Book Description

Credit derivatives are the newest entrant to the world of derivatives–and they have quickly become one of the fastest-growing areas of interest in global derivatives and risk management. Credit Derivatives: Instruments, Applications, and Pricing provides an in-depth explanation of this risk management tool, which has been increasingly used to manage credit risk in banking and capital markets.

In this comprehensive text, Mark J.P. Anson, Frank J. Fabozzi, Moorad Choudhry, and Ren-Raw Chen cover everything, from the basics of why credit risk is important, to accounting and tax implications of credit derivatives.

Key topics discussed in this essential guidebook include:

• Types of credit risk
• Credit default swaps
• Credit-linked notes
• Synthetic collateralized debt obligation structures
• Credit risk modeling: structural models and reduced form models
• Options and forwards on credit-related spread products
• Pricing of credit default swaps

Using Bloomberg screens, illustrative examples, basic investment theory, and mathematics, Credit Derivatives covers the real-world practice and applications of credit derivatives products. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Outstanding work on important topic
This book brings together some high quality talent and it shows - a good buy and a useful reference on credit derivatives.

Credit Derivatives
This book has nothing new in spite of being released in 2003. Many key issues receive inadequate explanations, and the sections written by different authors do not merge well. If you have no experience with the market, this is not a good book to start you off. If you have experience with the market, there is no reason to buy this book.

Compiled Remake
This is yet another of Fabozzi's contributed works that ends up with poor flow. I'm not sure why this book was written, since it isn't nearly as good or as comprehensive as previous works, and doesn't represent the best writers in this field. For instance, Schonbucher's work on pricing is far superior to anything presented here. ... Read more

Book Description

In his most widely appealing book yet, one of today's leading authors of popular anthropology looks at the intriguing history and peculiar nature of money, tracing our relationship with it from the time when primitive men exchanged cowrie shells to the imminent arrival of the all-purpose electronic cash card. 320 pp. Author tour. National radio publicity. 25,000 print. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

A Bit of a Flawed "History" But a Good Read
Jack Weatherford's "The History of Money" takes an interesting take on the development of money and man's evolving relationship its various forms. The book is a very good read for the lay person but it might prove a bit trying for those who are well versed in recent economic history.

Much of the information Weatherford presents is often misrepresented. One example of his misrepresentations is the US dollar has been in constant decline versus the price of gold starting from $35 an ounce in 1971 to $400 an ounce in 1995 and that gold has maintained its purchasing power. Not so. The price of gold peaked in January, 1980 at over $850 and has been in a deflationary trend along with other commodities for about fifteen years. Its early 2002 price is now about $280-290 an ounce. In the late 1930's, an American could buy a very nice mid-size car for about twenty ounces of gold or about $700.00. Even in 1995 using the $400 price, you could barely buy the cheapest new car on the market for the same weight in gold. Weatherford bemoans Nixon's actions to cut the dollar's final link with the dollar as inflationary despite the fact that it was inflation of the late 1960's and the gold drain from the treasury to other foriegn governments that would force the break in the first place. Other problems involve the supposive large declines in prices in the 19th century, with the starting points always during periods of war and high prices and the belief that the state (wildcat) banking period was really more stable than history says, which leads one to wonder what happened during the banking panics of 1819, 1837, and 1857?

Some information Weatherford presents is just wrong. For example, he states that in 1934, Roosevelt and the Congress a passed a law nationalizing silver in the manner similar to gold and as a result slowly debased or replaced the silver coinage with base coins which the result that by 1963 when the law was repealed 3.2 billion ounces was stockpiled by the government. Not quite. A proclamation by Roosevelt on August 9, 1934 (not the Silver Purchase Act of June 18, 1934 which required the government to purchase large amounts of silver from both foreign and domestic sources in order to support its price, that was the law repealed in 1963) did nationalize silver bullion but with the understanding that it would be used for coining. The intent was not to remove silver from circulation and create a reserve like gold was. In fact, the mintage of silver coinage except for silver dollars was greatly increased and the only reason that silver dollars were not minted in greater numbers was because people did not like using them and the treasury already had $500 million of them sitting unused in its vaults backing silver certificates. Unlike gold certificates which were no longer convertible to gold coin, silver certificates would remain fully convertible to silver dollars (the vast majority were minted before 1928, none after 1935) until 1963, then silver bullion until 1968. There was no gradual debasement of U.S. silver coins between 1934 and 1963. Until the Coinage Act of July 23, 1965 removed silver from dimes and quarters and reduced it in half-dollars (the rest was eliminated in 1971), the silver content in these coins remained constant from 1873 to 1964. By the way, the last vestiges of the nationalization of silver ended August 21, 1967 when silver began unrestricted trading as a normal commodity.

Other mistakes range from minor (the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed in July 22, 1944 not 1946 and the conference was held at the Mount Washington Hotel at the base of Mount Washington not Mount Deception as he wished the agreement to be named), to major (the banking and saving and loan disasters of the 1980's and early '90s were not caused by the great increase in housing prices in the postwar era but a combination of overlending to the oil and gas and the commerical real estate sectors during their respective booms then busts plus some good old-fashion banking fraud).

If Weatherford's history is shaky at times, his insight on the social aspects of money makes up for it. His observations on primitive money and its overall development through history are quite excellent as are more contemporary observations on the rich/middle class and the poor use money and the penalities the poor must endure in order perform necessary transactions. He also makes some observations about where money and society may be headed that one may or may not agree on but does make one stop and think a bit.

