy consumers 103 Comparing and contrasting surveys 103 Finding surprises in the confidence survey 106 Adjusting your portfolio strategy 107 Reviewing the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index 108 Justifying another consumer survey: What makes this one unique 109 Correlating comfort, recovery, and recession 109 Modifying your portfolio strategy 112 Chapter 6: Spreading the Wealth: Consumer Spending and the Economy 113 Making and Spending: The BEA’s Personal Income and Outlays Report 113 Tracking personal wages, savings, and purchases 115 Highlighting consumers’ economic impact: The wealth effect 122 Identifying the relationship between spending, income, and the economy 122 Reacting to surprising results 123 Surveying Retail Sales: The Census Bureau’s Retail Trade Report 124 Highlighting product purchases 125 Monitoring spending trends 126 Investing based on the survey results 127 How Much Consumers Borrow: The Consumer Credit Outstanding Report 128 Tracking Online Sales: The Quarterly Retail E-Commerce Sales Report 130 Part III: The Essence of Business: Product and Service Indicators 133 Chapter 7: GDP: The Whole Enchilada 135 Grasping What the GDP Report Is 135 Breaking down the GDP schedule 136 Finding the economy’s growth rate 137 Counting products and services in the GDP 140 Highlighting the GDP’s Importance 142 Declaring recessions and recoveries 143 Surveying how businesses use the GDP 144 Understanding how the government uses the GDP 144 Eyeing how investors use the GDP 145 Knowing How the GDP Is Calculated 147 Measuring personal consumption 149 Tracking private investments 150 Counting government consumption 152 Monitoring imports and exports 152 Purchasing and selling domestic products 153 Seeing How GDP Is Adjusted for Inflation 154 Chaining dollars to inflation 155 Comparing GDP price indexes over time 156 Chapter 8: Following the Fed 161 Understanding the Fed’s Role 161 Outlining the Fed’s basic structure 162 Understanding central banking 163 Digging into monetary policy 164 Reading the Fed’s FOMC Statement 166 Eyeing why this report is important 167 Forecasting the future with the FOMC 167 Reacting to the FOMC Statement 168 Boring into the Beige Book 170 Monitoring Manufacturing with the Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization Report 171 Seeing what the report measures 172 Correlating output, capacity, and growth 174 Repositioning your portfolio 176 Reviewing Regional Fed Reports 179 Surveying business outlook 180 Indexing national activity 181 Chapter 9: Profiling Manufacturing: New Orders and Shipments 185 Filling Orders for Durable Goods: The Advance Report on Durable Goods 185 Knowing where the data come from 186 Tracking new factory orders: Why these stats are important 187 Figuring out what the data mean 188 Correlating manufacturing and future growth 191 Manufacturing your portfolio response 193 Monitoring Factory Orders and Sales: The Factory Orders Report 195 Comparing the full and advance versions 196 Investing in the full report 197 Counting Business Inventories: The Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales Report 198 Chapter 10: Grappling with Economic Indexes 201 Measuring ISM’s Manufacturing Survey 201 Understanding how the ISM surveys purchasing agents 202 Checking the health of manufacturers 203 Surveying purchasing managers’ insights for the PMI 206 Monitoring market movement 206 Gauging Non-Manufacturing Companies 208 Looking At the Leading Economic Index 210 Chapter 11: Spending on Housing and Residential Construction 213 Growing the Economy One House at a Time 214 Realizing the relationship between housing and GDP 214 Understanding U.S housing demand 216 Counting One Start at a Time: The New Residential Construction Report 217 Eyeing the data: Where the stats come from 217 Monitoring building permits and other housing stats 219 Correlating housing and economic activity 221 Remodeling your investment portfolio 222 Reporting New-Home Sales: The New Residential Sales Report 223 Comparing new starts with new sales: Is it possible? 224 Recognizing the connection between new-home sales and the economic cycle 226 Forecasting investment market reactions 226 Reporting Existing-Home Sales 227 Tracking housing prices 229 Understanding how existing-home sales affect investment markets 230 Monitoring Pending Home Sales 231 Surveying Mortgages 233 Eyeing what data you get at no cost 234 Tracking delinquent mortgages 234 Identifying potential market changes 235 Pricing the S&P/Case-Shiller Indices 236 Part IV: Inflation, Productivity, Interest Rates, and Commodities: Oh My! 239 Chapter 12: Determining Inflation’s Economic Impact 241 Gauging Inflation from the Consumer’s View: The Consumer Price Index 242 Eyeing the parts of the CPI 242 In a basket: How CPI is measured 244 Understanding why inflation matters 247 Seeing the different reactions to inflation and the CPI 248 Inflating investment returns 251 Using Manufacturing Costs to Measure Inflation: The Producer Price Index 252 Comparing the PPI and CPI 253 Inflating the price of business supplies 254 Correlating the PPI and economic growth 255 Showing PPI’s investment market impact 256 Tracking Inflation through Labor Costs: The Employment Cost Index 258 Monitoring and tracking labor costs 258 Seeing how the Fed uses the ECI 259 Employing labor costs in investment analysis 260 Chapter 13: Taking a Closer Look at Productivity and Economic Growth 261 Measuring Productivity and Costs: The Labor Productivity and Costs Report 262 Defining productivity 263 Correlating productivity to job growth and costs 266 Producing investment returns 267 Watching Employee Compensation Costs: The ECEC Report 268 Monitoring labor costs 270 Using labor costs to improve investments 270 Calculating What Workers Really Make: The Real Earnings Report 272 Chapter 14: Eyeing Business and Municipal Borrowing in the Bond Market 273 Simplifying the Fixed-Income Market 274 Showing Some Interest in Interest 275 Grasping how interest rates are set 275 Determining risk 276 Finding Current Interest Rates: The Selected Interest Rates Report 277 Taming the TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities) Spread 281 Following the Treasury Yield Curve 282 Interpreting the yield curve 282 Identifying how the curve can look and what the shapes mean 283 Seeing the Bond Market’s Impact on the Rest of the Market 286 Yielding interesting returns 286 Investing in yield 286 Forecasting the currency’s value 287 Chapter 15: Harvesting Commodity Data 289 Understanding Commodities: Focusing on Supply and Demand 290 Paying cash upfront: Cash markets 290 Specifying the purchase terms before you buy: Forward contracts 291 Bidding for a price: Futures markets 292 Delving into Commodities Reports 293 Digging for gold and other precious metals 293 Drilling into the energy markets 295 Growing the agricultural markets 299 Mining industrial metals 301 Pricing Commodities 302 Finding spot prices 302 Finding futures prices 303 Tracking Commodity Indexes 304 Following Standard & Poor’s GSCI 304 Digging into the Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index 306 Reading The Economist’s commodity index 307 Surveying the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Indexes 308 Part V: International Intrigue: Indicators beyond the United States 309 Chapter 16: Trading with the United States 311 Tracking Trade: U.S International Trade in Goods and Service Report 312 Reporting U.S exports and imports 313 Finding more trade data in the supplemental tables and online 321 Correlating trade and economic growth 321 Trading information for investment returns 322 Figuring Out the Balance of Trade 323 Following the TIC (Treasury International Capital) System 323 Chapter 17: Following Economies Worldwide 325 Investing in Overseas Markets 325 Using Reliable Sources to Find Info on International Indicators 328 Surveying purchasing managers globally 329 Surveying purchasing managers in Europe 329 Tracking the German Economy 330 Measuring German productivity 331 Surveying German businesses 334 Tracking the Japanese Economy 336 Surveying Japanese businesses 336 Measuring Japan’s productivity 340 Tracking China’s Economy 341 Chapter 18: Monitoring Emerging Economies 345 Following Emerging Markets 345 Seeing the world through Google’s Public Data Explorer 346 Using other sources to track emerging markets 347 Monitoring India’s Economy 347 Following India’s economic progress 348 Anticipating India’s future growth 349 Following Brazil’s Economic Future 350 Summarizing Brazil’s economy 350 Understanding Brazil’s inflation issue 352 Part VI: The Part of Tens 353 Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Track the U.S. Economy 355 Monitoring Jobs and Employment Data 356 Accounting for Consumer Spending 357 Checking Up on Businesses 357 Showing an Interest in Interest Rates 358 Building on Housing and Construction 358 Following Inflation 359 Surveying Consumers 360 Following the GDP 360 Chapter 20: Ten (Or So) Money-Making Tips You Can Use with Economic Indicators 361 Finding the Big Picture: Distinguishing between Bull and Bear Markets 361 Tracking Sector Rotation 363 Following the Herd 364 Taking Three Steps, Then a Stumble 364 Balancing Your Portfolio 364 Investing Strategically 365 Taking Your Investments Abroad 365 Avoiding Big Investment Mistakes 366 Avoiding Analysis Paralysis 366 Glossary 367 Index 375

