Book Description

A Guide to the World Bank is a reference guide to the five institutions that make up the World Bank Group: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). This book serves as a general overview of the World Bank's history, organization, mission, and purpose.

The book begins with the basic facts about the World Bank Group.It then describes the World Bank's operations, giving a brief overview of policies, projects, and procedures.An introduction to the wealth of information resources produced by the World Bank will help readers understand and navigate the types of documents, statistics, and reports that are available from the World Bank, on its Web site, and in print publications.

A chapter on Topics in Development summarizes the hot issues in development economics today and the World Bank's response to each. A chapter on organization explains what the different units within the World Bank Group are and how they work together to help reduce poverty.

A good introduction for anyone interested in understanding what the World Bank does and how it does it, this book shows readers who want to learn more where to begin. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Ron Chernow, the National Book Award-winning author of two astoundingly comprehensive biographies of prominent American financiers, now examines the ultimate decline of such power brokers and the corresponding rise of international money in The Death of the Banker. This surprisingly concise (but no less illuminating) volume opens with an expanded version of a speech on "the dwindling role of the financial intermediary" that he presented early in 1997; it concludes with condensed versions of his earlier books on J. P. Morgan and the Warburgs that show how the essence of financial power has changed in the 20th century. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

The Death of the Banker
Chernow, author of The Warburgs and the National Book Award-winning The House of Morgan, strays somewhat from his trademark biographies in this trio of essays. True, two essays, "J. Pierpont Morgan" and "The Warburgs," revisit past scholarship, but both are in the service of his reprinted lecture, "The Death of the Banker." Even in such a brief volume, Chernow manages to reveal much about the personalities of the Rothschilds, the Morgans and others and to offer telling, entertaining anecdotes. For example, Chernow tracks the origins of the "cold call" to a broker in the 1920s who "telephoned one number and was told the party he was trying to reach was dead. Without missing a beat, the young broker asked, `Well, can I please speak to his next of kin?'" This is the background that allows Chernow to chronicle the dramatic shifts in the banking and brokerage community over the past century. There is no longer a clear demarcation between a banker and a brokerage'as evidenced by this year's merger of Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter. Furthermore, Chernow says the old antagonism between Wall Street execs and plain folks no longer really applies: "Main Street can no longer clash too vigorously with Wall Street since the two sides have grown indistinguishable from the rise of giant brokerage chains and mutual fund groups." For anyone interested in the world behind the business-page headlines, this is the book to read.

Excellent!
Brief, to the point and informative. A great anthology of how the financial world got from where it was to where it is now. Chernow is a master financial historian.

Nice little introduction to the history of banking in the US
I was disappointed with Chernow's tome on the Morgans, partly because, as he states in this book, it lacked thematic content. I don't think Chernow is right about banking and finance generally becoming 'democratised', even if it is changing. Global finance is still controlled by a very few fund managers and bankers, albeit with an eye to the profit margin. It may be the populace's money, but they do not decide how it gets used, and this is the crucial power in our time. Nevertheless, this is a good introduction to the subject and always readable.

Fascinating Introduction to Banking
This book provides a fascinating overview of the evolution of banking from its origins as an offshoot of general merchandising to the complex subject it's become today. Chernow skillfully and entertainingly reveals how bankers have gone from being all powerful "Masters of the Universe" to much less exalted financial bureaucrats. Chernow could have gone further, though, and extrapolated to explain how this is the natural product of capitalism, where the only true "Masters" are the vast bulk of consumers.

As much as you can get from such a small book you shall get
Death of the banker by Ron Chernow

Disappointing when you know the Warburgs, but anyway worthwile reading when it is read as intro to US Banking history. The book is an enlargement of a speech held by the author in earlier times. Thus, it centers in the first part strongly on the development and undevelopment of banking in USA. But reader beware, the title is misleading. Chernow really envisages the personal banker, the likes of Warburg or in particular J.P. Morgan and his power. So the power of banks has shifted, but will never expire as the author himself admits. The short stories of the lifes of the Warburgs and Morgan are nice first reading, but lack depth and analysis. Recommendation : If you lack time, read it, otherwise you are better off with the authors more precise works.

Dr. Rudolf C. King

CEO princeandprince.com ... Read more

Book Description

The typical financial executives view of the value of risk management in their financial institution is based on the belief that risk management focuses on loss avoidance. This view is based on the history of risk management being control focused. However, risk management has evolved rapidly to address the more strategic issue of optimization of return on risk. This evolution has been accompanied by statistical, mathematical and financial techniques which when actively applied can direct an institution towards risk taking those activities, which produce disproportionately high returns on risk. The book aims to describe these techniques, illustrate their application, and discuss their strategic value in the management of financial institutions. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Risk management as an asset, not a cost
This is a book that every bank board member should read. Sure, any board member worth his/her salt will be familiar with Basel II and risk measures such as VaR, but how many think of Basel II as a cost or imposition, and VaR as just another piece of information? Mr Belmont's easy to follow approach should allow readers to examine the way in which they can differentiate their own institution by using the investment in regulatory risk management to create, rather than just protect,shareholder value.

Thankfully, Mr Belmont strikes a good balance between theory and reality, both in his explanantion of market behaviour and in the presentation of his arguments. This is a book that the "mathematically challenged" like me can still enjoy and benfit from.

Timely and useful for bankers contemplating BIS 2
Even without the incentives provided by the upcoming Basel 2 guidelines, this book is timely and convincingly puts forth the proposition that active risk management is in itself a valuable component in the creation of shareholder value. Returns on investment in more sophisticated tools for risk quantification will be enhanced when the information is not only used for performance measurement, but also for such shareholder value-added activities such as capital allocation and balance sheet structuring.

I recommend this book for all practitioners of risk management.