If you are looking for a good book on money as history, there are better volumes out there but if you interested in money as anthropology, this book will give you an good insight into that realm.

Economic history for the layman
I cannot comment on the veracity of what this book contains, being a layman in history and economics.

Other reviewers have contested particular points of scholarship (and I am similarly in no position to judge their accuracy). I can recommend this book because it provides a comprehensible survey of the development of money.

This is no small accomplishment, since it is all to easy for a history of money to get bogged down in details and to miss the big picture. Money is at once a fantastically abstract concept (try explaining it to somebody who has never used any) and so common place that it is like water to a fish, it is the very world we live within.

After reading this book, I felt for the first time that the curtains had been pulled aside, and I had a concept of what money "is". I have read few other books on economics that succeded in making understandable highly abstract concepts. That accounts for my 4 stars.

cursory history, but interesting
i've loved reading history books for the past several years. human history is so much more interesting than fiction, and well written history is (obviously) far more compelling. this book falls into that genre quite nicely.

however, it's a short book, and it's impossible to capture all of the facets of humanity's use of money in a small volume. take it at it's worth, however, and you'll see some themes that run through the book, and interesting ones nonetheless.

i'm not a historian, and so i can't discuss the accuracy of the history. if others question it, i suspect they may be right. hence, i wouldn't use this as a reference text. but the general story is interesting, even if it's just close to the truth.

by the end, weatherford spends a decent amount of time discussing how history has come to the present, with money becoming virtual for some, and hard currency for others, creating at least two classes of wealth conrol in the world. this made a profound impact on me, and one that's forced me to examine how to utilize capital with greater skill. this was quite unexpected from a history book, and welcome.

a disappointment, entertaining but questionable
This book has many little interesting tid-bits of information and they are fun to read, but by the end of reading this book I wish I had read a more serious book.

One of my biggest issues with the book is there are too many statements, speculations and presentations of material in the book that are in contradiction to what most economists or historians in the field would present. This left me with a feeling after reading the book that I didn't know whether half of what I read what complete BS or worth believing. For instance the authors presentation of currency switching off the gold standard and speculating about the future of electronic money. By the last third of the book I found myself saying "give me a break, this is pure wild speculation" or "this is BS" or "I won't be believing this, I wish I was reading an author I could take seriously".

If you are curious what Jack Weatherford thinks about these topics, this book is fine. Or if you just want to be entertained and don't care if what you read is what experts believe, this book is fine. But if you want a serious presentation of what most economists and historians believe in the field I would not recommend this book.

An Interesting Take on a Fascinating Topic
This is a pleasant essay - to call it a "history" is to give it more weight than it has - organized around the development of a truly transforming idea: money. And as innovations in money advanced those societies in which they arose, so this book must be a discussion of how money changed, and was changed by, the most "advanced" cultures of their time. Initially just the merchants needed something trans-national, and bars of raw gold and silver fit the bill. But it was the invention of coins, money that could be used by anyone, that started us down the path to the modern world, where all things - from pain and suffering to bushels of wheat - are commensurable in the one metric: money.

Jack Weatherford is an anthropologist, not an economist, so it is not surprising that he lingers over certain details that don't have a lot to do with his ostensible subject. Thus we are treated to the grisly spectacle of an Aztec human sacrifice, and how the Peruvian Indians who mine the silver that enriches others reconcile themselves to their poor and hazardous lives. Yet he does not stray far, and his depiction of the squeezing of the citizens of Rome for more and more taxes by successive emperors (plus their dilution of the currency) that led to the destruction of the free small-holding and business-owning classes, and with them the Empire, is chilling and instructive. The barbarians were kinder: they didn't use money.

The inventions of banking and of merchants' instruments (such as bills of exchange) are discussed, as well as the first national banks, in explaining the advent of paper money, the next great innovation. The pax Britannica is discussed, too, in a way: the British empire was not really as important, probably, as the British pound, backed by gold, and serving as a fixed monetary point, for a long period of world prosperity. For whatever logic inheres, or does not, to the "backing" of a currency by a precious metal, it did have the faith of many for a long time, and held currencies in rock-solid interrelationships for years.

Are things better now that all our currencies are floating, changing values relatively and absolutely every moment? Gold is a superstition, after all, so away with it! This book is at its best discussing the national hyperinflations that followed the Great War, the falling away from the gold standard, and the advent of the newer types of money and near-money. Electronic cash of various sorts, currency markets, and credit-card purchases that create private money are playing havoc with the traditional calculations of national money supply, and undermining the ability of governments to control their currency.

Where will it end? We'll have to surf this tidal wave of new money creation as long as we can without getting swamped: "The current electronic revolution in money promises to increase even more the role of money in our public and private lives, surpassing kinship, religion, occupation, and citizenship as the defining element of social life. We stand now at the dawn of the Age of Money." (p268) ... Read more