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Book SynopsisFrancesca Taylor has been a major player in the international derivatives markets for over 25 years and has recently relocated to Dubai, UAE. Francesca is also the founder and ex-CEO of Taylor Associates (International) Ltd, a financial training company based in London, which provides training and education to a range of financial and non-financial organisations. She has extensive experience in the derivatives clearing and OTC post trade space working with key market providers of infrastructure services, notably Capco, CLS, DTCC, Deriv/SERV, Markit and Omgeo, both in the UK and North America. She has worked with CME and Bloomberg in NYC and ICE in Chicago to create TV and web based tutorials in traded options and future markets. Francesca has a BSc (Hons) in geology from London University, an MBA from Imperial College and an AMCT from the Association of Corporate Treasurers. Francesca is the author of the bestselling Market KnoTable of ContentsTable of Contents 1. Background and development of the derivatives markets Market background Introduction Key features Uses of derivatives Range of derivatives Increasing use of the Central Counterparty Model (CCP) Risk and benchmarking Market volumes Users and uses of derivatives Straight Through Processing (STP) 2. Market fundamentals Introduction How banks generate income Three key assumptions Role and use of LIBOR Day counts Financial maths Calculating forward rates Marking to market Yield curves Quiz 3. Risk — a Primer Introduction Finacial risks: markets, credit, liquidity Operational risk More esoteric risks 4. Derviatives Fundamentals Range of derivatives What is a vanilla trade? Settlement Triggers Liquidity and credit risk Understanding the 'underlying' Benchmarks Fair value Dealing with derivatives 5. Basic option concepts Introduction Option pricing Option mechanics 6. Interest rate derivatives — single settlement instruments Introduction Single settlement interest rate derivatives Financial futures contracts Forward rate agreements (FRAs) Interest rate options (IROs) Quiz 7. Interest rate derivatives Introduction Interest rate caps and floors Interest rate collars Interest rate swaps Quiz 8. Benchmarking in the OTC derivatives marketsPenny Davenport, Manging Director, Markit Document Exchange and Gavan Nolan, Vice President, Credit Research, Markit Group Financial benchmarking for derivatives Liquidity benchmarking for derivatives Operational risk measurements for derivatives Conclusion 9. Currency derivatives Introduction Over the counter currency options Currency options: reduced premium strategies Simple exotic structures Currency swaps Exchange-traded instruments Quiz 10. The impact of electronic trading on the FX MarketRay McKenzie, Vice President, ICE The early years FX as part of a commodity portfolio First electronic dealing platforms Electronic market making Phases I and II Point and click vs algo traders The impact of the credit crisis on banks' FX trading Phase III 11. Credit derivatives Introduction What is credit risk? Styles of trading The first deals Range of credit derivatives Credit default swaps 12. Central clearing and the OTC marketBill Hodgson, Founder and CEO, The OTC Space Ltd The basics Trade execution Risks and mitigation Getting trades into clearing The business case and benefits Predictions for market development Terminology 13. Equity derivatives Introduction Background Single stocks or equity indices? Stock index futures Stock index options Single stock options Equity index swaps 14. Commodity derivatives Introduction Exchange-traded energy derivatives Exchange-traded futures contracts Exchange-traded energy option contracts OTC or ‘off-exchange’ energy derivatives OTC option products OTC oil swaps <

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Book SynopsisLeo Gough was the editor of two investment newsletters during the 1990's, The Zurich Club' and Taipan' for Fleet Street Publications. Since 1997 he has spent much of his time in the Asia/Pacific region, working with banks, such as Citibank, and consultancy firms, such as AT Kearney. Currently Leo is working in management consultancy in the Middle East. He is the author of more than 20 books on personal finance and investment.Table of ContentsCONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1 The ‘guerrilla investor’ Chapter 2. Shares Chapter 3. Bonds Chapter 4. Assessing companies - issues and opportunities Chapter 5. Investment theories and strategies Chapter 6. Foreign exchange Chapter 7. Derivatives Chapter 8. Fraud and sharp practice Chapter 9. Overseas investment Chapter 10. Investing in other asset classes Chapter 11.Thinking about retirement Chapter 12. UK taxation Chapter 13.An overview of the financial crisis Chapter 14. Making investing part of your life Appendix 1 – A little financial maths Appendix 2 – Compound interest table Further reading Useful websites Glossary Index Glossary Index

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Book SynopsisThe bestselling author of the acclaimed House of Cards and The Last Tycoons turns his spotlight on to Goldman Sachs and the controversy behind its success. From the outside, Goldman Sachs is a perfect company. The Goldman PR machine loudly declares it to be smarter, more ethical, and more profitable than all of its competitors. Behind closed doors, however, the firm constantly straddles the line between conflict of interest and legitimate deal making, wields significant influence over all levels of government, and upholds a culture of power struggles and toxic paranoia. And its clever bet against the mortgage market in 2007—unknown to its clients—may have made the financial ruin of the Great Recession worse. Money and Power reveals the internal schemes that have guided the bank from its founding through its remarkable windfall during the 2008 financial crisis. Through extensive research and interviews with the inside players, including current CEO Lloyd Blankfein, William Cohan constructs a nuanced, timely portrait of Goldman Sachs, the company that was too big—and too ruthless—to fail.

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Book SynopsisThe third volume of The Collected Works of Israel M Kirzner presents a collection of writings on capital theory that serve both as a discourse in the history of economic thought and as conceptual clarification in one of the most complex subjects in economics. This edition explores the notions of capital and interest in light of the controversies surrounding these topics. The first essay in this volume is Kirzner''s introduction to the 1996 edition. The second essay was published as a stand-alone book in 1966 and presents Kirzner''s capital theory, focusing on multi-period production plans. In the third essay Kirzner offers an interpretation of Ludwig von Mises''s view of capital and interest. The fourth essay, written in the late 1980s, is Kirzner''s attempt to clarify the difficulties found in interest theory. Finally, the fifth essay deals with Sir John Hick''s capital theory in light of Kirzner''s own Austrian position.

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Book SynopsisMoney is our global language. Yet so few of us can speak it. The language of the economic elite can be complex, jargon-filled and completely baffling. Above all, the language of money is the language of power - power in the hands of the same economic elite.Now John Lanchester, bestselling author of Capital and Whoops! sets out to decode the world of finance for all of us, explaining everything from high-frequency trading and the World Bank to the difference between bullshit and nonsense.As funny as it is devastating, How To Speak Money is a primer and a polemic. It''s a reference book you''ll find yourself reading in one sitting. And it gives you everything you need to demystify the world of high finance - the world that dominates how we all live now.

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Book SynopsisAn essential guide for finance managers to leverage advanced technology in long-term investing. Institutional Investors underpin our capitalist world, and could play a major role in addressing some of the greatest challenges to society such as climate change, the ballooning wealth gap, declining infrastructure, aging populations, and the need for stable funding for the sciences and arts. Advanced technology can help institutional Investors deliver the funds needed to tackle these grave challenges. The Technologized Investor is a practical guide showing how institutional Investors can gain the capabilities for deep innovation by reorienting their strategies and organizations around advanced technology. It dissects why technology has historically failed institutional Investors and recommends realistic changes that they can make to unlock technological superpowers. Grounded in the actual experiences of institutional Investors from around the globe, it's a unique reference manual for practitioners on how to reboot their organizations for long-term performance. The book walks readers through many detailed frameworks for analyzing how well new technologies fit with their organization's goals and resources, as well as how to make the organization itself more robust to technological change. It also envisions the ways that the durable empowerment of institutional Investors enables them to achieve their long-term objectives. Based on first-hand empirical analysis, the book will help institutional Investors to rethink their perspectives on the role of technology in their organizations, and the future possibilities it can unlock.Trade Review"In The Technologized Investor, Ashby Monk and Dane Rook make a compelling case that longterm investors could be making a much larger contribution to shared prosperity, 21st-century infrastructure, and a carbon-neutral economy. Their book provides a detailed, cogent road map for organizations such as pension funds to harness technology and truly invest for the long-term."—Eric Schmidt, former CEO, Google"The authors present a rare combination of academic leadership and technology entrepreneurship–their knowledge of institutional asset management gives a fascinating insider's view of this sector. They demonstrate how the biggest asset managers drive global markets and confront our most important global challenges. As advisors to many of the leading investment institutions, the authors share a fascinating glimpse into what innovation can achieve in this critical sector."—Joe Lonsdale, Partner, 8VC, Founder, Palantir and Addepar"The value of The Technologized Investor goes far beyond its use as a deeply researched guidebook for how to integrate today's technology into every investment decision. It's a rallying cry for why doing so in the service of long-term vision isn't just crucial for good business, but for our world. The argument is presents is compelling, essential reading."—Eric Ries, CEO, The Long-Term Stock Exchange, author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way"It's hero time! Saving the world by solving our era's seemingly intractable problems requires unlocking the full-power of innovative investment. Who would believe behind the superhero mask one would find an investor, let alone—even more difficult to fathom—an institutional investor. The authors offer a compelling, instructive resource and example-laden road map for developing and deploying the innovative technologized investment superpower hidden within even the most cautious investor or organization."—Ertharin Cousin, CEO and Founder, Food Systems for the Future, Stanford University Visiting Scholar, Distinguished Fellow, Chicago Council on Global Affairs"This book fantastically articulates the enormous potential of the application of technology to investment and asset management. I hope it convinces more tech founders to take the plunge and work to solve some of these monumentally important challenges faced by—and created by—this industry. After reading it, I feel better equipped for the job ahead of me and even more excited to make a positive impact by bringing tech to our small part of this massive industry."—Lindsay Holden, CEO and Co-founder, Long GameTable of Contents1. History of Investment Technology 2. Technology Problems in Institutional Investing 3. Technology Trends and Tools 4. Frameworks for Technology Analysis 5. Template for a Technologized Investor 6. Data Empowerment 7. Equipping Data Empowerment 8. Reframing Risk Management 9. Technologized Risk Exposure 10. Space to Innovate 11. Spinning Up R3D Teams 12. Getting Started