Practical Application
Belmont has done an exceptional job at communicating the importance and practical application of risk measures for today's business environment. The book offers the reader a thorough assessment of what banking executives face everyday and how best to manage these risk and regain the control necessary for any banking executive to grow its business without putting into jeopardy the best interest of its shareholders, which in no small measure is a testament to Belmont's clear understanding of the challenges faced by most executives and the demands they face in terms of managing near term performance goals with long term stability.

Essential Reading for Risk Managers Implementing BIS 2
Given the dual pressures banks face from regulators and investors to address the challenges of Basle 2 and create shareholder value, this book is highly relevant and timely. It provides practical, concise and real world guidance to any senior bank executive seeking to add value in his institution by optimizing the usage of economic capital. Economic capital based performance measures are clearly presented and illustrated with real life examples. Additionally, anyone implementing Basle 2 must ask how this can be done and what value it creates for the organization. This book provides the answers.

The book quickly gives a real world context the value of risk management information to bank CEOs, CFOs, institutional security analysts, and investors. It then goes on to demonstrate theoretically and practically how risk management information can be used to address key strategic decisions faced by senior bank management.

Any risk manager, CFO, or CEO in a financial institution should find this book valuable if they seek to create shareholder value in their institution. Similarly, anyone seeking to rise to the executive suite must understand the issues addressed in this well written book. ... Read more

Book Description

For more than a decade, Japan's dismal economy -- which has bounced from deflationary collapse to fitful recovery and back to collapse -- has been the biggest obstacle to economic growth. Why has the world's second largest economy been unable to save itself? Why has a country, whose financial might in the 1980s was the most feared force on the globe, become the sick man of the world economy? Why has the industrial transformation once called the Japanese Miracle frozen into the Japanese malaise?

Saving the Sun answers these questions by telling the story of Long Term Credit Bank, one of the nation's most respected financial institutions, and its attempts to transform itself into a Western-style bank. Through the stories of three extraordinary men, former Financial Times Tokyo bureau chief Gillian Tett brings to life the bank's long struggle to regain its financial health. In the process, she shines a light into the secretive world of Japanese banking where business is done in sex bars and gangsters lurk behind the scenes. And, in a fast-paced narrative, Tett chronicles the internal conflicts between reform-minded and tradition-bound factions within the bank, as well as the powerful and protective Japanese bureaucracy.

Filled with dramatic scenes involving some of the most important figures and institutions in international finance -- -Paul Volcker, Lawrence Summers, John Reed, Goldman Sachs, UBS, and CSFB -- Saving the Sun charts the growing confusion between a government eager to revive the economy but unwilling to accept the necessary compromises and the Western bankers (profiled here for the first time) who too openly scorned Japanese capitalism and its paramount interest in social harmony over pure profit.

What emerges is the first viable explanation of what caused Japan to stumble from such economic heights -- readers will finally understand what has hobbled that country. But what also emerges is the realization that a profound rift still exists between Japan and the rest of the world. Though Long Term Credit Bank's transformation into Shinsei bank has been a rousing success in financial terms, the Japanese press, government, and people have all but turned against the idea of American-style capitalism. Indeed, instead of reforming Japan, the banking crisis may have convinced ordinary Japanese, more than ever before, that they must go it alone.

Reviews (12)

Good but not the whole story
Overall Tett has done an exemplary job in summarizing the basic events surrounding LTCB / Shinsei. Her access to senior Japanese management of the old LTCB is particularly impressive. No Japanese journalist has gotten such close personal access to the men involved. In addition, her book provides very thorough background of the history of Japanese banking right up through the "bubble" years. Tett's book , however, does have some shortcomings. First and foremost, she overstates the role of Yashiro and drastically understates the key role of Chris Flowers and Brian Prince in the bad loan cleanup phase. Those two, more than anyone else, deserve credit for doing the really tough work. Moreover she appears to have fallen under the spell of the very glib Tim Collins and therefore has exaggerated his contribution as well. Collins is essentially a money raiser, he is not the architect of the LTCB/shinsei deal. Flowers again deserves the credit here. Perhaps Tett missed this because Flowers is famous for his reticence with the press. Lastly Tett seems overly focussed on the (gasp!) fact that some financial sector employees in Japan (gasp!) frequent strip clubs and hostess bars. I guess she hasn't been out on the town in London or New York recently....

SUMMARY: Good general chronological summary and overview but lacks deep understanding of key element -- the bad debt workout.

Outstanding focused explanation of the Japanese loan problem
This book chronicles the fall of Japan's Long Term Credit Bank (LTCB, not to be confused with American Long Term Capital Management) and it's resurrection as Shinsei. The story starts with the problems created in Japan's real estate bubble, and how they left Japanese banks saddled with poor performing loans. The story zeroes in on the problems that caused LTCB to fail. It then covers the revival of the bank with the assistance of an American private equity fund, and the struggle of the new managers to play within the constraints of the Japanese system.

This book highlights several issues with reform in Japan:
1) The business problems are never what they seem on the surface.
2) There are deep cultural issues at play that transcend mere language barriers.
3) Working on a turnaround in Japan is a tremendously challenging ordeal for people on both sides.
4) There is no simple economic or cultural solution.

So was it a success? Well, depends on how you define a success. Collins and Flowers put a $1.2 billion in the bank. The government accepted $10 billion in returned loans, on top of a recapitalization. $27 billion in bad loans were disposed of. The bank winds up with a projected market cap of about $10 billion. So was it a transfer of public wealth to private wealth? Or a neccessary step in reforming the banking system? The reader is left to decide.

If the book has one shortcoming, it's the presentation. I certainly enjoyed it, but the focus is much narrower than the title of "Saving the Sun" would highlight. While broader banking issues are tackled, the book centers on one bank and a small group of investors, and no broader Wall Street/Ginza tie-ups.