Book Description

Macroeconomic Policy is an applications oriented textdesigned for individuals who desire a hands-on approach to analyzingthe effects of fiscal and monetary policies. The book demystifies thelinkages between monetary and fiscal policies and key macroeconomicvariables such as income, unemployment, inflation and interest rates.MBA and Executive MBA students who appreciate the importance ofmonetary and fiscal analysis will find this text to be right ontarget. Financial analysts and individual investors who need to stripaway economic myths and jargon and systematically examine andunderstand the effects of macro policies will also find the bookextremely useful. A unique feature of this book is the extensive use of speciallywritten "newspaper" articles designed to simulate currentmacroeconomic news. Topics such as unemployment, soft landings,overheated economies, asset-price bubbles, liquidity traps,hyperinflations, and exchange rate meltdowns are incorporated in thesearticles. Each chapter contains exercises that enable the reader torelate specific underlined passages in these articles to the theorypresented in preceding chapters. This distinctive approach ensuresreal-world applicability, and supporting diagrams further enable thereader to relate current economic news to the theoretical materialdiscussed. Macroeconomic Policy is designed for a global audience. A keyfeature of this book is its emphasis on the role of expectations and"paradigm shifts" in implementing fiscal and monetary policies, bothin developed as well as in emerging economies. This approach explainswhy once-successful macroeconomic models suddenly cease to beeffective, and why Keynesian as well as Supply-Side models canlegitimately coexist in several developed economies. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Excellent Preparation for CFA Level 1
I am an employee at Merrill Lynch (I have my series 7,63,65,24,4), and currently studying for the CFA Level 1 Exam, however, my background is in Biochemistry and Biology so it is pretty obvious that I was behind my peers relative to our formal academic background.So, I felt that I needed a book that that could clearly communicate the macroeconomic policies that govern this country. However, because the CFA level 1 is a difficult exam, I could not afford to have the author dilute the information, or overly simplify the information. Fortunately, the literature provided in this book not only conveyed the information better, and clearer than, the actual CFA preparatory classes that I had been taken, but it was such a fun book to read.The beauty of this book is that it provides actual contemporay, and historic global examples to supplement the literature.Prior to reading this book, I had read other books on macroeconomic policy that were so dry that I could not even finish the chapters (and I had read some pretty dry books during my days as an undergrade pursuing my double major in Biotechnology and Biology), but this book was the type of book that I did not want to put down from the moment I started reading it.Furthermore, this book also assisted me in getting a better understanding of the markets (equities and real estate) for future investments as well.After reading this book, I am such a sharper investor, I can now dissect the nonsense from the valid information that is being promoted on TV and in magazines.I highly recommend this book for everyone who is interested in getting a deeper understanding of how our government works, and how our economy works relative to the rest of the world.

Excellent Preparation for CFA Level 1
I am an employee at Merrill Lynch (I have my series 7,63,65,24,4) and currently studying for the CFA Level 1 Exam, however, my background is in Biochemistry and Biology so it is pretty obvious that I was behind relative to my peers with regards to our formal academic background. So I felt that I needed a book that that could clearly communicate the macroeconomic policies that govern this country. However, because the CFA level 1 is a difficult exam, I could not afford to have the author dilute the information or overly simplify the information. Fortunately, the literature provided in this book not only conveyed the information better, and clearer than the actual CFA preparatory classes that I had been taken, but it was such a fun book to read. The beauty of this book is that it provides actual contemporay and historic global examples to supplement the literature. Prior to reading this book I had read other books on macroeconomic policy that were so dry that I could not even finish the chapters (and I had read some pretty dry books during my days as an undergrade pursuing my double major in Biotechnology and Biology)but this book was the type of book that I did not want to put down from the moment I started reading it. Furthermore, this book also assisted me in getting a better understanding of the markets (equities and real estate) for future investments as well. After reading this book, I am such a sharper investor, I can now dissect the nonsense from the valid information that is being promoted on TV and in magazines. I highly recommend this book for everyone who is interested in getting a deeper understanding of how our government works, and how our economy works relative to the rest of the world.

Outstanding!
This book truly does demystify macroeconomics.Professor Langdana makes it accessible and easy to see the results of monetary and fiscal policy.I've never studied economics and I know I have a much better understanding of the subject thanks to him and his book!

Review of Langdana's Macroeconomic Policy
This book truly "demystifies" domestic and global monetary and fiscal policy.The strength of the book lies in the author's ability to not hide behind equations and math but to explain and analyze macropolicy clearly and intuitively.This should be required reading for all members of Congress!I wish I had a book like this while I was in graduate school!Superb!

Not recommended at all as a graduate level textbook
The book is not at all suited for a grad level course because none of the graphs or equations have any mathematicalderivations. The content of the book undermines the intellectual capabilities of a grad student. In short, there isn't much that a student can learn from this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Do you know the true meaning of a dollar?

Few people do. Now an expert on arcane symbolism uncovers the fascinating secret meanings behind the design of the money we use every day.

In The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill, David Ovason explores the visual complexity and magic behind the world's most influential currency. Lively and readable, this extraordinary book invites you to take a dollar bill in hand and set off on a visual adventure. You will discover dazzling explanations of its secret contents -- from the symbols derived from the Great Seal to the extraordinary strands of numerology interwoven into its structure, to sur-prising hidden alignments.

Once you discover the magic and mystery revealed in The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill, you will find that the dollar in your wallet is worth so much more than what you can buy with it.