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Book SynopsisAn ethnography of Wall Street, investment bankers and the cultural logics of finance.Trade Review“Karen Ho has picked an excellent time to publish her fascinating new study . . . of Wall Street banks. . . . As field-sites go, Wall Street is not classic anthropological territory: ethnographers typically work in remote, third-world societies. . . . Ho nevertheless embarked on her study in classic anthropological manner: by blending into the background, listening intently, in a non-judgmental way – and then trying to join up the dots to get a ‘holistic’ picture of how the culture works. That patient ethnographic analysis has produced a fascinating portrait that will be refreshingly novel to most bankers.” -- Gillian Tett * Financial Times *“Ho's study shows the intense competitiveness that is instilled in these primarily Ivy League recruits even before they are finished with their Bachelor's degrees. And she examines the myth that stockowners and companies are best served by maximizing shareholder profits. If anything, this book gives faces to the people who work in that abstract entity called Wall Street that seems to affect our world so much of late. I highly recommend it, especially if you have no idea how the world of high finance operates.” -- James Franco * Huffington Post *“After several decades when anthropologists at last overcame their inhibitions concerning the study of money, Karen Ho’s book . . . seems to mark a coming of age for the contemporary discipline. . . . The intelligence of its author shines through Liquidated. . . . I found it rewarding to read and reflect on, a landmark in the burgeoning anthropology of money.” -- Keith Hart * American Ethnologist *“The book’s great strength lies in Ho’s careful observation of the means by which people succeed or fail on Wall Street, as she punctures many of the assumptions about how markets work.” -- Keir Martin * TLS *“[A] unique portrait of the industry that asks pertinent questions about constant change, job insecurity, and the banker’s identity. . . . Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street asks many questions that those who work in the investment field should ask themselves. . . . Although many in the financial industry will not agree with Ho’s hypotheses and conclusions, they will be challenged by the questions she raises and enthralled by the body of fieldwork she presents.” -- Janet J. Mangano * Financial Analysts Journal *“Ho’s refreshing ethnography of the daily lives of Wall Street investment bankers . . . outlines a web of practices, beliefs and structures that may be vital to understanding what keeps the market system in place despite built-in instabilities.” * Publishers Weekly *“Karen Ho is my hero. . . . Her ethnography of investment bankers in the late 1990s, Liquidated, depicts the bravado, callousness, and contradictions that are the hallmarks of investment banking culture.” -- Mitchel Y. Abolafia * American Journal of Sociology *“Liquidated is an interesting description of many of the practices and orientations that exist in large investment banks, one that confirms what the reader may suspect: that these institutions are forcing-grounds for the sort of hubris and invulnerability that goes with the phrase ‘Masters of the Universe’, the incomprehensible money that sales staff receive, and the idea that they are ‘doing God’s work’. It also, however, indicates the reverse of the strength of the social studies of finance. Liquidated may help explain why those in investment banks think and operate in the ways that they do.” -- James G. Carrier * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *“Liquidated is a must-read book for anyone interested in how legions of recruits from Ivy League colleges come to espouse and enact the twisted bundle of class interests and market ideology that constitutes neoliberal capitalism.” -- Kathryn Dudley * American Studies *“The book contains many wonderful insights, and is a veritable mine of quotations from Wall Street participants. . . . The book is, moreover, extremely well written throughout . . . . [A]n informed and informative text.” -- Brett Christophers * Environment and Planning A *“Although written for a mostly academic audience, the book becomes easily digestible because of the summaries Ho adds in each section. She connects well the main theme throughout any areas of the book. Ho’s views should not be considered ‘anti-Wall Street’ but viewed as an analysis of Wall Street’s effect on the American community and the financial markets. This book should be read by Wall Street investment bankers and corporate managers to better understand the social values and responsibilities of corporations and the role that they play in the American community.” -- Linda Kee-Koa * International Examiner *“[E]ngaging and hard to put down. . . Karen Ho’s book is a must-read for anyone contemplating joining one of the major global banks. . . . Actually, even faculty of our elite schools are starting to question why so many of their graduates end up in finance. Karen Ho’s book should be required reading for students and faculty at these schools.” -- Ben Lorica * Quant Network *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Anthropology Goes to Wall Street 1 1. Biographies of Hegemony: The Culture of Smartness and the Recruitment and Construction of Investment Bankers 39 2. Wall Street's Orientation: Exploitation, Empowerment, and the Politics of Hard Work 73 3. Wall Street Historiographies and the Shareholder Value Revolution 122 4. The Neoclassical Roots and Origin Narratives of Shareholder Value 169 5. Downsizers Downsized: Job Insecurity and Investment Banking Corporate Culture 213 6. Liquid Lives, Compensation Schemes, and the Making of (Unsustainable) Financial Markets 249 7. Leveraging Dominance and Crises through the Global 294 Notes 325 References 353 Index 369

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A well-written, scholarly dissection that should be required reading for all graduate courses (and perhaps some advanced undergraduate) in macroeconomics or monetary economics." * Choice *"With lucid precision, Mehrling traces the history of how Fed policy makers became biased toward 'excessive elasticity'. . . . Mehrling saves the best for the end, where he describes the Fed's battle to save the system with an alphabet soup of lending programs."---James Pressley, Bloomberg News"An important book about the new Fed."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution"In The New Lombard Street, Perry Mehrling . . . provides a lucid account of how the system worked when it was working—and of the growing role assumed by the Fed in an era of global economic volatility and 'credit-fueled bubbles.'"---Glenn C. Altschuler, Tulsa World"[A] fantastic book."---Rortybomb, Mike Konczal blog"Important. . . . Mehrling's new book tries to do just what Bagehot did: to give an account both of how and why the Fed acted when it reinvented the rules in the middle of a financial crisis, and of what the implications for future monetary policy will be."---Harold James, Central Banking Journal"This is an excellent and accessible analysis for anyone wishing to understand the origins of the financial crisis and how the Fed came to respond as it did."---Larry Hatheway, Business Economist"The book can be read as an important contribution in the ongoing debate on the future of central banks. In terms of monetary policy thinking, this book is another contribution to the increasing awareness that central banks, perhaps lured by seeming success of inflation targeting, in the years before 2008 did not manage to strike the right balance between monetary and financial stability."---Lars Fredrik Øksendal, Enterprise & Society

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Book SynopsisClear, comprehensive guidance toward the global infrastructure investment market Infrastructure As An Asset Class is the leading infrastructure investment guide, with comprehensive coverage and in-depth expert insight. This new second edition has been fully updated to reflect the current state of the global infrastructure market, its sector and capital requirements, and provides a valuable overview of the knowledge base required to enter the market securely. Step-by-step guidance walks you through individual infrastructure assets, emphasizing project financing structures, risk analysis, instruments to help you understand the mechanics of this complex, but potentially rewarding, market. New chapters explore energy, renewable energy, transmission and sustainability, providing a close analysis of these increasingly lucrative areas. The risk profile of an asset varies depending on stage, sector and country, but the individual structure is most important in deteTable of ContentsList of Figures xiii List of Tables xv Preface xvii A Note from the Publisher xix Acknowledgements xxi About the Authors xxiii Introduction xxv Chapter 1 Infrastructure – An Overview 1 1.1 Demand for Infrastructure 2 1.2 Sustainability and Infrastructure 7 1.2.1 Sustainability and sustainable development – a brief history 8 1.2.2 The need for sustainable infrastructure 9 1.3 Definition and Characteristics of Infrastructure 10 1.3.1 Differentiation of terms: project – asset – facility 13 1.3.2 Characteristics 15 1.3.3 Cross-sector characteristics 16 1.3.4 Types of infrastructure companies 16 1.3.5 Role of the private sector 18 1.3.6 Value chain elements 19 1.3.7 Greenfield versus brownfield investments 21 1.3.8 Yield-driven versus IRR-driven investors 22 1.3.9 Sources of revenue and financing 24 1.3.10 Competition and regulation 25 Chapter 2 Infrastructure Investments 27 2.1 Infrastructure as an Asset Class 28 2.1.1 Investors in infrastructure 29 2.1.2 Risk-return profiles of unlisted infrastructure investments 33 2.1.3 Benchmarking infrastructure investments 40 2.1.4 Portfolio diversification through infrastructure 46 2.2 Sustainable Infrastructure Investing 56 2.2.1 Concept of sustainable investing 56 2.2.2 Why invest in sustainable infrastructure? 62 2.2.3 How to invest in infrastructure sustainably 64 2.2.4 Challenges of sustainable infrastructure investing 68 2.3 Approaches to Infrastructure Investing 69 2.3.1 Listed infrastructure investments 69 2.3.2 Unlisted infrastructure investments 73 Chapter 3 Organisational Model 87 3.1 Privatisation Models 87 3.1.1 Privatisation versus PPP 88 3.1.2 Formal privatisation 94 3.1.3 Functional privatisation 95 3.1.4 Material privatisation 96 3.2 Partnership Models 100 3.3 Business Models 102 3.3.1 Availability payment models 103 3.3.2 User-driven payment models 105 3.3.3 Direct-user payment models 106 3.4 Contractual Models 107 3.5 Financing Models 110 3.6 Interim Summary – Various ‘Privatisation Paths’ 110 Chapter 4 Characteristics of Selected Infrastructure Sectors and Subsectors 113 4.1 Transport 114 4.1.1 Cross-sector characteristics 114 4.1.2 Road transport 118 4.1.3 Rail transport 125 4.1.4 Air transport 133 4.1.5 Water transport 141 4.1.6 Sustainability considerations 149 4.2 Water Supply and Sewage Disposal 152 4.2.1 Characteristics and organisation 152 4.2.2 Sources of revenue and value chain elements 158 4.2.3 Competition and regulation 160 4.2.4 Private-sector involvement 161 4.2.5 Sustainability considerations 164 4.3 Waste Disposal 166 4.3.1 Characteristics and organisation 166 4.3.2 Sources of revenue and value chain elements 172 4.3.3 Competition and regulation 175 4.3.4 Private-sector involvement 176 4.3.5 Sustainability considerations 178 4.4 Energy – Electricity 180 4.4.1 Overview 181 4.4.2 Generation – renewable electricity – cross-sector characteristics 186 4.4.3 Generation – solar energy 191 4.4.4 Generation – wind energy – onshore 193 4.4.5 Generation – wind energy – offshore 195 4.4.6 Generation – hyrdoelectric energy 197 4.4.7 Generation – bioenergy 199 4.4.8 Transmission and distribution 203 4.4.9 Electricity storage 215 4.4.10 Sustainability considerations 228 4.5 Energy – Natural Gas Networks 234 4.5.1 Characteristics and organisation 234 4.5.2 Transmission 235 4.5.3 Storage 236 4.5.4 Distribution 237 4.5.5 Sources of revenue and value chain elements 237 4.5.6 Competition and regulation 238 4.5.7 Private-sector involvement 239 4.5.8 Sustainability considerations 240 4.6 Energy – District Energy Systems (DES) 241 4.6.1 Characteristics and organisation 242 4.6.2 Sources of revenue and value chain elements 244 4.6.3 Competition and regulation 246 4.6.4 Private-sector involvement 247 4.6.5 Sustainability considerations 248 4.7 Social Infrastructure 249 4.7.1 Healthcare facilities 250 4.7.2 Education facilities 253 4.7.3 Administrative facilities 255 4.7.4 Sustainability considerations 256 Chapter 5 Risks 259 5.1 Risk Management 259 5.2 General Risks 265 5.2.1 Market risk 265 5.2.2 Interest rate risk 269 5.2.3 Exchange rate risk 270 5.2.4 Environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk 270 5.2.5 Political, legal and regulatory risk 277 5.2.6 Force majeure 282 5.3 Project/Asset-specific Risks 283 5.3.1 Planning, construction and completion risk 284 5.3.2 Technical risk 285 5.3.3 Financing risk 287 5.3.4 Syndication risk 288 5.3.5 Operational risk 289 5.3.6 Contractual and counterparty risk 290 5.3.7 Realisation risk 290 5.4 Sector-specific Risks 291 Chapter 6 Project Finance 295 6.1 Project Finance Basics 295 6.2 Project Finance and PPP 297 6.3 Basic Structure of Project Finance 299 6.3.1 Key characteristics 299 6.3.2 Participants and other stakeholders 302 6.3.3 Objectives and contributions of project participants 308 6.3.4 Typical contractual framework for project finance 310 6.4 Structuring Project Financings – Traditional and in PPPs 312 6.4.1 Phase I – Advisory 316 6.4.2 Phase II – Project assessment 316 6.4.3 Phase III – Risk analysis and allocation 318 6.4.4 Phase IV – Financing 319 6.4.5 Phase V – Implementation and monitoring 324 Chapter 7 Financing Instruments 327 7.1 Equity 328 7.2 Mezzanine Capital 330 7.3 Debt 331 7.3.1 Senior loans 331 7.3.2 Bonds 334 7.3.3 Short-term finance 339 7.4 Government Support Schemes 339 7.4.1 National development banks 340 7.4.2 European Investment Bank (EIB) 341 7.4.3 European PPP Expertise Centre (EPEC) 343 7.4.4 Governmental export credit and direct investment insurance – ECAs 343 7.5 Asset-backed Securities 344 7.6 Sale and Leaseback 346 7.7 Derivatives 346 7.7.1 Futures 347 7.7.2 Options 348 Concluding Remarks 349 Appendix A Sample Page from CDC Toolkit on ESG for Fund Managers 351 Appendix B Credit List for Envision’s Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System 353 Appendix C Infrastructure Sustainability Rating System (Australia) – Themes and Categories 355 Appendix D National Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) 357 References 361 Index 381