In all it is well worth the time for anyone interested in the Japanese financial sector. It is one of the strongest books I've read in describing the economic situation in Japan, and melds cultural and antropological issues into describing the problems and solutions. Very well done!

overall fine, but...
As others have commented, Saving the Sun provides a good chronology to the LTCB takeover, a significant event in Japan's recent history. But there are problems with the book. I lived in Japan during most of the 1990s, and Tett's constant pigeon-holing of the Japanese and American attitudes contains some truth but is exaggerated and becomes tedious. (Even the title is an exaggeration.) Tett may be a financial journalist, but there are enough errors that one questions her expertise on the subject matter. In addition, it is difficult for the reader to get a sense of the scope in some sections as numbers are almost never provided within a clear context. For example, Japan's debt may be "horrendous" although its savings may be "staggering." What is the horrendous/staggering ratio, and how has it changed? Still, readers interested in Japan should read through the shortcomings because the anecdotes Tett provides are interesting and the story itself is important to understanding what is happening inside Japan's financial sector today.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ?
"I would put an exclamation point at the end of all these sentences! On this one! And on that one!"

The above speech from Seinfeld's Elaine pretty much sums up my feelings regarding Ms. Tett's attempts at "writing". I feel like Franklin Dixon (yes, he of Hardy Boys fame) wrote this account of LTCB/Shinsei. Much of the dialogue (whether direct quote, questionable translation, or fanciful conjecture) is peppered with inappropriately many exclamation points, making the story sound like a teenage mystery adventure novel.

Aside from the unnecessary dramatization, and the author's tendency to intersperse good economic analysis with poorly considered social commentary about Japan, the book is informative and interesting. If you are interested in learning about the main players in the Shinsei drama, and learning a fair bit about the differences between Japanese and western political and financial systems, then this book is definitely worth the three stars I am giving it.

I just finished reading Saving the Sun, and today (2004-Feb-19 in Japan) Shinsei actually completed the IPO mentioned in the book. The shares were offered at the upper end of the range, and traded at a 66% premium. It looks like Collins, Flowers and Co. will be making a handsome profit for their investors, after all.

Let's wait and see #1: let's see if New LTCB Partners CV (Netherlands) is allowed to get away with paying zero tax in Japan.

Let's wait and see #2: let's see if Japan ever allows foreign investors to get this much control in this profitable a local investment ever again.

Let's wait and see #3: let's see if the Shinsei experience has any lasting (positive) effect on reforming the Japanese financial system -- history says it won't, but we keep hoping.

Finally, one material transgression worth noting is the author's reference to Anil Kashyap of "Chicago University". Professor Kashyap is certainly a good teacher and a great researcher, but we prefer to refer to the institution as the "University of Chicago" -- please take note for the 2d edition, Ms. Tett.

The Japanese banking crisis as an anthropological study
What is new to be said about Japan's now decade-long financial crisis? A Wall Street Journal financial reporter has returned to her roots as a trained anthropologist to look at the cultural implications behind Japan's continued failure to deal definitively with its insolvent banking system.

The core point that Gillian Tett returns to again and again is that Japan's problems started when its traditionally-run banks extended into global markets. There they operated without any of the checks and balances provided by either Japanese society or Western business methods.

American, European and Australian customers were only too happy to take advantage of Japanese banks that lent money without any attempt at risk analysis. They called the bankers "unseasoned" and "juvenile". The Japanese, on their part, saw the West as a Garden of Eden, ripe for the picking. It was sweet revenge after the humilation of World War II.

The important point is that these wealthy, powerful men with their sophisticated knowledge of derivatives and debentures, were hopelessly naïve about the differences between Japanese and Western social and business assumptions. Despite many of the Japanese having lived and (often very successfully) worked in Europe or the US, and some of the Americans having lived in Japan, neither side showed any insight into the social mentality of the other. Crucially, this caused them to misinterpret even such basic tools of their trade as the implications behind a simple insurance contract.

There aren't many heroes in this tale. The Japanese bankers and their Japanese customers were crudely vulgar. The Western "ex-patriots" in Japan were crassly bad-mannered. It's no surprise that the more the Japanese public learned about both groups, the more outraged they became. Frustratingly, even the ongoing churn of politicians and political parties in an attempt to get the system reformed, and a few nominal criminal charges of fraud against some of the Japanese participants has failed to significantly cut the Gordian knot created in the 1980's and 1990's.

At the date of publication (and of this review), Japan is still an economic basket case, its banks loaded with an unstable mountain of debt. In the final chapter, Tett lets the major participants involved in the takeover of one of the biggest banks by a Kansas-based "vulture" fund have the last say. Unsurprisingly, they all disagree with each other. ... Read more

Book Description

Where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The money magicians' secrets are unveiled. We get a close look at their mirrors and smoke machines, their pulleys, cogs, and wheels that create the grand illusion called money. A dry and boring subject? Just wait!

You'll be hooked in five minutes. Reads like a detective story - which it really is. But it's all true.This book is about the most blatant scam of all history. It's all here: the cause of wars, boom-bust cycles, inflation, depression, prosperity.

Creature from Jekyll Island is a "must read." Your world view will definitely change.You'll never trust a politician again - or a banker. ... Read more

Reviews (79)

Given enough readers, this book could save the country.
"The Creature from Jekyll Island" shows you the greatest fraud in history: the Federal Reserve System. You will read what it has let its creators do to our country. And you will learn how we, the people, can get rid of it.

"Creature" says what many Washington and Wall Street insiders know, but would never say: that through the Federal Reserve System, powerful men use inflation to rob us blind.

G. Edward Griffin does not stop there. He visits remote continents and distant times to show how rulers have used their control of money to control their peoples. And, he relates how, at considerable risk and cost, Andrew Jackson returned to our people a great deal of economic freedom by refusing to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States.