Book Description

DISCOVER HOW THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE CAN HELP YOU MAKE A PROFIT, ESTABLISH A SECURE FINANCIAL FOUNDATION, AND CREATE A PROSPEROUS FUTURE FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

Making money can be a fun, fascinating, creative enterprise. Phil Laut, whose financial seminars have helped thousands of men and women from all walks of life dramatically increase their incomes, demonstrates how you can overcome the principle obstacles to making money: guilt, fear, and feelings of helplessness or pressure. Once you have made money your friend, you'll discover that increasing your income is a simple matter of using your imagination. Inside this unique book, you'll find exercises and self-tests to help you understand and utilize

- The four Laws of Wealth
- The helpful six-step method for developing a purpose in life
- The simple seven-stage plan for finding the perfect career
- Twelve ideal techniques for creating a new self-image
- Fifteen priceless affirmations to change the way you think about money
- And much more!
... Read more

Reviews (8)

Great Money Management Formula
This book does a great job of explaining the reasons for commonplace hang-ups about money and offers a very workable solution. I actually struggled with being an "over saver" - and there aren't many books written for us. Laut outlines a great way to live for today (spending what you have) while also saving for the future. It's easy to read and easy to implement.

MONEY IS MY MISTRESS
I first read this book in my early twenties when I was a lost soul living on welfare (not a difficult thing to do in this town). The first word that comes to mind is PHENOMENAL.

Money Is My Friend explores the philosophical, psychological and emotional aspects of wealth. The purpose here is to eliminate Poverty Consciousness and replace it with Prosperity Consciousness. Money is a force beyond good and evil, neutral as electricity and powerful enough to rival even the forces of love and war. It is a creation of the human mind. All currency simply consists of symbolic representations of a mental construct that cannot be clearly defined. Therefore, poverty and wealth are merely states of mind which manifest themselves on the physical plane. By altering the contents of your mind you alter the contents of your bank account, so to speak. In order to do this Phil Laut takes us through exercises of self exploration and reprogramming which REALLY WORK. Also, his guidelines for managing money are unsurpassed and he devotes an entire chapter to the art of salesmanship (which should be a basic life skill for everyone). I seriously believe this book should become a standard in High School curriculum.

I am now in my late twenties and well on my way to earning a 6 figure income. This book should have been entitled The Magical Secrets of Wealth Creation.

`Money is My Friend' is indeed my best friend!
I read `Think and Grow Rich' when I was 23, and in the ensuing 25 years had read most of the how-to books on success and wealth (including Magic of Thinking Big, The Greatest Salesman in the World, Spirit of Appollo, The Richest Man in Babylon etc.). However none of them did me any good in improving my financial situation.

So when I came across this gem of a book, it was like a breath of fresh air. For once I found something that did work - for me! While the other books left me feeling guilty (I had not persisted enough, I did believe enough, I had not visualized properly etc.), Money Is My Friend did just the opposite! It explained that there could be hidden mental blocks within my subconscious that caused negative results, and not just the lack of proper application of principles. Furthermore it helped me uncover and clear some of these mental blocks.

The breakthrough came for me when I was on Chapter 4 and reading about `Parental Disapproval Syndrome'. It suddenly flashed upon me just how the tutelage of my parents and my teachers had helped me make the strong subconscious association that MONEY IS EVIL. That was the reason why I found it difficult to attract money.

The affirmations given in this book are wonderful. Within a few months of my writing my first affirmation `My income exceeds my expenses', my financial situation began to improve.

But this book is much more than about money. The ideas in the book may seem controversial at first glance, but are in fact true. Some examples just to whet your appetite: `Financial problems cannot be solved with money!' `All human wealth is created in the human mind!' `Anger is intention contaminated with the idea of helplessness' `My wealth increases daily, whether I'm working, playing or sleeping!'

Read the book before you dismiss or condemn any of the above statements. I can only end with the words of the author `Make a special note to re-read the sections that make you angry, skeptical or afraid!'

I believe you will be glad you did. After 25 years of religiously studying hundreds of books on attaining success and wealth, I think Money is My Friend stands out as the ultimate.

I still buy copies of MIMF to give to my friends.

Money is My Friend
This book is a terriffic book written in easy to understand terms on how to create wealth. It is along the same lines as The Richest Man in Babylon, yet this book has more information and is easier to read. Two thumbs up :-)

Thank you for helping me increase my income $10,000 in 3 mos
This book was instrumental in helping me see what thinking I needed to shift inorder to create more income. As a result, I increase my salary by $10,000 more per year in a matter of 3 months time! ... Read more

Book Description

Now that you've won your case, how do you collect? If the debtor doesn't cooperate, the court can't help you.

How to Collect When You Win a Lawsuit in California takes you through the process of locating difficult debtors, finding out what they're worth and claiming your money. You'll learn how to:

*collect from bank accounts
*collect from wages collect from real estate
*collect from business income and assets
*collect from money that others owe the debtor
*seize and sell stocks, bonds, jewelry and other personal property
*seize and sell motor vehicles

The 5th edition is completely revised and updated to reflect changes in statutory law and in California's court structure, and provides the legal forms you need to get the money you're owed. ... Read more