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThis best-selling dictionary includes more than 3,800 entries covering all aspects of accounting, including financial accounting, financial reporting, management accounting, taxation, auditing, corporate finance, and accounting bodies and institutions. Its international coverage includes important terms from UK, US, Australia, India, and Asia-Pacific. Over 150 new entries have been added to this edition to reflect the very latest developments in the accounting profession, e.g. Accounting Coucil, European Financial Stability Mechanism, and General Anti-Abuse Rule. In addition, existing entries have been updated to cover the latest developments, most notably the Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, which sets out new rules in areas such as goodwill, hedge accounting, and fair value accounting. There is increased coverage of topics such as corporate governance, accounting ethics, accounting scandals, and major firms and professional bodies.With itTable of ContentsPreface Credits Dictionary

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Book SynopsisRisk analysis has become critical to modern financial planning Financial Forecasting, Analysis and Modelling provides a complete framework of long-term financial forecasts in a practical and accessible way, helping finance professionals include uncertainty in their planning and budgeting process. With thorough coverage of financial statement simulation models and clear, concise implementation instruction, this book guides readers step-by-step through the entire projection plan development process. Readers learn the tools, techniques, and special considerations that increase accuracy and smooth the workflow, and develop a more robust analysis process that improves financial strategy. The companion website provides a complete operational model that can be customised to develop financial projections or a range of other key financial measures, giving readers an immediately-applicable tool to facilitate effective decision-making. In the aftermath of the recent finanTable of ContentsPreface xi Acknowledgments xiii About the Author xv Part one Developing Corporate Finance Models 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 3 1.1 What is Financial Modelling? 3 1.2 Defining the Inputs and the Outputs of a Simple Financial Model 6 1.3 The Financial Modelling Process of More Complex Models 9 1.3.1 Step 1: Defining the Problem the Model Will Solve: The Fundamental Business Question 9 1.3.2 Step 2: Specification of the Model 10 1.3.3 Step 3: Designing and Building the Model 11 1.3.4 Step 4: Checking the Model’s Output 13 1.4 Excel as a Tool of Modelling: Capabilities and Limitations 13 Chapter 2 A Short Primer in the Accounting of Financial Statements 17 2.1 The Accounting Equation 17 2.2 The Balance Sheet 20 2.3 The Income Statement 23 2.3.1 Cash Accounting Versus Accrual Accounting 26 2.4 The Cash Flow Statement 26 2.4.1 Operating Activities 27 2.4.2 Investing Activities 27 2.4.3 Financing Activities 27 2.4.4 Income Flows and Cash Flows 27 2.4.5 Preparing the Statement of Cash Flows 28 2.5 The Articulation of Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statements 29 2.6 Financial Statement Analysis: Ratio Analysis 32 2.6.1 Profitability Ratios 35 2.6.2 Liquidity Ratios 37 2.6.3 Solvency Ratios 38 2.6.4 Other Ratios 39 2.6.5 The Limitations of Financial Ratios 40 Chapter 3 Financial Statement Modelling 43 3.1 Introduction – How Financial Models Work 43 3.2 Collecting and Analyzing Historical Data 47 3.3 Selecting the Key Forecast Drivers 53 3.4 Modelling the Income Statement 59 3.5 Modelling the Balance Sheet 63 3.6 Modelling Interest and Circular References 66 3.7 Modelling the Cash Flow Statement 69 Chapter 4 Forecasting Performance 75 4.1 Introduction: Designing a Dashboard-like Control Panel 75 4.2 Basic Statistical Methods Used for Forecasting 88 4.3 Forecasting Sales 93 4.3.1 Bottom-up Versus Top-down Forecasting 97 4.3.2 Forecasting Sales of Existing Products or Services 97 4.4 Forecasting Costs 99 4.5 Forecasting CAPEX and Depreciation 103 4.5.1 Forecasting CAPEX and Depreciation for Existing Companies 108 4.6 Forecasting Working Capital and Funding Needs 110 4.6.1 Forecasting Funding Needs 113 Chapter 5 Business Valuation 115 5.1 Valuation Approaches 115 5.2 Steps for Applying the DCF Method 120 5.3 Rewriting Financial Statements – Calculation of Free Cash Flows 121 5.4 Calculating the Weighted Average Cost of Capital 124 5.4.1 Calculating the Weighted Average Cost of Capital of SteelCo 128 5.5 Estimating the Terminal Value 131 5.6 DCF Summary – Enterprise Value Adjustments 132 Part two Planning for Uncertainty 137 Chapter 6 Using Sensitivity Analysis 139 6.1 Introduction 139 6.2 One-Dimensional and 2-Dimensional Sensitivity Analysis 140 6.3 Choosing the Variables to Change 145 6.4 Modelling Example 149 6.4.1 Selecting the Variables to Change 149 6.4.2 Assigning a Range of Values 149 6.4.3 Constructing the 2-dimensional Sensitivity Analysis Table 151 6.4.4 Interpreting the Results 153 Chapter 7 Using Scenarios 157 7.1 Introduction 157 7.2 Using Scenario Analysis with Excel’s Scenario Manager 158 7.2.1 Adding 2 More Scenarios 159 7.3 Alternative Ways to Create Scenarios in Excel 163 7.4 Applying Scenarios to SteelCo’s Case 167 7.4.1 Deciding on the Number of Scenarios and Input Variables under each Scenario 167 7.4.2 Deciding on the Output Variables 168 7.4.3 Assigning Values to the Input Variables under Each Scenario 170 7.4.4 Building the Scenarios in Excel’s Scenario Manager 173 7.4.5 Interpreting the Results 176 Chapter 8 Using Monte Carlo Simulation 179 8.1 Introduction 179 8.2 Building Uncertainty Directly Into the Modelling Process 180 8.3 Probabilities, Cumulative Probabilities, and Frequency Distribution Charts 182 8.4 Modelling Example 187 8.4.1 Identifying the Key Risk Variables 188 8.4.2 Choosing a Probability Distribution for Each Input Variable 188 8.4.3 Performing the Simulation Runs 190 8.4.3.1 The Simple VBA CODE 192 8.4.4 Creating a Histogram (Frequency Distribution Chart) in Excel 195 8.4.5 Interpreting the Results 200 8.4.6 Some Issues of Concern 201 Appendix 203 1. Walking through the Excel Model Provided with the Book (SteelCo SA 4yr Business Plan) 203 Introduction 203 Structure of the Model 204 2. Other Excel Files Provided with the Book 205 Index 207

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Book SynopsisIn this provocative look at one of the most important events of our time, renowned scholar Arjun Appadurai argues that the economic collapse of 2008-while indeed spurred on by greed, ignorance, weak regulation, and irresponsible risk-taking-was, ultimately, a failure of language. To prove this sophisticated point, he takes us into the world of derivative finance, which has become the core of contemporary trading and the primary target of blame for the collapse and all our subsequent woes. With incisive argumentation, he analyzes this challengingly technical world, drawing on thinkers such as J. L. Austin, Marcel Mauss, and Max Weber as theoretical guides to showcase the ways language-and particular failures in it-paved the way for ruin. Appadurai moves in four steps through his analysis. In the first, he highlights the importance of derivatives in contemporary finance, isolating them as the core technical innovation that markets have produced. In the second, he shows that derivatives a

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Book SynopsisGeorge Soros is unquestionably one of the most powerful and profitable investors in the world today, and his investment principles have only grown in popularity. In Alchemy of Finance, Soros reveals his innovative investment philosophies and his views of the world and world order. President of the phenomenally successful Quantum Fund, which has 4.Trade Review“…contains a detailed description of his trading methods and repays careful reading.” (Investors Chronicle, 1st April 2005) “…these updated classics are packed with investment wisdom…” (What Investment, November 2003)"Wer genau wissen will, wie das ungarische Finanzgenie gegen das Pfund spekulierte, kommt hier voll auf seine Kosten. In seiner Alchemistenküche gibt George Soros fantastische Einblicke in den Entscheidungsprozess eines mit allen Wassern gewaschenen Spekulanten." (WERTPAPIERE - Das Börsenjournal, 4. Dezember 2003)Table of ContentsForeword to the New Edition by Paul A. Volcker xi Foreword to the First Edition by Paul Tudor Jones II xv New Preface xix New Introduction 1 Part One Theory 1. Reflexivity in the Stock Market 49 2. Reflexivity in the Currency Market 73 3. The Credit and Regulatory Cycle 85 Part Two Historical Perspective 4. The International Debt Problem 95 5. The Collective System of Lending 107 6. Reagan’s Imperial Circle 115 7. Evolution of the Banking System 123 8. The “Oligopolarization” of America 133 Part Three The Real-time Experiment 9. The Starting Point: August 1985 145 10. Phase 1: August 1985–December 1985 153 11. Control Period: January 1986–July 1986 201 12. Phase 2: July 1986–November 1986 241 13. The Conclusion: November 1986 295 Part Four Evaluation 14. The Scope for Financial Alchemy: An Evaluation of the Experiment 307 15. The Quandary of the Social Sciences 317 Part Five Prescription 16. Free Markets Versus Regulation 325 17. Toward an International Central Bank 333 18. The Paradox of Systemic Reform 351 19. The Crash of ’87 355 Epilogue 371 Notes 377 Appendix 381