This book's information shines a light on current events that is stark, strong, and new. It will affect not merely how you see financial or business news, but all sorts of news relating to domestic and foreign developments. You will understand much more about the "New World Order," the Kyoto "Global Warming" treaty, the latest adjustment of Federal Reserve interest rates, and why your children's history textbooks leave out so much.

You may find yourself discussing this book with your friends and neighbors. You may change your political registration. You may even try to elect candidates whose ideas reflect knowledge of the history Mr. Griffin describes.

Do yourself a favor: please read this book.

Very good book indeed, but is narrow-minded and dogmatic
There seem to be two points of view on this book. Some think it is conspiracy theory nonsense. The second group think it reveals a secret cabal of financiers who stretch back centuries and run the financial system, and have kept the common man in penury through their evil machinations.

Unsurprisingly, my view is that the truth is halfway between these two positions. In my opinion, it is critically important for any reader of this book to read and understand the "Austrian" economic school's position on central banking. There is not space to go into the relevant conclusions - just read Rothbard's "The case against the Fed", "What has the government done to our money?", and von Mises "The theory of money and credit", and you will have a good idea.

Almost all Griffin's points against the Fed are contained in the works listed above.

The rest of his argument is mixed. Institutions like the IMF and World Bank, supposedly created to help cure poverty and world financial instability, are almost certainly disastrous for poor people and the world economy (I say this as a pro-free trade free-marketeer btw). Wars create great opportunities for financially literate speculators, and for governments to benefit at the expense of the common man, from harmful inflation and debt issuance. This does not mean, as Griffin claims, that such crises were created deliberately for this reason.

Furthermore, Griffin makes some entirely speculative claims about the UN and world banking system, implying that it is all part of some grand Fabian scheme to take over the world. Now this may have been the secret fantasy of Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw and J.M. Keynes a long time ago, but I suspect he is pushing things a bit far. Here I think Mr Griffin has been unable to realise the change in the last 10 years towards inflation targeting and central bank independence. Central banking is still a force for destruction and destabilisation, but not the same corrupt political tool that it was in decades past.

However, enough of the bashing. Griffin presents a 200 year+ history of the arguments and experiments for and against central banking and sound money (meaning a money supply that is not artificially increased - or decreased - each year). At times his historical accounts enter the realm of genius - I have never read an account as enthralling and informative as Griffin's description of the war between Nicholas Bidden and Andrew Jackson for whether or not the nascent American Republic should have a central bank. Sections like this will give you a truly new appreciation for history, and for the intelligence and conviction of many of our ancestors. In fact, I would argue that in monetary terms at least, we in the US and UK have seriously regressed since the 19th century (the Germans and Swiss would agree - at least until the 90s when they abandoned their own monetary discipline which had ensured their prosperity for so long.)

There are many such eras that Griffin covers with a masterly touch. His explanation of the monetary game of poker played by Bank of England governor Montagu Norman and Fed Chairman Strong in the 20s will give you an entirely fresh perspective on the 1929 crash and subsequent depression (including the superb anecdote from an average Englishman who met Norman incognito on a transatlantic steamer - he was asked not to mention anything, and in return told "get out of stocks if you can - there is a great disaster coming" - this being early 1929).

My conclusion is that this book is brilliant but flawed. Griffin is an incredible researcher (the footnotes are possibly the most rigorous and comprehensive of any book I have read - he puts most full time academics to shame), and his ability to explain difficult concepts of esoteric high finance in layman's terms is awe-inspiring. But he simply cannot resist filling the entire work with his political views (he's a self-confessed John Bircher after all). Furthermore, I feel that he is viewing today's central banking/international finance system as if it were virtually the same as 20, 50, 100 years ago. All in all though, the average layman or even intelligent financial/Wall Street person will learn and incredible amount from this book. It is an essential purchase.

timewaster
The author confuses bank deposits with money and makes many false and misleading statements. (It appears that he does understand that the process of creating money is quite different from the process of creating bank deposits (with different effects on the economy), nor that bank deposits can be created by several types of transactions, of which banks pretending to lend money is only one.)

The problem with this type of article is that it is easy for bankers to show these errors, and cast doubt on what the author says, including the valid arguments. The many positive comments about this book stem from the surprise effect of many readers, who seem to discover for the first time this subject of 'money creation'. There are better links on the web. It's a half hearted approach towards the walth creation of the conspiracy.

Mr. Griffin also operates the site freedom-force.org, which is collecting membership fee for an unclear service and which solely seems to benefits him. This site seems to support his book sales. In general his views are lacking foundation and proper research. He also claims wrongly that the IMF activities are indirectly financed by the US taxpayers. timewaster

Don't read it if you cannot handle the truth and stay ignrnt
This has woken me up to what I did not even realize about what has happened, is happening and what the future holds for every man, woman and child of the United States. It is very sobering and has sparked me to find out more and prepare for the events that are unfolding everyday. Don't be caught asleep or off guard. Mr. Griffin has done a great service to every true citizen of the U.S. and I applaud Mr. Griffin for having the guts to write this book. Don't forget to visit his website www.realityzone.com

This is absolutely dumb founding
I mean when I first heard about this from a friend, and he told me to read this book which he called "the creature"... I though why should I read about the federal reserve, how in the world does that matter??? WELL PEOPLE WAKE UP!!! It matters...
I'm not saying believe all of Mr. Griffins Ideas, but don't ignore the facts! which is basically we the people of these United States are actually being screwed!!! every day!!! and yes I knew we were being screwed... I mean thats the governments job... right? but YOU HAVE NO IDEA BY HOW MUCH!!!
and to answer the question... yes I have to know this.. it is my duty as an American to know what's going on with my country... I don't know about the socialistic ideas that Mr. Griffin is spouting... whether true or not... but the fact remains is that we were lied too, and maybe the Federal Reserve System is something that has done more bad than good... and has done that bad on purpose...
do I have an answer... no... but we as Americans have to know at least the truth... and I believe this book brings us one step closer to it. ... Read more

Book Description

Analyzing Banking Risk provides a comprehensive overview of topics dealing with the assessment, analysis, and management of financial risks in banking. This book focuses on risk-management principles and stresses that key players in the corporate governance process are accountable for managing the different dimensions of financial risk.