Book Description

Over the last decade, Georg Simmel's reputation in the English-speaking world has grown enormously. The Philosophy of Money is recognized as a major impetus to the ideas surrounding the debate on modernity and postmodernity. In this magisterial work, Simmel provides a remarkably wide-ranging discussion of the social, psychological, and philosophical aspects of the money economy. He analyzes money's relationships to exchange, the human personality, the position of women, individual freedom, and many other areas of human existence. Perhaps more than any of his sociological works, The Philosophy of Money provides an example of his brilliant insight into the interrelationships between the most diverse and seemingly unconnected social phenomena. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Money as the great symbol of social life!
This remarkable work, published in 1900, is Georg Simmel's magnum opus given the fact that it contains most key ideas of this charismatic and versatile thinker. It is bulky, and at points very difficult to penetrate through,since the author's literary style -although very enjoyable- tends to abstract from the clarity of the point at hand. This work may be seen as a supplement to Marx's "Capital". Simmel deals with money at various levels of abstraction. He discusses money from an economic, philosophical, sociological and psychological perspective in an admirable attempt to develop via the concept of money a modern world-view. Chapter One is the most difficult since it explores Simmel's theory of value, using BOTH classical political economy and the Marxian theory of value. Then, he proceeds in order to develop it as a symbol of a relational epistemology (drawing heavily on Kant, Hegel and Spinoza). The following parts of the book associate money with exchange as a sociological category of interaction and display Simmel at his very best in the lengthy discussion of money in relation to personal values (dowry, prostitution, bribery etc.). Additionally, Simmel explores the axiological dislocations that take place in human consciousness and fail to address correctly the means-ends aspect of money's relationship to commodities. In this wonderful section, Simmel discloses the alienating attitudes of extravagance, greed, avarice, cynicism and indifference. Last, but not least, Simmel connects money to modernity pulling -albeit elliptically- all the threads of the previous arguments together. A book of great sociological and philosophical interest, full of dazzling dialectics, free of dogmatism and definitely one of humanity's most complete statements on "money"! ... Read more

Book Description

A groundbreaking collection on currency derivatives, including pricing theory and hedging applications.

"David DeRosa has assembled an outstanding collection of works on foreign exchange derivatives. It surely will become required reading for both students and option traders."—Mark B. Garman President, Financial Engineering Associates, Inc. Emeritus Professor, University of California, Berkeley.

"A comprehensive selection of the major references in currency option pricing."—Nassim Taleb. Senior trading advisor, Paribas Author, Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options.

"A useful compilation of articles on currency derivatives, going from the essential to the esoteric."—Philippe Jorion Professor of Finance, University of California, Irvine Author, Value at Risk: The New Benchmark for Controlling Market Risk.

Every investment practitioner knows of the enormous impact that the Black-Scholes option pricing model has had on investment and derivatives markets. The success of the theory in understanding options on equity, equity index, and fixed- income markets is common knowledge. Yet, comparatively few professionals are aware that the theory's greatest successes may have been in the derivatives market for foreign exchange. Perhaps this is not surprising because the foreign exchange market is a professional trading arena that is closed virtually to all but institutional participants. Nevertheless, the world's currency markets have proven to be an almost ideal testing and development ground for new derivative instruments.

This book contains many of the most important scientific papers that collectively constitute the core of modern currency derivatives theory. What is remarkable is that each and every one of these papers has found its place in the real world of currency derivatives trading. As such, the contributing authors to this volume can properly claim to have been codevelopers of this new derivatives market, having worked in de facto partnership with the professional traders in the dealing rooms of London, New York, Tokyo, and Singapore.

The articles in this book span the entire currency derivatives field: forward and futures contracts, vanilla currency puts and calls, models for American exercise currency options, options on currencies with bounded exchange rate regimes, currency futures options, the term and strike structure of implied volatility, jump and stochastic volatility option pricing models, barrier options, Asian options, and various sorts of quanto options. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

This is solid book that has depth
This book covers so much in the derivatives marketplace. After being involved in the business for 12 years and writing three books on futures and commodity derivatives I was definitely refreshed and enlightened by Mr.DeRosa's book.

Excellent choice of papers!
DeRosa has picked excellent papers. If one reads the papers in detail, the currency derivatives literature, as well as related derivatives literature, becomes very easy to understand.

Comprehensive
This book presents highly technical papers on diverse topics from variuous academics. It would be very helpful to anyone looking to understand theoretical aspects of FX derivatives. Since most papers are written by different authors, notation is not consistent. In addition, academics do not always write like Hemingway. Nevertheless, the book covers everyhting from vanillas to exotics very well. ... Read more

Book Description

It is one of America's treasures -- the most valuable ounce of gold in the world, the celebrated, the fabled, the infamous 1933 double eagle. It shouldn't even exist but it does, and its astonishing, true adventures read like "a composite of The Lord of the Rings and The Maltese Falcon" (The New York Times). Illegal to own and coveted all the more, it has been sought with passion by men of wealth and with steely persistence by the United States government for more than a half century.

In 1905, at the height of the exuberant Gilded Age, President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned America's greatest sculptor, Augustus Saint- Gaudens -- as he battled in vain for his life -- to create what became America's most beautiful coin.ÿIn 1933 the hopes of America dimmed in the darkness of the Great Depression, and gold -- the nation's lifeblood -- hemorrhaged from the financial system. As the economy teetered on the brink of total collapse, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his first act as president, assumed wartime powers while the nation was at peace and in a "swift, staccato action" unprecedented in United States history recalled all gold and banned its private ownership.

But the United States Mint continued, quite legally, to strike nearly a half million 1933 double eagles that were never issued and were deemed illegal to own.In 1937, along with countless millions of other gold coins, they were melted down into faceless gold bars and sent to Fort Knox. The government thought they had destroyed them all -- but they were wrong.

A few escaped, purloined in a crime -- an inside job -- that wasn't discovered until 1944. Then, the fugitive 1933 double eagles became the focus of a relentless Secret Service investigation spearheaded by the man who had put away Al Capone.All the coins that could be found were seized and destroyed. But one was beyond their reach, in a king's collection in Egypt, where it survived a world war, a revolution, and a coup, only to be lost again.