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The authors conclude that the euro, in particular, will play a more consequential role in international reserves relative to the US dollar, while China’s renminbi will be slower to achieve acceptance."---Ian McLennan, Spear's Magazine"A readable and timely book." * Finance & Development *"How Global Currencies Work is an ambitious title that delivers fascinating analysis on the rise and fall of international currencies in the 20th century with some educated suggestions about their trajectories in the 21st."---Christopher Smart, Project Syndicate"The book gives readers an excellent introduction to the history of international reserve currencies over the past two centuries. . . . For those involved, whether at a national or international level, in government or in financial institutions, it will make compulsory reading."---Richard Parlour, Central Banking Journal"This volume offers a thrilling history of global finance over the past two centuries. It is very well written, marshals extensive new data and provides fascinating new insight into how global currencies work."---Ivo Maes, History of Economic Ideas

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Book Synopsis Raise your options investing game to a new level through smart, focused practice For decades, Sheldon Natenbergâs Option Volatility & Pricing has been helping investors better understand the complexities of the option market with his clear and comprehensive explanation of trading strategies and risk management. Now, you can raise your performance to a higher level by practicing Natenbergâs methods before you enter the market.  Filled with hands-on exercises designed to dramatically increase your knowledge and build your confidence, The Option Volatility and Pricing Workbook provides the necessary tools from which to build a successful options portfolio. Each exercise is preceded by clear description of the principle at hand, and each concludes with in-depth explanations of the correct answers. Hundreds of exercises cover such topics as: â

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Important and elegantly written."--Jason Zweig, Wall Street Journal "The End of Theory holds some important lessons for financial markets today... According to Bookstaber, it's time to stop tweaking a 150-year-old model that seems to be getting worse, not better, at predicting crises, and embrace something totally new. Finally, and perhaps most usefully, he challenges the economics profession itself, where too many experts still have way too much faith in their own mathematical infallibility."--Rana Faroohar, Financial Times "The analysis is top-notch, and anyone who wants to understand the workings of the financial system will benefit from reading this book."--The EconomistTable of ContentsI: Introduction 1 1 Crises and Sunspots 3 2 Being Human 14 II: The Four Horsemen 23 3 Social Interactions and Computational Irreducibility 25 4 The Individual and the Human Wave: Emergent Phenomena 34 5 Context and Ergodicity 40 6 Human Experience and Radical Uncertainty 50 7 Heuristics: How to Act Like a Human 65 III: Paradigm Past And Future 79 8 Economics in Crisis 81 9 Agent-Based Models 94 10 Agents in the Complexity Spectrum 108 IV: Agent-Based Models For Financial Crises 125 11 The Structure of the Financial System: Agents and the Environment 127 12 Liquidity and Crashes 144 13 The 2008 Crisis with an Agent-Based View 157 V: The End Of Theory 169 14 Is It a Number or a Story? Model as Narrative 171 15 Conclusion 185 Acknowledgments 191 Notes 193 References 211 Index 221

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Book Synopsis* This is a work of real quality on an immensely important topic - i.e. why the current financial crisis came about and what we can and should do to reform the financial system.Trade Review“This is an important book. It is clearly destined to become one of the very best accounts of the financial crisis – it is clear, concise and very readable. Its deep theoretical understanding of the issues is combined with the best short account of the historical evolution of the capitalist financial system that I have encountered. The result is a sophisticated and accessible analysis of how a better financial system might be constructed.” – Geoffrey Ingham, University of CambridgeTable of ContentsIntroduction Part One: Phenomenology I. Do we know what the financial markets are? II. At the root of the possibility of crisis: liquidity and risk III. What is credit? IV. What is money? V. Finance starting from the end VI. Capitalism and debt: a matter of life and death Part Two: History I. From credit risk to liquidity risk (2008) II. The globalization of capital (1973) III. ‘Fiat dollar'. And the world saw that it was good (1971) IV. The Eurodollar chimera (1958) V. The European Payments Union (1950) VI. Bretton Woods: the plan that might have made it (1944) VII. Bretton Woods: the system that found implementation (1944) VIII. The crisis paradigm (1929) IX. Orchestra Rehearsal X. Money before and after the gold standard (1717) XI. The Bank of England and power currency (1694) XII. The International Currency of the Trade Fairs (1579) Part Three: Politics I. Double or quits? II. The way out of liquidity: the Gordian knot and utopia III. Prevention or cure? The structural paradox of the anti-crisis policies IV. The other finance V. The (rare) "green shoots" of a possible reform VI. If not now, when?

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Book SynopsisFinance Fictions examines the tension between psychosis and realism in the contemporary finance novel and shows that compared to earlier instances of the genre (Wolfe; Ellis), the 21st-century finance novel (Alger; Harris; Houellebecq; Lerner) develops a new realist approach to a contemporary economy of financial instruments and automated trading.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Revisiting The Bonfire of the Vanities 2. Psychotic Realism in (American) Psycho 3. Financial Realism in The Fear Index 4. The Financial Universe (After Meillassoux) 5. Michel Houellebecq, Finance Novelist 6. Financing the Novel: Ben Lerner’s 10:04 Conclusion: Economic Defense Systems; Or: On Financial Immunity Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisDevelop the skillset essential to successful securitisation swaps management Securitisation Swaps is a complete practitioner's guide to this unique and complex class of derivatives. This detailed examination follows the entire life cycle of securitisation swaps to give quants, structurers, traders, originators, issuers and lawyers a common reference for understanding their shared objective. Broad in scope to provide a common-ground perspective yet detailed enough to promote full understanding the discussion takes a distinctly cross-disciplinary approach that encompasses the multi-faceted knowledge base required to successfully execute these complex trades. Despite the fact that the size of the market is trillions of dollars in notional principal, securitisation swaps have thus far been neglected in both academic and practitioner literature. The numerous stakeholders that work together on these complex deals will all greatly benefit from a thorough underTable of ContentsAbout the Author xiii Foreword xv Acknowledgements xix Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Overview of Structured Funding 5 Funding 5 Funding Instruments 7 Securitisation 8 The Securitisation Process 8 Structured Funding Participants 9 Asset and Cash Flow Transformation 16 Summary of Securitisation 18 Master Trusts 18 Securitisation and the GFC 21 Covered Bonds 22 Documentary Framework 24 Offer Document 24 Subscription Agreement 25 Sale Agreement 25 Trust Documentation 25 Servicing Agreement 27 Swaps 27 Ancillary Service Provider Documentation 28 Structured Funding Markets 31 Risks 32 Credit Risk 32 Market Risk 32 Liquidity Risk 33 Prepayment Risk 33 Extension Risk 34 Downgrade Risk 34 Operational Risk 35 Legal Risk 35 Chapter 3 Asset-Backed Debt Structures 37 Loan Pool Dynamics 37 Derivation of Eq. (3.1) 38 Pool Amortisation 42 Securitisation Structures 42 Standalone Structures with Pass-Through Tranches 42 Standalone Structures with Bullet Tranches 47 Standalone Structures with Controlled Amortisation Tranches 48 Tranche Conservation Laws 49 Master Trust RMBS Structures 50 Credit Card ABS Structures 55 Covered Bond Structures 57 Hard Bullets 57 Extendible Maturity Structures 58 Comparison of Structures 59 Chapter 4 Swaps in Structured Funding 61 An Overview of Vanilla Swaps 61 Interest Rate Swaps 61 Cross-Currency Swaps 64 Vanilla Swap Pricing 66 Asset Swaps 68 Liability Swaps 70 Standby Swaps 72 Swap Priority and Flip Clauses 74 Chapter 5 Swap Prepayment Risk 79 What is Swap Prepayment Risk? 79 The Expected Swap Schedule 80 Balance Guarantee Swaps 83 Re-Hedging 84 What Factors Drive Prepayment Rates? 90 Monte Carlo Modelling of Swap Prepayment Risk 91 Working with a Mixed Measure 92 Modelling Prepayment 93 Modelling the Market Risk Factors 96 Simulation Methodology 97 Greeks, Hedging and VaR 103 Computing Greeks 103 Hedging 104 Value-at-Risk 106 XVA 108 Computing XVA for Swaps with Prepayment Risk 108 Intermediated Asset Swaps 109 Mitigation Strategies 110 Risk Transfer 110 Controlled Amortisation Structures 111 Reducing Prepayment Volatility via Diversification 112 Due Diligence and Surveillance 114 Duty of Continuous Disclosure 115 Step-Ups 116 System Issues and Whole-of-Life Deal Management 116 Trade Capture 116 Trade Maintenance 117 Risk Systems 118 Chapter 6 Swap Extension Risk 119 What is Swap Extension Risk? 119 Examples of Extension Risk 121 Dependence on the Capital Structure: Standalone SPVs 126 Extension Risk in UK RMBS Master Trusts 127 Covered Bond Extension Risk 127 A Simple Pricing Framework for 1-Factor Stochastic FX 128 Full Pricing Framework in a Multi-Factor Setting 132 Mitigation Strategies 133 Pre-Trade Structuring versus Real-Time Hedging 133 Pre-Trade Structuring 135 Real-Time Hedging 138 Stress Testing 139 Chapter 7 Downgrade Risk 141 Rating Agency Criteria 142 Criteria Specifics 144 Examples 146 Legal Aspects 149 Updates of Counterparty Criteria 151 Trade Capture and System Challenges 153 The Competitive Landscape for Third-Party Swap Providers 155 Basel III and the Liquidity Coverage Ratio 157 Liquidity Transfer Pricing 159 Constructing the LTP Curve 161 Updating the LTP Curve 162 Contingent Funding Valuation Adjustment 162 What Is CFVA? 162 Costs and Probabilities 163 The CFVA Calculation 165 Revaluation and Hedging 170 Risk Limits 171 Tenor 172 Currency 172 Purpose 172 Mitigation Strategies 172 Choice of Rating Agencies 173 Contractual Protections 174 Optimum Implementation of Counterparty Criteria 174 Risk Transfer 176 Collateralisation from Day One 176 Replacement Risk 177 Replacement of the Swap Provider 178 Third-Party Guarantors 178 Restructuring 179 Mitigants 179 Chapter 8 Deal Management 181 Pricing 181 The Total Swap Cost 181 Pricing Transparency 183 Execution Charges 184 Deal Checklist for Swap Providers 185 Closing the Deal 186 The Pricing Call 186 Executing the Documents 187 Covered Bond Coupon Rounding 187 Market Risk Management 188 Measurement 189 Monitoring 189 Governance and Risk Limits 189 Inform and Act 190 Future Regulation 193 Accounting 194 Fair Value 194 Revenue Reserves 196 Fair Value Hierarchy of Valuation Inputs 197 Glossary 199 References 201 Index 203