This second edition remains faithful to the objectives of the original publication (Analyzing Banking Risk). A significant new addition is the inclusion of chapters on the management of the treasury function and management of a stable liquidity investment portfolio. New material also consists of a discussion of proprietary trading activities and asset management liability components.

Chapters include:
Organization of the Treasury Function
Investment / Stable Portfolio Management
Proprietary Trading / Market Risk Management
Asset-Liability Management Components
Key Players in the Corporate Governance and Risk Management Process
Transparency in the Financial Statements of Banks

Managing the risks associated with the banking industry today has become more difficult. The approach used in this publication provides a framework for identifying the key players in the risk-management process and discussing their accountability for the various dimensions of the financial and other risk management processes.

The hardcover edition includes a CD-ROM. This title is also available in paperback: See ISBN 0-8213-5418-3. ... Read more

Book Description

A hands-on guide to the theory and practice of bank credit analysis and ratings

A bank's creditworthiness is important to a large number of individuals - from ordinary depositors to equity and fixed income investors, as well as other banks. In this timely book, Jonathan Golin explains the role of bank credit analysts and the methodology of their practice. He elaborates on the application of the industry standard CAMEL model to bank credit analysis with the help of charts, graphs, and spreadsheet illustrations. International case studies are also presented to help readers gain a global perspective on the world of bank credit analysis.

Jonathan Golin was the editor and contributing author of Capital Flows Along the Mekong: A Guide to Investment in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar (1995) and has written numerous articles for the Asian Wall Street Journal and Vietnam Business Journal. He is a contributing author to the 1999 Chase Guide to Corporate Treasury. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

BEWARE
The content of the Bank Credit Analysis Handbook is actually quite good. However, it is glaringly apparent that NO ONE proofread the manuscript. There are errors on almost every other page: missing punctuation (incuding periods), the same phrase back-to-back, incorrect formulas, formulas described one way, and then shown in a way nowhere close to the description. I have an MBA, and have read my share of textbooks and manuals, and I have NEVER come across one as sloppily edited as this one.

The content of the book is good, but at $105 one would think someone would have proofread the manuscript before it was published.

Timely Topic and Well Done
This is an important book given the amount of risk banks have taken with exposure to Worldcom, Enron, Global Crossing and others. It is difficult to assess off balance sheet risk taken as structural risk or as total return swaps or credit derivatives.

For more on off-balance sheet risk, one should also read "Credit Derivatives and Synthetic Structures".

A Creditable Analysis
Mr. Golin has written an easily readable and comprehensive guide to an obscure subject. He assumes only a general knowledge of finance and takes the user step-by-step through the analysis of a bank's financial statements, an approach that probably makes this book as useful to equity analysts as it should be to credit analysts of financial institutions. He has a rare perspective, that of an american lawyer (from Harvard Law School) who has grappled with investment analysis of corporations in south east Asia. As a result, many of the examples in the long section on distressed banks are drawn from the Asian economic crisis. Nevertheless the scope of the work is global. He deals with the continuing development of world-wide bank regulation and the role and function of rating agencies. Last, but not least, the appendices contain useful definitions and a good bibliography. For analysts of finanical institutions his book should be a 'strong buy'. ... Read more

Book Description

This text gives students a unique understanding of the dynamic and evolving nature of the financial system and how it is related to the aggregate economy.It emphasizes the effects of structural change, globalization, financial innovation, and technology on the financial environment.Its highly applied, roots-in-reality approach incorporates numerous real-world applications and Internet features to demonstrate the relevance of topics.The text is written in an informal, conversational style, avoiding complex models and high-level math, making it perfect for the typical business major who may or may not have a strong economics background. ... Read more

Book Description

Modern Banking focuses on the theory and practice of banking, and its prospects in the new millennium. The book is written for courses in banking and finance at Masters/MBA level, or undergraduate degrees specialising in this area. Bank practitioners wishing to deepen and broaden their understanding of banking issues may also be attracted to this book. While they often have exceptional and detailed knowledge of the areas they have worked in, busy bankers may be all too unaware of the key broader issues. Consider the fundamental questions: What is unique about a bank? and What differentiates it from other financial institutions? Answering these questions begins to show how banks should evolve and adapt - or fail. If bankers know the underlying reasons for why profitable banks exist, it will help them to devise strategies for sustained growth.

Modern Banking concludes with a set of case studies that give practical insight into the key issues covered in the book:

• The core banking functions
• Different types of banks and diversification of bank activities
• Risk management: issues and techniques
• Global regulation: Basel 1 and Basel 2.
• Bank regulation in the UK, US, EU, and Japan
• Banking in emerging markets
• Bank failure and financial crises
• Competitive issues, from cost efficiency to mergers and acquisitions
• Case Studies including: Goldman Sachs, Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui, Bancomer

Book Description

Reviews (6)

The Politics of Writing
The Writers of books like Unholy Trnity make very little money for their hard work (usually a few hundred dollars a year for 3-4 years). They write books like this out of political commitment. And then people like "Not Right" (though he or she probably is, Right Wing) criticize the author for responding to an obviously political critique! This book, as the Publishers Weekly review says, provides a scholarly grounding for the anti-WTO, IMF and World Bank protests. The group of students and faculty who worked on it did a splendid job. Read it and you will see.

Not Right
I think that it is pathetic for one of the authors to actually review and rate his own book. It seems as if this person is obsessed with selling as many copies of his book as possible. This type of greed is exactly what he pretends to be writing against. It is also wrong for someone (perhaps also one of the authors), to attack another reviewer, just because he/she did not like the book. These things say a lot about the author/s of this volume.