In 1996, more than forty years later, in a dramatic sting operation set up by a Secret Service informant at the Waldorf-Astoria, an English and an American coin dealer were arrested with a 1933 double eagle which, after years of litigation, was sold in July 2002 to an anonymous buyer for more than $7.5 million in a record-shattering auction. But was it the only one? The lost one?

Illegal Tender, revealing information available for the first time, tells a riveting tale of American history, liberally spiced with greed, intrigue, deception, and controversy as it follows the once secret odyssey of this fabulous golden object through the decades. With its cast of kings, presidents, government agents, shadowy dealers, and crooks, Illegal Tender will keep readers guessing about this incomparable disk of gold -- the coin that shouldn't be and almost wasn't -- until the very end. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

The chilling details of cleaning blood money.

What is money laundering? How does it work? And why is it such a threat to any democratic society?

International terrorism has focused federal and state law-enforcement's attention on the shadowy world of money laundering. While the media has examined money laundering, the topic is still little understood by the public.

In Crime School: Money Laundering, a twenty year law enforcement veteran of financial crime explains this felony in simple terms. Written anecdotally, the book describes what money laundering is and how the crimes behind it fit together.

Organized criminals operating both domestically and internationally corrupt bankers and subvert national economies through the use of drug money.

This book examines the history of money laundering from ancient times to the cocaine craze of the 1970s to the sophisticated, brutal techniques employed by today's terrorists and organized crime.

Lively and detailed, this book chronicles the stark realities and deadly dynamics of the lynchpin between organized crime and modern terrorism. It's a rare and fascinating look at a deadly world few have ever witnessed and lived to tell the story. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Entertainly written and educational
An excellent discussion of crime, organized crime, and how it affects daily life. Money, and its mysterious movements, are at the center of the book, of course. But it digresses into drugs, gambling, prostitution, gambling, and other ways in which illegal income is generated ... Read more

Book Description

This is the first full-scale study of the history of money, not merely of coinage, to have been written for medieval Europe. The book is not limited to one country, or to any one period or theme, but extracts the most important elements for the historian across the broadest possible canvas. Its scope extends from the mining of precious metals on the one hand, to banking, including the use of cheques and bills of exchange, on the other. Chapters are arranged chronologically, rather than regionally or thematically, and offer a detailed picture of the many and changing roles played by money, in all its forms, in all parts of Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Thus money is seen as having differing significances for differing parts of individual societies. The book shows money moving and changing as a result of war and trade and other political, economic and ecclesiastical activities without regard for national barriers or the supposed separation between 'East' and 'West'. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Heavy reading for numismatists, historians, and ... DMs.
Peter Spufford's highly detailed history of Medieval European money is an invaluable reference book for numismatists who want to know deep details of the coins they study, and for historians interested in the impact of trade, plunder, metal mining, and industry on the Medieval economy.

Strangely, what I found it most useful for was as an aid to running fantasy role-playing games (e.g., Dungeons & Dragons). Spufford explains the impact of inflation in Medieval economies caused by the rapid influx of ready money (from the silver mines of Bohemia, for example), which would closely parallel the impact of a treasure hoard brought to a civilized community by fantasy adventurers.

Likewise, Spufford deals with the shortage of precious metals and their impact on coinage: debasement, depreciation, and depression, as "white" (silver) money gradually becomes "black" (base metal) coinage. DMs could readily reduce the impact of inflation in their campaigns by having adventurers discover a hoard of debased coinage with only a limited amount of "good" gold and silver coins. Rather than assuming that "treasure types" in monster hoards and lairs are good coinage all of the time, even a cursory study of "Money and Its Uses" should give the DM ideas for tossing in debased coinage.

Debased coins in hoards could, in turn, become adventure hooks if the player characters actually bother to study what they have found: why, for example are the coins of King Poobah IV mostly lead mixed with a small amount of silver when his father, King Poobah III, issued sound coins of good silver? Did something happen to cut off the silver supply? Is there perhaps an orc-infested silver mine somewhere nearby? As Spufford indicates -- primarily in relation to gold -- enemy action could off one state from its supply of precious metals in some other part of the world, enriching the enemy at the expense of the suddenly deprived state. In a fantasy campaign, the enemy might well be orcs, a dragon, or a lich instead of Turks or Mongols. On the other hand, a third state might well profit by trading with the first state's enemy. (In The Forgotten Realms Campaign setting, imagine Calimshan suddenly boycotting Waterdeep to trade exclusively with Amn, and you have a parallel with the commercial rivalry of, for example, Venice and Genoa trying to snare trade with the Muslim East.) ... Read more

Book Description

This book provides prespectives on various aspects of the international financial system that contribute to financial crises and growth failures, and discusses the remedies that economists have proposed for addressing the underlying problems.It also sheds light on a central feature of the international financial system that remains mysterious to many economists and most non-economists: The International Monetary Fund and the factors that influence its effectiveness. ... Read more

Book Description

The increasingly integrated economies of East Asia -- China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand -- face the dilemma of how to achieve exchange-rate security in the absence of a unifying "Asian euro." The US dollar has become the region's dominant intraregional trading currency as well as the monetary anchor to which East Asian economies informally peg their currencies. In this timely and original analysis of the benefits and risks of an East Asian dollar standard, Ronald McKinnon takes issue with the conventional view that urges flexible exchange rates on financially fragile economies. He argues instead that East Asian countries should coordinate their policies to keep their exchange rates stable against the dollar.