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Book Synopsis*Now a major movie starring Seth Rogen, Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Shailene Woodley, Sebastian Stan and Nick Offerman*The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders that Brought Wall Street to its Knees.Bestselling author Ben Mezrich offers a gripping, beat-by-beat account of how a loosely affiliate group of private investors and internet trolls took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, firing the first shot in a revolution that threatens to upend the financial establishment.It started on a subreddit forum called WallStreetBets a meme-filled, freewheeling place where a disparate group of investors shared their shoot-the-moon investment tips, laughed about big losses and posted diamond hand emojis. Until some members noticed an opportunity in Game Stop a flailing bricks and mortar video-game retailer and somehow rode a rocket ship to tens of millions of dollars in earnings overnight, simultaneously triggering unfathomable losses for one of the most rTrade Review"Mezrich mans the conveyor belt at the factory that turns raw reality into its eventual slick cinematic depiction."―New York Times "Mr. Mezrich, the author of bestsellers on topics ranging from the origins of Facebook to beating the odds at Las Vegas, tells the story of GameStop through the eyes of an array of characters, especially small investors who had little or no previous experience in the stock market."―Wall Street Journal "The David vs. Goliath-esque GameStop short squeeze of Winter 2021 was undoubtedly one of the most entertaining stories of the year, and Mezrich brings new life to the whole thing in this look at the outrageous personalities and corporate drama that fuelled it."―The New York Post

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Book Synopsis'Gripping' Economist 'Jaw-dropping' Sunday Times 'Riveting' Financial Times 'Fascinating' ReutersWe are entering an age of energy crises and food shortages. This book reveals why.Meet the swashbuckling traders who supply the world with energy, food and metal.Their goal: To make billions by buying and selling raw materials - flogging Russian gas to Europe, Saudi oil to America and Congolese metals to Silicon Valley.Their methods: Whatever it takes - whether funnelling cash to Vladimir Putin's sanction-stricken Kremlin, schmoozing Russian metal oligarchs after the collapse of the Soviet Union, or striking deals with the Libyan rebels at the height of the Arab Spring.These are the commodity traders. You've probably never heard of them. But, like it or not, you're one of their customers.*Financial Times and Economist Book of the Year**Shortlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award* 'Shows how much money and global influence is concentrated in the hands of a tiny group . . . Remarkable . . . As the authors roam from oilfield to wheatfield, they reveal information so staggering you almost gasp' Sunday Times 'A globe-spanning corporate thriller, full of intrigue and double dealing . . . Changes how we see the world, often in horrifying ways' Spectator 'A rich archive of ripping yarns . . . The high level narrative is gripping enough. But it is the details of what these freewheeling companies actually got up to that give the book a thriller-like quality' Financial Times 'Some of the stories could be straight out of John le Carré. The difference is they're true' Andrew NeilTrade ReviewThis jaw-dropping study shows how much money and global influence is concentrated in the hands of a tiny group . . . A remarkable book . . . As the authors roam from oilfield to wheatfield, they reveal information so staggering you almost gasp . . . The colour is fantastic . . . Tracking down some of the biggest names in the business to their German castles and stud farms and persuading them to talk is a rare scoop. * Sunday Times *A fascinating and revealing story . . . There are tales in the book of breathtaking trades, such as shipments of rebel oil from war-torn Libya or deals bartered amid the brutal "aluminium wars" in the Russia of the 1990s . . . A gripping book. * Economist *Javier Blas and Jack Farchy probe the hard-knuckle and secretive world of commodity trading. -- What to Read in 2021 * Financial Times *A globe-spanning corporate thriller, full of intrigue and double dealing . . . Changes how we see the world, often in horrifying ways . . . The book weaves together years of reporting experience in the field with access to many of the key figures in an industry dominated by huge characters . . . New insights and reporting mean that even seasoned observers will be amazed. -- James Ball * Spectator *Anecdotally rich . . . A highly readable study in world economics and a valuable primer for would-be oil barons. * Kirkus *Blas and Farchy compellingly lay out how a handful of secretive traders have had a hand in directing not only the world's commodities, but also its politics and history. The World for Sale draws back the covers on a sector where civil wars, dubious regimes and the collapse of states have often been just another business opportunity - and what that has meant for the rest of us. Intriguing and, at times, alarming. -- Helen Thomas, Business Editor, BBC NewsnightA colorful and alarming exposé of the shadowy world of global commodity trading . . . Hair-raising anecdotes . . . An engrossing look at an obscure yet consequential corner of the financial world. * Publishers Weekly *A virtuoso depiction of the globe's top oil, food and metals traders . . . Javier Blas and Jack Farchy should be awaiting the call from Hollywood. The World for Sale contains at least half a dozen narrative threads that would form the basis of a good thriller. But the authors' main achievement is to subject the biggest commodity players, and their impact on the real world, to proper critical scrutiny . . . The depth of the reporting by the Bloomberg journalists, who previously worked for the Financial Times, is impressive . . . Fascinating. * Reuters *Some of the stories beggar belief . . . A fascinating story, it's just incredible some of the routes that the money takes. -- Lawrence Pollard * BBC Newsday *Could there be a better moment for Javier Blas and Jack Farchy's rollicking new account of those markets' recent history to land on investors' desks? . . . A rich archive of ripping yarns . . . . . . The high level narrative is gripping enough. But it is the details of what these freewheeling companies actually got up to that give the book a thriller-like quality . . . Educational and entertaining. * Financial Times *If you have the slightest interest in how the modern world was made, by whom, at what price, and at what profit, this is the book for you . . . Superbly researched and tidily written . . . A clean, compelling chronicle of the central role that commodity traders have played in the global economy from the end of World War II to the present. What they found isn't pretty - but it's plenty illuminating. * Foreign Policy *Some of the stories could be straight out of John Le Carré. The difference is they're true . . . A fascinating tale . . . A great read about very important topics. It's well worth your time. -- Andrew NeilA fantastic book about the world of commodity trading. -- Stephanie Flanders * Bloomberg Stephanomics *A fascinating, sometimes hair-raising new book . . . A book which on the one hand tells us some really important things about the nature of money, power and the nature of the modern economy, but on the other is just full of some of the most fascinating stories. -- Matthew Taylor * RSA Bridges to the Future *The captivating stories of the powerful commodity traders and mystery actors of markets and geopolitics -- Roula Khalaf, FT Editor-in-Chief - Summer Books 2021 * Financial Times *The blistering tale of a clutch of hard-charging international commodity trading houses such as Cargill and Glencore. The authors, both former FT journalists, trace how they harnessed the commodity boom and the setbacks they now face as climate change casts a shadow over their business model. -- Andrew Hill, FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award Longlist * Financial Times *A very impressive profile of an industry that has long preferred to avoid the spotlight . . . The authors deftly weave stories of the individual traders and their trades with an account of the major shifts in the global economy of the past 70 years . . . Extensively researched and well written throughout . . . I would not hesitate to recommend this book. -- International AffairsA thriller . . . An engaging story of secret deals and embargo-evasion. * Forbes *An entertaining history of the rise of the international trading houses and the charismatic, freewheeling risk-takers who headed them. -- Books of the Year * Financial Times *The story of how a few commodity-trading firms quietly reconfigured the world economy, making fortunes, juggling embargoes and swaying geopolitics. -- Books of the Year * Economist *

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Book SynopsisTracie L. Miller-Nobles, CPA, received herbachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from Texas A&M University andis currently pursuing her PhD in adult learning also at Texas A&MUniversity. She is an Associate Professor at Austin Community College, Austin,TX. Previously she served as a Senior Lecturer at Texas State University, SanMarcos, TX, and has served as department chair of the Accounting, Business,Computer Information Systems, and Marketing/Management department at AimsCommunity College, Greeley, CO. In addition, Miller-Nobles has taught as anadjunct professor at University of Texas and has public accounting experiencewith Deloitte Tax LLP and Sample & Bailey, CPAs. Miller-Nobles is arecipient of the Texas Society of CPAs Rising Star Award, TSCPAs OutstandingAccounting Educator Award, NISOD Teaching Excellence Award and the AimsCommunity College Excellence in Teaching Award. She is a member of the Teachersof Accounting at Two Year Colleges, the AmTable of Contents1. Introductionto Managerial Accounting2. Job Order Costing3. Process Costing4. Lean Management Systems: Activity-Based, Just-in-Time, and QualityManagement Systems5. Cost-Volume Profit Analysis6. Variable Costing7. Master Budgets8. Flexible Budgets and Standard Cost Systems9. Responsibility Accounting and Performance Evaluation10. Short-Term Business Decisions11. Capital Investment Decisions Appendix A: PresentValue Tables and Future Value TablesAppendix B: The Statement of Cash FlowsAppendix C: Financial Statement Analysis