Florida again
The Florida reviewer criticizes the book's discussion of Foucault, but doesnt know how to spell his (Foucault's) name! Specify the criticisms so they can be replied to. Dont leave them as empty words. So the concept of hegemony used in the book, or which data are not backed up with sources? I dont find any. What we have here is a political attack disguised as a factual review.

Horrible
Please do not buy this book; the author (...) lacks any knowledge of the topic he discusses. The whole discussion about Focault and the so-called "hegemony" is irrational and wrong. The authour is (...) prone to endorsing irrational ideas. The whole discussion of certain countries' roles (Argentina-Brazil) is simply wrong; the account given of those countries' recent history is false. The economic figures provided in the book are also false; no source of them is provided. Please do not buy this book(...).

Posing new questions, not answering ready-made ones
I am a contributing author to this book. This book was written over a period of two years, during which the authors carried an extensive and detailed research on how the global institutions came to be central actors in the contemporary global political economy, and why do they operate the way they do. We looked into the internal structure of these institutions, the broad political and economic context in which they emerged, and their historical transformations in the face of a changing world, in order to deconstruct their seeming inevitability and neutrality, and to situate them in real historical-geographical circumstances. We sought to explain and criticize the instrumental role these institutions play in producing economic and geographical inequality, and massive human misery all over the world in the name of development. The authors were not "obliged to give a negative view" because of the title of the book, as our 'critic' suggests, rather, because of what we found in researching the history and geography of these institutions. (And, for the authors, an unholy trinity sounds as "negative" as a holy one!)

We do not pretend to approach the subject with a neutral, apolitical attitude-our ultimate aim in writing this book is to explore different possibilities, and different worlds. Like our critic, we wonder what kind of world it would be without the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO; but we wonder for the future, not to justify and apologize for the past and present (mis)deeds of these institutions. We deliberately did not present "the other side"-by which is meant the global institutions' view of themselves; the reader can find such views in the many publications of the institutions and their apologists. They're literally all over the place, and this is one reason that motivated us to work on an alternative view, a different history. For not presenting arguments in favor of these institutions (although we always present them at length where we criticize them!), and although he finds the text "sometimes hard to understand" (quoting sentences out of context to demonstrate), our critic describes our analyses as superficial, and the discussion shallow. Maybe our critic was expecting to read another kind of book; better, maybe our critic would like to read the book again, and give another thought to what is truly "the other side". ... Read more

Book Description

Presents bank management in the context of risk and return.Examines current banking practices to minimize different kinds of risk; explores the management of bank liquidity; discusses regulation, competition and policy, and international bank management.Short cases are used to illustrate concepts. ... Read more

Book Description

WRITTEN BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT PROFESSIONAL FOR OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL IN THE TRENCHESThis book examines the workings of organized criminals and criminal groups that transcend national boundaries. Discussions include methods used by criminal groups to internationally launder money; law enforcement efforts to counteract such schemes; and new methods and tactics to counteract transnational money laundering.A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO FACETS OF INTERNATIONAL CRIME AND MEASURES TO COMBAT THEMIntended for law enforcement personnel, bank compliance officers, financial investigators, criminal defense attorneys, and anyone interested in learning about the basic concepts of international crime and money laundering, this timely text explains:·money laundering terms and phrases·an overview of relevant federal agencies, transnational criminal organizations, and basic investigatory techniques·the intricacies of wire transfers and cyberbanking·the phenomenon of the "World Wide Web" ... Read more

Reviews (3)

should be a bestseller
This book isn't just for enforcement people. For someone like me who isn't a law officer and just wants to understand how terrorists and drug traffickers work, this book is great.

I always thought of terrorism and drugdealing in simplistic terms of what happens in the street. Now I understand how the system works and why our fight is so unsuccessful.

What I learned:
Our laws change slowly in response to rapid innovation by the traffickers and terrorists.

Horse-and-buggy standards for banks like "know your customer" are pointless in a modern world economy.

The worldwide supply of drugs is variegated and impossible to control. As a result, our approach to fighting drugs by cooperating with drug-producing countries is stupid. My guess is that a bread-and-butter approach of customs inspections and death penalty for dealers and launderers would work better. The mindset of modern law enforcement is dead wrong.

As icing on the cake, it was interesting to learn that the Afghanis, Arabs, and Iranians who attack America for our moral degeneration are number 1 in heroin production and smuggling.

A few disappointments:

Richards barely treated terrorists. If he had, his book would have had more mass appeal.

Some of the explanations would have been clearer with flow diagrams.

I still don't understand why layering is so effective. It sounds as if a simple computer trace would unpeel the layers.

This book is not light reading. But if you really want to know how the world works, it's worth the effort!

An Excellent, Deatiled and Highly Informative Work!
I became acquainted with James R. Richard's Transnational Criminal Organizations, Cybercrime, and Money Laundering : A Handbook for Law Enforcement Officers, Auditors, and Financial Investigators when it was used as a text in Utica College's Economic Crime Management Master of Science Degree program in the Advanced Economic Crime as well as the Legal Concepts of Criminal Fraud and Corporate Criminal Liability graduate courses. After quickly thumbing through it, I immediately recognized that it truly contains a bounty of useful, pertinent and relevant information.

Extremely well written, it is a well flowing, very easy read that is both highly informative and enlightening. The book provides a very extensive and detailed examination of organized criminal enterprises engaged in international financial crime. The book fully details the specific steps of the placement, layering, and integration stages of money laundering as well as fully itemizing the techniques and uses of non-financial institutions (casinos, securities et al.) in money laundering. The expanded international focus documents a very detailed and thorough examination of the scope of global financial crime. The book fully integrates an expanse of information on banking, money laundering and cybercrime basics, international criminal organizations - in both a national and international context - in a manner that is easily understood by the reader.