McKinnon develops a conceptual framework to show where the conventional wisdom on exchange rates has gone wrong. Pressure on the "virtuous" high-saving dollar-creditor East Asian nations to appreciate their currencies leads to a "conflicted" choice between a possible deflationary slump if they do appreciate and threatened trade sanctions if they do not. Analyzing interactions among the East Asian economies, McKinnon explains the rationale, and the need, for greater exchange-rate security in the region, pointing to the soft-dollar pegs adopted by these nations as steps in the right direction. He suggests that the dollar standard in East Asia could be rationalized through collective action by national governments and considers the effect of American monetary and trade policies on the East Asian economy. ... Read more

Book Description

A lucid and original account of where money comes from and why most people and businesses are so heavily in debt. It explodes more myths than any other book this century, yet it's all about subjects very close to home: mortgages, building societies and banks, agriculture, transport, global poverty, and what's on the supermarket shelf. The author proposes a new mechanism for the supply of money, creating a supportive financial environment and a decreasing reliance on debt. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

It is vital you read this important work
Readers appear divided over this book.

I happen to believe it is one of the most profound economic and political tracts of the last 30 years. I have studied economics and much of what Rowbotham says is uncontroversial and has its basis in Austrian Economics (for those who are interested they should read Prof. Rothbard's works on monetary economics). The shrill criticism below is just a little too loud for me. If they don't like the book why tell others NOT to read it? Why can't people make up their own minds? Methinks they protest too much.

It is also disturbing that even Amazon.com no longer has the book in stock. Could Amazon.com please make this important work available for the public to purchase.

You should try to gain access to this important work before access to it is taken from you. If you are confused by where the world is headed and disturbed by what is happening in the economy please get hold of this book - it may just give you the answers you have been seeking.

Get a copy of the book and make up your own mind. I beg you.

the detractors can't back up their claims
You'll notice that people either love it or hate it. Please also notice that the detractors don't offer any summary to rebuke the book's basic thesis. Monetary reformists disagree with allowing banks to control money by the creation of money within the fractional reserve banking pyramid of "credit" (read DEBT). The debts of governments never decrease. Reduction of government debt actually hurts the economy (if you consider lack of growth to be a negative). Multiply the average per capita income of the U.S. by the popuplation of the U.S. and you'll yield a rough estimate of the amount of money in circulation (notice I said in circulation, not sent off to Swiss bank accounts). Guess what that number is always approximately equal to? It equals the debt of the U.S. government, about $6.4 trillion as I write this - a debt owed mainly to the financial establishment, the "elites" of the world who live off usury. How do the people who hate this book explain such facts? They don't. They can't explain the creation of money because they just don't get it. They are defenders of the status quo. They want us to believe that our money is honest so the privileged can retain the appearance of having earned their respected positions.

I don't think Rowbotham wants to abolish money. He's only asking for a more genuine and democratic monetary system. Let governments create money for themselves - no borrowing from the rich money that can never be paid back. Conservatives shout and wail that such a method would cause inflation. SO! Inflation happens in the current system. If you create more money, all vendors will raise their prices to try to scoop up those new dollars in circulation. The problem is that the wealthy control that very creation by fractional reserve banking - lending out more money than they really have to lend, which they are able to do because money is not a physical thing, but instead just numbers on ledgers. If you don't see a problem there, you've simply been duped by years of believing that banks are somehow honest institutions...

Able to confuse some
Judging by some of the reviews posted here some people who have looked at this book feel like they have stumbled onto something profound and new.

The same reviewers also use the words: 'disturbing' and 'confusing'.

This is a book written by a hack who preys on those 'disturbed' and 'confused' minds by quoting some eminent people out of context, using some real statistics then drawing absurd conclusions.

I was lent a copy in April this year and browsed this site out of curiosity and was surprised to see so many people had read it. My understanding is that most of the original print run had to be pulped, and the copy I was lent was a rarity. When I read it I could see why.

Poorly written, poorly researched, full of errors of fact and logic (too many to remember now 6 months after reading the book). The title is memorable but perhaps better suited to a B grade horror flick. The publisher was embarassed, I am sure. The author appears to have been swept away in his own world and is probably busy today muttering in some alley-way about lack of coins, and the coming end of the world due to shortage of such.

Apparently there are still some 2nd hand copies available. It's a buyer's market, I would say...

Worth reading
I say worth reading because this book is an example of what claptrap can get published and read. Some semi-educated people will even take it seriously, if a few of the reviews here are to be believed. This book is a good case study in getting the wrong end of the stick and swinging it wildly in all directions. Worth a read - but be prepared for pages of dull and repetitious prose.

Brainless twaddle
This book proceeds from a number of basic misunderstandings, which are then amplified by speculation and exaggeration. The statistics quoted give the reader the feel that there is some scholarship involved - but this book would not have passed undergraduate peer review. Sad for the publishers, sad for the author. Exciting for some readers who think they have discovered a new economic tract, but this is twaddle of the lowest order - full of first-year undergraduate errors. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

The adoption of the euro in 1999 by 11 member states of the European Union created a single currency area second in economic size only to the United States. The euro zone's monetary policy is now set by the European Central Bank (ECB) and its Governing Council rather than by individual national central banks. This CESifo volume examines issues that have arisen in the first years of ECB monetary policy and analyzes the effect that current ECB policy strategy and structures may have in the future.