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Shortlisted for the EGOS Book Award, European Group for Organizational Studies""Jacoby brilliantly illustrates the Sisyphean character of labor’s exertions on the tilted terrain of finance. Yet, equally importantly, he wisely shows how unions began learning to fight on a battlefield likely to become even more decisive in coming years. Anyone who seeks to understand labor’s present predicament or fight those future battles simply must read this indispensable book."---Joseph A. McMartin, Labour History"A must read for labor, management, and finance scholars and their students. . . . At a time when financialization, extreme inequality, and calls for ‘accountable capitalism’ are center stage, Jacoby’s book is timely. He offers a landscape of historical examples of labor’s financial strategies, what has worked and what hasn’t, and why it is so difficult to change deeply embedded government rules and corporate norms that favor the rich and powerful. His research is painstaking and impeccable—bringing to life his inside stories of union shareholder campaigns and political struggles over financial regulation."---Rosemary Batt, Industrial and Labor Relations Review"Jacoby’s book is an impressive and vital addition to the history of organised labour. By also getting readers to think about the question of what modern financialization has wrought, it has much broader relevance. It deserves a wide readership."---Jeff Borland, Economic Record"Jacoby focuses on explaining his source material, rather than belaboring broad lessons. This will make the book of interest to employment relations practitioners and to academics across multiple disciplines. But, several general themes emerge . . . labor’s role (both as handmaid and as critic) in the shareholder revolution and financialization. . . . the ubiquity of feuds and bedfellows in strategic campaigning. . . . Jacoby demonstrates how these webs of ownership and employment intermediation, often identified as a barrier to traditional worker bargaining power, also offer new sources of worker leverage. Beyond these core themes, Jacoby litters the book with insights that could fill a whole shelf of future dissertations."---Nathan Wilmers, Perspectives on Work"Readers of this book will encounter numerous lessons of value."---Laura J. Owen, Economic History Association"Jacoby’s account offers a wealth of detail. . . . All of this material is organized into a coherent and compelling argument, and it will benefit those interested in corporate governance, the history of corporate social responsibility, and the role firms play in mediating economic inequality."---Bruce G. Carruthers, Administrative Science Quarterly"[Jacoby] documents, with remarkable clarity, the processes which led to the union movement changing its strategic direction towards financialisation, and in doing so more or less abandoning its historical priorities. . . . My strong recommendation is to read and follow the book in its entirety, and with care and attention to detail."---Gaby Ramia, Labour & Industry"[Labor in the Age of Finance] is clearheaded. . . . Jacoby recognizes that there are still broad structural political and economic forces arrayed against a real resurgence of unions."---Neil Fligstein, Contemporary Sociology"[A] fine book. . . .This smart and sober volume is unsurpassed as a starting point for anyone who seeks to understand both the urgent necessity and the enormous difficulty of making financial markets more accountable to the common good."---Joseph A. Mccartin, Finance & Development"Jacoby’s book provides a major contribution to the literature in political economy of corporate governance and labor."---Thibault Darcillon, Competition & Change"By connecting two bodies of scholarship that do not often draw illumination from one another—labor and financial history—Jacoby succeeds in shedding light on a critical episode in the American union movement’s ongoing efforts to reinvent itself for the twenty-first century."---Max Fraser, Political Science Quarterly"Sanford Jacoby has achieved a truly rare feat: taking a narrow, specialized, and somewhat obscure topic and shaping it into a magisterial narrative that provides true understanding of the players and the drama involved. Labor in the Age of Finance is a tour de force that captures the labor movement’s efforts to muddle through during the ascendance of corporate finance without losing its way."---Matt Bodie, Jotwell"Sanford Jacoby has produced a series of highly important books that trace the evolution of the modern corporation in the United States, its employment practices, and examined the consequences for organized labour and working people."---Peter Gahan, Journal of Industrial Relations"Excellent."---Matthew Soener, International Journal of Comparative Sociology"Jacoby’s analysis . . . will prove helpful for labor advocates as much as for historians and social scientists interested in labor’s place in an economy dominated by finance capitalism."---Jeffrey Helgeson, Journal of American History

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Book SynopsisAs the founder of financial futures and initiator of Globex, the world?s first global electronic trading system, Leo Melamed revolutionized the finance industry. Man of the Futures, his definitive memoir, recounts Melamed?s journey from Holocaust survivor and accidental runner at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), to one of the most prominent leaders in the world of finance.At 33, Melamed gave up a promising law career to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time pit-trader at the CME. He quickly ascended the ranks to become chairman. From there, he set out to disrupt the status quo and ultimately transform both the exchange itself and the broader finance industry. Through daring to embrace innovative ideas many considered absurd, Melamed was a pioneer, continually fighting for modernisation in the financial markets through diversification and the introduction of new technologies. Covering the internal battles waged within the CME, the launch of the International Monetary Market (IMM) and the rise of Globex, this enthralling autobiography details the struggles, scandals and triumphs of a visionary in his field.Together with behind-the-scenes reminiscences about the financial markets, this narrative delves into Melamed?s philanthropic work at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, as well as his fascinating dealings with political figures at home in Chicago, at the White House, and around the world in China, Japan, Singapore, Great Britain, Russia, South Korea, and Brazil. .Man of the Futures offers exclusive access to the rationale behind some of the biggest financial decisions and dealings in the late 20th and early 21st century. Join Leo Melamed for this fascinating and revealing story of a life lived in pursuit of the future.

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Book SynopsisThis new and exciting book offers a fresh approach to quantitative finance and utilises novel features, including stereoscopic images which permit 3D visualisation of complex subjects without the need for additional tools. Offering an integrated approach to the subject, A First Course in Quantitative Finance introduces students to the architecture of complete financial markets before exploring the concepts and models of modern portfolio theory, derivative pricing and fixed income products in both complete and incomplete market settings. Subjects are organised throughout in a way that encourages a gradual and parallel learning process of both the economic concepts and their mathematical descriptions, framed by additional perspectives from classical utility theory, financial economics and behavioural finance. Suitable for postgraduate students studying courses in quantitative finance, financial engineering and financial econometrics as part of an economics, finance, econometric or mathemTrade Review'A First Course in Quantitative Finance is a gentle introduction in a complicated subject. It covers most important topics - such as portfolio optimisation, derivative pricing, and fixed income products - and discusses them from the perspective of financial economics and financial mathematics. It provides the necessary mathematical background, contains the financial discussion, and is full of illustrative examples. It will be useful for anyone who wants to study the subject area on an advanced level.' Rüdiger Kiesel, Universität Duisburg-Essen'This is a remarkably complete book on all aspects of modern finance, covering topics from the puzzles of financial economics, through modern portfolio management to the pricing of exotic options under stochastic volatility at an equally accessible yet state-of-the-art level. Quants, portfolio managers, students and teachers of finance alike will find it to be an invaluable source of insights and a must-have reference to have on their desks.' Peter Tankov, École nationale de la statistique et de l'administration économiqueTable of Contents1. Introduction; Part I. Technical Basics: 2. A primer on probability; 3. Vector spaces; 4. Utility theory; Part II. Financial Markets and Portfolio Theory: 5. Architecture of financial markets; 6. Modern portfolio theory; 7. CAPM and APT; 8. Portfolio performance and management; 9. Financial economics; 10. Behavioral finance; Part III. Derivatives: 11. Forwards, futures and options; 12. The binomial model; 13. The Black–Scholes theory; 14. Exotics in the Black–Scholes model; 15. Deterministic volatility; 16. Stochastic volatility; 17. Processes with jumps; Part IV. The Fixed-Income World: 18. Basic fixed-income instruments; 19. Plain vanilla fixed-income derivatives; 20. Term structure models; 21. The LIBOR market model; Appendix A. Complex analysis; Appendix B. Solutions to problems.

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Book Synopsis*One of Glamour’s Best Books of 2020* Popular podcast host and personal finance expert Lindsay Goldwert explores what professional dominatrixes can teach us about confidence, power, and happiness.Imagine, for a moment, a world where the usual power dynamic is turned on its head. Where women not only stop apologizing, but seize—and enjoy—control. This is the quickly mainstreaming world of BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism)—and it has a lot to teach women about empowerment, negotiation, open-mindedness, and more. Journalist Lindsay Goldwert, intrigued by this seismic cultural shift, traveled across the United States to meet the stars of the subculture, who spoke frankly with her about their lives and work. In this “lively, funny, thoughtful channeling of wisdom” (Sara Benincasa, author of Real Artists Have Day Jobs), these Alpha women show you how you can reset the power dynamic in any situation to get what you want—whether it’s from a husband, a boss, or partner. They share strategies for revolutionizing not only your sex life, but your career, your relationships, and most importantly, your inner foundations. With bondage gear popping up on the big screen, the runway, the red carpet, and in celebrity lingerie lines, BDSM is officially moving out of the dungeon and into the sun. Let Bow Down help you learn how to use it. “Whether your fantasies lie in the bedroom or the boardroom, Lindsay will give you the courage to go forth and dominate.” (Sarah Cooper, author of How to Be Successful without Hurting Men’s Feelings).Trade Review"Lindsay Goldwert goes where many of us haven't gone before! After reading her lively, funny, thoughtful channeling of wisdom from BDSM workers across the nation, your life will be a little less vanilla. Gentle reader, prepare for armchair travel at its naughtiest and most illuminating. And get ready to have a hell of a lot of fun." —Sara Benincasa, author of Agorafabulous! Dispatches from My Bedroom and Real Artists Have Day Jobs"If you're like me and consider yourself a total prude, this book will make you realize how much you've been missing. Whether your fantasies lie in the bedroom or the boardroom, Lindsay will give you the courage to go forth and dominate." —Sarah Cooper, author of How to Be Successful without Hurting Men's Feelings