As a police officer, I would highly recommend this book as a "must have" for the reference shelf of federal, state, local or corporate based investigators engaged in financial crimes inquiries and analysis. For the non-professional who is interested in organized crime of a more cerebral nature, the book is more than worth the purchase price.

As a college instructor (Introduction to Economic Crime Investigation at Herkimer County Community College; Herkimer, NY), this book in invaluable to the both the instructor and the student engaged in a comprehensive review of money laundering actvities.

As a side note, Mr. Richards also gives an excellent presentation and lecture on the topics and subject matter covered in his book.

A very good choice!
My father wrote this book. Even though I am only eleven years old I already want his job. I love to read and learn and I am very interested in this field. I read his book and I can finally understand what he's talking about at the dinner table! He now tells me about his cases in the car and I love hearing about them. This book helped me learn about things I wouldn't have learned about in college. It really opened my eyes to what was out there. Good work daddy! PS - Your kids books that you wrote for us are just as good! Publish them! ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Not much of a secret
Here is what this book says. Paying your mortgage off faster than your payment schedule will save you tens of thousands of dollars. True, but what is the time value of that money you spent on your mortgage? Could you have "made" more in the stock market or somewhere else?

Yet the author belabors the point ad nauseam, giving examples about how much you can save paying a little more per month.

Basically, he does not give the full story. When you pay off your loan early, you are also paying a net higher interest rate. Scim this book at the bookstore. The best secret is not buying this book!

Could have contained more secrets
Pretty much everything that was said in this book was in my first choice (Invest in Yourself: Six Secrets to a Rich Life). If I would have known the book as going to be more than 80% tables, I would have never ordered it. Most of the information contained in this book can easily be found on the web. Needless to say, I was very disappointed with this book. I guess that's what happens when you buy online as opposed to in a bookstore. I could have flipped through this book in 20 or 30 seconds and realized that most of the pages were tables that needed more detail. What I found funny is that I received this book 2 whole days before I received my first choice and that's because my first choice supposedly was shipped before my second choice.

Good Advice!
This book provides excellent advice on what were until now--to many--secrets of the financial industry.

Just a note on a previous review: many banks say they will NOT accept prepayment. I know of a way that every bank approves up, that saves homeowners thousands in unnecessary interest and cuts years from their mortgage. I'll gladly call or email anyone who sends an email on this subject.

Do not buy the audio tape of this book!!!
I'm an avid audio tape listener and purchased the audio version of this book. It came in a generic case (like you'd buy to copy your own cassettes) with shabby wrapping and a couple of black and white stickers on it. It was so bad, I sent it back to Amazon. It may be worth $1.29, but not $12.95!!!

GET THIS BOOK! It will save you tens of thousands of $$$$
The authors tell you - in plain english - how to save thousands on your mortgage by either "prepaying" or paying your mortgage biweekly (or a combination of both). Although most banks will allow you to prepay (ie. pay extra towards the principal each month), very few if any allow you to pay biweekly. One exception I know of is Primerica Financial Services (a division of Citigroup/Travelers Insurance). Anyway, as an example, simply paying biweekly on a 30 year, $100,000 loan at 7.5% fixed rate would save you over $40,000 and shorten the loan life by over 6 years. The book contains hundreds of easy to use tables that show you what you'll save on loans ranging from $50-$500,000 and interest rates from 7% - 14.75% using either the prepayment or biweekly stratagies. The authors also explain the effect these stratagies will have on taxes and home equity as well as warn you about possible penalties and extra fees you can avoid. ... Read more

Book Description

As the Internet continues to transform commerce as we know it,the method of payment is one component that's critical to successfullyconducting business across a network. Electronic Payment Systems offersthe first comprehensive, up-to-date survey of the major electronicpayment systems currently available.

Requiring only a basic familiarity with computing and networking,the book covers numerous Internet payment systems including E-cash, SET(secure electronic transactions), FSTC electronic check project, andMillicent. It identifies the properties unique to the various systems,provides a working knowledge of the necessary cryptography, andexplains the protocols involved. In eight concisely written chapters,it provides all the background needed to understand how each paymentsystem works and to select the system and financial software bestsuited to a specific company's needs. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Academics understand technology, not the business
I believe this book is a good technical study in the bits and bytes of how payment systems work, yet lacks the real-world applications, value propositions, and financial information on why some payment systems work, and many others are complete failures in the real world. Technology is only one segment of the payment arena.

excellent book
this book has gathered information about payment system as good as possible.I hope every one that like E_banking technology see this book!

To the point
For those who are seeking the alternative topologies in Electronic Payment systems this book is a very good starting point with some very good references as well. Gives a good insight on the mechanisms as well. One downside is that too much emphasis is put on maths for security related subject compared to the general aim and tone of the book.

Good indepth discussion of payment protocols
The book provides excellent discussion and illustration of the inner workings of electronic payment systems. This book is good for anyone with a basic understanding of networking and a desire to learn about current payment implemtations.

Really exhaustive, up-to-date primer on the systems for elec
The only missing dimension in the book is the strategic/business aspects. The rest is brilliant. In particular, great description of the emerging payment mechanisms (ecash, digicash, cybercash, millicent...) ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent mix of theory and applied work.
This book is the perfect liasion between the microeconomics realm of information economics and the real world of banking and financial intermediation.It supplies a healthy dose of microeconomic theory to fully understand the underlying features of the most common financialinstruments used in modern banking practice, all explained thoroughly withdown to earth narratives and doable math/game theoretic instruments.Itmakes a wonderful preview before going on with Freixas text, or at least asits companion. ... Read more

Book Description

This text strives to bring money and banking up-to-date by providing complete, integrated coverage of topics that are important to the twenty-first century world of money and banking.While covering the myriad topics appropriate for a money and banking course, the book is the first in the field to fully integrate coverage of international financial markets and the global economy from the outset.It also gives considerable attention to the ways in which new technologies are affecting the practice of banking, the nature of money, and the tasks of policymakers, and is the first and only text on the market to offer a fully-integrated program of accompanying online resources and multimedia tools that enhance a reader's study of money and banking. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Gem
Excellent and brilliant book. I used it to successfully pass the Dantes Money and Banking exam. Amazingly, it's as thick as phone book, yet very easy to read. After completing a chapter, you just long for more. I recommend it. ... Read more

Book Description

For years, consistent with its political and military policies, the American government has been feeding corporate America a line of malarkey about investing in Russia. To the extent convenient for its interests corporate America has been willing to listen, as long as the government GAVE them the money to make the investments with. Rare exceptions exist in oil and a few major industries. A few companies have sufficient money to 'buy" a foothold for the long term. It is not really an investment. It is an "ante' at the poker table, to have a seat. Russian bankers have realized this is not investment and that Russia cannot reconstruct its industrial output on the strength of these few billions. At the 1992 Yeltsin-Clinton Summit in Vancouver, during a discussion as to the amount that might be required, I suggested the figure $3 trillion dollars. president Yeltsin's response was. 'just about right".

The global corporate private business world knows well from market economy experience what it needs to conduct business in Russia and so do Russian bankers. Russian bankers have taken upon themselves the responsibility to act as catalysts in accomplishing this economic reconstruction. To do this Russian banks are undertaking the tasks of creating viable, reliable, dependable financial institutions to manage the currency of commerce which is the fertilizer of Russian economic life.

Both the Russian and U.S. government depend upon their populations for the financial support of the costs of government. The Russian banking industry understands that it is the people who support the government and not the governments that support the people. particularly in the United States it is the people who have the wealth upon which government is dependent for its survival. It is the banking industry's understanding that the essence of economic growth is to enable people to create and produce, that offers Russia its place in the the future global economy.

Russian banking is 'inventing' a new Russian social process for individual and small group entrepreneurial pioneering and providing people with new pathways for economic growth. Every decisive step in the history of economic development ha been the result of deliberate decisions to open up space and enable people to pioneer. This deliberate incubation of the free enterprise of ordinary people has always worked to produce great results. This is not nostalgic, not romantic, not greed. It is the simple principle of applying "opportunity" to the great driving hunger of millions of people to transcend their inadequate past

Many dwell on the negatives of this past which did exist. To proceed into the future, the Russian banking industry is finding and supporting the positive source of the strength of Russia: respect and enablement of the individual the "entrepreneurial' every-person, who collectively constitute "the unseen hand' of "the wealth of Russia", whose collective drive to transcend the past is the irreplaceable motive force of history.

Many in this generation have also written that the growth opportunity is gone forever. They would consign the Russian people to eternal political misery in grubbing over a perennially inadequate economic pie, which is constantly shrinking. far too "fashionable" are arguments that Russian resources are too limited, that Russian environment cannot handle rapid growth, and that most Russian must look forward to a diminishing quality of life in increasingly servile jobs. To these, the Russian banking industry says Humbug. These "reasoned arguments" are but the illusion of ignorance. Alignment with these arguments betrays the terrible struggle of Russian forebears to bequeath to Russia a world made more dignified for each and every individual.

The Russian banking industry believes that Russian resources are essentially unlimited and that for every obstacle there is a solution. It believes Russia has the capacity to re-entrepreneurialize all goods and services which have ever been made. In short it believes there are no arbitrary technical limits to Russian capacity for economic growth. Russian bankers believe it is true that they cannot grow the same way as in the past and that new ways must be found through which the limits of today can be transcended. Russian bankers believe that finding these ways is, in essence, the "job" of the Russian entrepreneur or, in its highest expression, the "profession" of the entrepreneur.

The task of Russian banking is to to design a coherent, integrated policy, a marketplace, if you will, for removing the barriers, all the barriers, to new venture formation, the principle one of which is trust.

Less than 30% of the population of Russia can presently make full use of its productive capabilities. The great entrepreneurial dilemma is reaching the point what sufficient tangible results have been created to interest formulae-oriented investment or loan capital. This in itself requires the Russian banking industry to act as spokesman for the Russian people in obtaining greater freedom, flexibility and logic in regulatory policies. As the Russian banking industry approaches the second decade of itsparticipation in the development of a market economy it offers this description of its own pioneering efforts of the past decade. It is a blueprint motivated by hope and expectations which it dedicates to its customers, the Russian entrepreneur. Together they face the challenges of rebuilding Russia's economy. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

A fair description of a complicated situation
Russian banking is 'inventing' a new Russian social process for individual and small group entrepreneurial pioneering and providing people with new pathways for economic growth. Every decisive step in the history of economic development ha been the result of deliberate decisions to open up space and enable people to pioneer. This deliberate incubation of the free enterprise of ordinary people has always worked to produce great results. This is not nostalgic, not romantic, not greed. It is the simple principle of applying "opportunity" to the great driving hunger of millions of people to transcend their inadequate past

Great Tips for those managing investments in Russia
A far better description of the actual situation in Russia than what is available in the U.S. or Russian Press, or other alternative sources. Opened my eyes to what I should be aware of.

Very useful to Russian Bankers and American as well.
I found this book provided a clear description of possibilities for collaboration and cooperation with Banks in America. Our methods and practices differ but Dr. van de Waal-Palms explains the common denominators.

This will help to change the point of view of Russians
A surprisingly insightful description of the banking industry and the moral tenants of commerce which will undoutedly change the view of many Russians.

Brilliant and lazer-like brain of a superior quality.
I found in the book a very professional and profound analysis for specialists in the securities and banking financial markets in the Russian Federation ... Read more