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Book SynopsisPersonal finance journalist, Michelle McGagh, takes on a challenge to not spend money for a whole year in an engaging narrative that combines personal experience with accessible advice on money.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Finalist for the Best Book Published by a University Press, Digital Book World Awards""Longlisted for the getAbstract International Book Award""Winner of the PROSE Award in Economics, Association of American Publishers""Co-Winner of the Gold Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards""One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2019: Economics""One of Prospect's Best Economics Books of 2019""An Economist Book of the Year""Mind-opening Business Books of 2019""One of Mint's Books of 2019 You Should Not Miss""A Project Syndicate Best Read in 2019""Shiller is one of the world’s most original economists. . . . Stories allow human beings to make sense of an uncertain world. But they also drive economies into booms and busts. Armed with this understanding, we gain a far richer understanding of how economies behave."---Martin Wolf, Financial Times"Shiller’s thorough discussion and many examples are certainly convincing as to the importance of narratives in individual economic decision-making and aggregate economic phenomena."---Sonia Jaffe, Science"Economics is the study of people at work, but where are the people? Many a learned economist forgets all about them. Not Robert Shiller, the author of Narrative Economics, who believes that volatile human emotion counts for more than you think in the ostensibly objective valuation of stocks, bonds and buildings."---James Grant, Wall Street Journal"[Shiller] explores how the public’s subjective perceptions can shape economic trends. . . . A sensible and welcome escape from the dead hand of mathematical models of economics." * The Economist *"A magisterial account . . . . In some ways . . . a bigger challenge to the foundations of economics than behavioral economics."---Steve Denning, Forbes"The idea that human behaviour can exert its own influence in the market is something that most traders wouldbuy into. . . . But in Narrative Economics, Shiller goes much broader and deeper, looking at how the stories we tell ourselves about the world drive our behaviour. . . . Economists, he argues, need to study this if they are to have any hope of doing a better job than they have in the past of predicting major events . . . and how people react to them."---Rana Foroohar, Financial Times"Provocative . . . . Especially timely in the current social media-obsessed era, because narratives—both real and false—can spread globally with just a few swipes, affecting not just economic activity, but ultimately the balance of geopolitical power."---Matt Schifrin, Forbes"Many economists argue that the US housing market and economy are still on solid foundations, but ignoreShiller’s warnings at your peril. He rarely gets it wrong."---Tom Rees, The Telegraph"Excellent."---Gillian Tett, Financial Times"[Shiller aims] to identify the enduring narratives that influence the way we think about the economy, and may influence our patterns of spending and saving, and therefore become self-fulfilling prophecies . . . the results are fascinating, and sometimes startling."---Howard Davies, Prospect"Shiller argues forcefully."---Chris Johns, Irish Times"Any given scenario can allow for multiple narratives, both actual and potential. The question is why some prove more compelling than others. Shiller offers a range of answers, starting with the most obvious: a narrative is compelling when it is engaging and well expressed. Because his book is very well written, Shiller himself has satisfied this criterion."---Barry Eichengreen, Project Syndicate"Shiller has none of the salesman-like bluster of the stock pickers clamouring for attention on businessTV news . . . . As it is, he has only 40-odd years of being freakishly right about things. It will have to do."---David Morris, Financial News"Highly readable, compelling."---Steve Levine, Medium"The book is . . . good fun to read. It is full of amusing and apposite quotations, and interesting detail."---Charles Goodhart, Central Banking Journal"Shiller’s book is a spectacular effort at unifying distinct fields and encouraging the profession to be ever more capacious in its approach to phenomena and methodology."---Mihir Desai, Times Higher Education"What’s surprising, perhaps, is that the gearheads in academic economics departments may finally be getting wind of all this. If they are, much of the credit must go to Robert J. Shiller, the Yale economist who won the Nobel Prize in his field in 2013. Shiller’s iconoclastic new book, Narrative Economics, ranges across disciplines to explore the role of narratives in explaining (as the subtitle has it) 'how stories go viral and drive major economic events'."---Daniel Akst, Strategy+Business"This book about the economic significance of viral stories has a great potential to become a viral story itself."---Gábor István Bíró, Metascience"If we are going to win the war for reason and evidence, if we are going to stop humans from wiping out entire species and cities, economists and humanists are going to need to create more bridges across the disciplinary chasms. The proposal to focus on narratives and their powers is spot on. Robert Shiller gets us going."---Jeremy Adelman, Public Books"This is a must read."---Vivek Kaul, Mint"The Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller defends the skills learned by English majors and other liberal arts graduates in his new book, Narrative Economics. Such graduates have highly developed critical-thinking and analysis skills in the narrative storylines that help people guide their way through complex personal and organizational relationships."---C. Ronald Kimberling, The Hill"Much of the book . . . . is an enjoyable and well-informed description of such narratives. I especially liked his discussion of bimetallism, wherein he shows that Brexit is not the first debate about an abstruse issue which triggered a culture war."---Chris Dillow, Stumbling & Mumbling"An engaging scholarly study of the stories we tell about economic events—stories that go viral, for better or worse . . . . Of immense value to economists and policymakers working on the behavioral side of the field." * Kirkus Reviews *"[A] highly readable introduction to narrative economics . . . . Readers can readily identify with the examplesgiven in this book and will gain a much better understanding of the role of stories, especially in view of the speed of modern contagions."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer"Narrative Economics is an eloquent and accessible exposition of a seductive idea. It’s a particularly compelling hypothesis."---Tim Jackson, Nature"Narratives are important and enduring, as Professor Shiller’s entertaining book reminds us."---David Smith, The Times"This book alone should be enough to convince readers that assumptions about “given” preferences and “rational” utility-maximizing actors are totally inadequate for predicting economic and social events."---Kemal Derviş, Project Syndicate"An uncannily prescient book for the current moment."---Chris Taylor, Reuters"By emphasizing narratives, Shiller aims to mount a fundamental challenge to standard economic thinking—and to open up new territory for analysis. Narrative Economics was published before the novel coronavirus struck, but in a sense thepandemic is an important point in his argument’s favor. . . . Shiller is right to suggest that narratives can be uniquely memorable and influential, because they focus people’s attention and move their emotions in ways that abstractions usually do not."---Cass R. Sunstein, New York Review of Books"The subject deserved a treatise by a brilliant author, and Robert Shiller delivered. Economic science would benefit immensely if the ideas from this book were to go viral themselves."---Josip Lucev, International Studies

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Book SynopsisThis book will provide a firm foundation in the understanding of financial economics applied to asset pricing. It carries the real world perspective of how the market works, including behavioral biases, and also wraps that understanding in the context of a rigorous economics framework of investors’ risk preferences, underlying price dynamics, rational choice in the large, and market equilibrium other than inexplicable irrational bubbles. It concentrates on analyses of stock, credit, and option pricing. Existing highly cited finance models in pricing of these assets are covered in detail, and theory is accompanied by rigorous applications of econometrics. Econometrics contain elucidations of both the statistical theory as well as the practice of data analyses. Linear regression methods and some nonlinear methods are also covered. The contribution of this book, and at the same time, its novelty, is in employing materials in probability theory, economics optimization, econometrics, and data analyses together to provide a rigorous and sharp intellect for investment and financial decision-making. Mistakes are often made with far too often sweeping pragmatism without deeply knowing the underpinnings of how the market economics works. This book is written at a level that is both academically rigorous for university courses in investment, derivatives, risk management, as well as not too mathematically deep so that finance and banking graduate professionals can have a real journey into the frontier financial economics thinking and rigorous data analytical findings.

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Book SynopsisPeter Atrill is a freelance academic who has worked with leading institutions in the UK, Europe and SE Asia. He was formerly the Head of Business and Management and Head of Accounting and Law at Plymouth Business School, Plymouth University.

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Book SynopsisInternational Finance is an established and internationally renowned introduction to the subject. It draws on recent events to provide comprehensive coverage of traditional theories and new research relating to the balance of payments, exchange rate determination and the international monetary system.Offering an extensive overview of the empirical evidence on the theories and concepts discussed, this textbook provides grounding in the fundamental features of international finance, from basic economic concepts to the various international crises of the twentieth century and into the effects and response to the Eurozone crises and Covid-19 pandemic.Trade ReviewAn excellent textbook covering different topics in international finance, from basics to more advanced - making it very versatile. Unlike other textbooks in international finance which are geared towards international financial management or international economics, this is possibly the best international finance book I have come across and I have been waiting for quite a few years now for an updated version -- Gabriella Legrenzi, Senior Lecturer, Keele University * Draft manuscript review *The content covered is excellent and in many aspects superior to the mainstream textbooks. The structure is very convenient and allows the lecturer to scale the content coverage due t the nature of Part 3, which I find a most valuable addition. -- Alexandre Dmitriev, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland * Draft manuscript review *It is very good. It explains concepts well. I especially like that it is good on giving examples and surveying relevant empirical literature. -- Tom Willett, Professor, Claremont Graduate College, USA * Draft manuscript review *I will continue to use this book as the sole textbook for my undergraduate module dealing with international finance. I believe that no further changes are needed. I enjoyed a lot reading this new version of the book! -- Athanasios Triantafyllou, Lecturer, University of Essex * Draft manuscript review *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Balance of Payments Theory and Practice 1. The Foreign Exchange System 2. The Balance of Payments 3. Elasticity and Absorption Approaches to the Balance of Payments 4. Macroeconomic Policy in an Open Economy 5. The Monetary Approach to the Balance of Payments Part 2: Exchange Rate Determination: Theory, Evidence and Policy 6. Purchasing Power Parity Theory and Floating Exchange Rate Experience 7. Modern Models of Exchange Rate Determination 8. The Portfolio Balance Model 9. Empirical Evidence on Exchange Rates 10. Fixed, Floating and Managed Exchange Rates Part 3: The Post-war International Monetary System 11. The International Monetary System 12. The Eurocurrency and Eurobond Markets 13. Currency Derivatives: Futures, Options and Swaps 14. International Macroeconomic Policy Coordination 15. The Latin American Debt Crisis 16. The European Monetary System and European Monetary Union 17. Currency Crises and the East Asian Financial Crisis 18. Financial Innovation and the Credit Crunch

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Book Synopsis"a fresh, thorough and practicable book for anyone who wants to sharpen their macroeconomic judgment, structured in an easily accessible and insightful manner. It offers an invaluable framework to better understand growth, the financial sector and the key trends shaping the global economy." — Financial TimesAn essential new guide to navigating macroeconomic risk.The shocks and crises of recent years—pandemic, recession, inflation, war—have forced executives and investors to recognize that the macroeconomy is now a risk to be actively managed. Yet unreliable forecasting, pervasive doomsaying, and whipsawing data severely hamper the task of decoding the landscape. Are disruptions transient and ephemeral—or permanent and structural? False alarms are costly traps, but so are true structural changes that go undetected.How can leaders avoid these macro traps to make better tactical and strategic decisions?In

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Book SynopsisJonquil Lowe is an economist and Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance at The Open University, where she combines creating courses about personal finance, researching key issues such as access to financial services and the impact of macroeconomics changes on financial planning, and working as a consumer advocate on various industry bodies.  A former head of money research at the consumer organisation, Which?,  Jonquil holds a diploma in financial planning and is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments. She has been authoring books on personal finance for over 30 years. Current titles as author, co-author and/or editor include The Good Retirement Guide, published by Kogan Page; Essential Personal Finance: A Practical Guide for Employees and A Practical Guide to Financial Services: Knowledge, Opportunities and Inclusion, both published by Routledge.? Trade Review‘Be Your Own Financial Adviser is a really good introduction to financial planning. It also explains everything in English, unlike some professional financial advisers I can think of.' Isabel Berwick, Personal Finance Editor, The Independent Table of ContentsPART 1 PLANNING AND ADVICE  1 Financial planning  2 Do you need an adviser?  3 Avoiding scams  PART 2 PLANNING FOR PROTECTION  4 Protecting your income  5 Protecting your family  6 Health and care  PART 3 BUILDING AND MANAGING YOUR WEALTH  7 Somewhere to live  8 Building a pension  9 Retirement choices  10 Saving and investing  11 Managing your wealth  12 Passing it on 

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