After a detailed description and assessment of ECB monetary policy making that focuses on such issues as price stability and the predictability of policy decisions, the book turns to two important issues faced by European central bankers: the transparency and credibility of decision making and the ECB's decentralized structure. After showing that transparency in decision making enhances credibility, the book discusses the ECB's efforts at openness, its political independence as guaranteed by law, and its ultimate accountability. The book then considers the effects of the decentralized ECB structure, focusing on business cycle synchronization, inflation differentials, and differences in monetary policy transmission in light of the enlargement of the monetary union. The book also discusses options for ECB institutional reforms, including centralization, vote weighting, and cross-border regional banks. ... Read more

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Reviews (1)

Not for the layman
This much heralded account of the Federal Reserve is justly lauded in academic circles because Meltzer brings forth many Fed documents which have long been buried away and unavailable to scholars. He is able to pursue step-by-step Fed actions and relate what happened in all those many meetings behind closed doors. Through the mass of information he has uncovered and his own in-depth knowledge of monetary policy and the Fed, he is able to bring new facts to light and correct previous interpretations that are more often than not those of Friedman and Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States.

The weaknesses of Meltzer's book stem from his massive archive of information and the strength of his predecessors. The sheer volume of information he is trying to convey prompts the narrative to drift and the reader sometimes loses the point. And, as a good academic historian, he is engaged in a dialogue with other historians of the Fed and monetary policy that can push the layman to the sidelines. Meltzer's history assumes the reader has a rather advanced knowledge of economics and finance such as an understanding of the real bills doctrine and the operation of an international gold standard. Also, the charts and tables are often not very helpful in understanding the text or at least could have been presented in a better manner.

Overall, Meltzer does not produce any stunning revelations but a great many correctives to previous accounts and much added detail. The novice to the history of US monetary policy would do better to read Richard Timberlake's book (though taken with a grain of salt because of its conservative leanings) or the classic work by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz. ... Read more

Book Description

This history and analysis of the euro and the European Central Bank traces the process of European monetary integration from its beginnings as a utopian vision in the aftermath of World War II through the establishment of a single currency managed by a central bank. Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, a central banker who has been involved in the making of European monetary unification since 1979, offers an accessible guide to the euro and the European Central Bank for scholars, students, and the general reader, discussing the related economic, financial, monetary, and international political issues. In the process he also provides an overview of central banking in general and the multiple activities of a central bank; as the case of the European Central Bank illustrates, central banking involves not only monetary analysis and policy but much else, including banknote printing and handling, market operations, payment systems, bank supervision, and coordinating with other public institutions.

Padoa-Schioppa begins with the historical background of European monetary integration, starting with the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which lay the foundation for the Common Market, and covering the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, the development of an anchor currency, and the "euroskepticism" of the U.K. Subsequent chapters are devoted to economic policy, monetary policy, the euro as unifier in the financial system, the payment system, the euro as an international actor outside "euroland," and the challenges ahead for the still relatively young project of European monetary integration. ... Read more

Book Description

How should governments and central banks use monetary policy to create a healthy economy? Traditionally, policymakers have used such strategies as controlling the growth of the money supply or pegging the exchange rate to a stable currency. In recent years a promising new approach has emerged: publicly announcing and pursuing specific targets for the rate of inflation. This book is the first in-depth study of inflation targeting. Combining penetrating theoretical analysis with detailed empirical studies of countries where inflation targeting has been adopted, the authors show that the strategy has clear advantages over traditional policies. They argue that the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank should adopt this strategy, and they make specific proposals for doing so.

The book begins by explaining the unique features and advantages of inflation targeting. The authors argue that the simplicity and openness of inflation targeting make it far easier for the public to understand the intent and effects of monetary policy. This strategy also increases policymakers' accountability for inflation performance and can accommodate flexible, even "discretionary," monetary policy actions without sacrificing central banks' credibility. The authors examine how well variants of this approach have worked in nine countries: Germany and Switzerland (which employ a money-focused form of inflation targeting), New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Israel, Spain, and Australia. They show that these countries have typically seen lower inflation, lower inflation expectations, and lower nominal interest rates, and have found that one-time shocks to the price level have less of a "pass-through" effect on inflation. These effects, in turn, are improving the climate for economic growth. The authors warn, however, that the success of inflation targeting depends on operational details, such as how the targets are defined and when they are announced. They also show that inflation targeting is not a panacea that can make inflation perfectly predictable or reduce it without economic costs.

Clear, balanced, and authoritative, Inflation Targeting is a groundbreaking study that will have a major impact on the debate over the right monetary strategy for the coming decades. As a unique comparative study of what central banks actually do in different countries around the world, this book will also be invaluable to anyone interested in how economic policy is made. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Yawn
I have never been a fan of condensed books for the obvious reason that they leave out content and motivation. This book, however, could be shrunk by 3/4 without any real loss. Yes, there is much in-depth case study information here, but the paper could have been much better used by substituting much of it for some harder, theoretical motivation and analytical discussions. The authors are capable of this. Also, despite the painstaking redundent detail and a few regressions, for me the authors fail to place inflation targeting and inflation targeting countries into the greater context of inflationary policies and countries facing inflation. It surprises me that there is no mention of some of the, especially developing countries, where inflation has been a serious problem and where most battles of the future are likely to be fought.

Heavy on the case studies and mildly repetitive.
An easy to read book for people of all levels. It takes the reader through case studies on the various countries which have introduced inflation targeting. This is interesting from a historical perspective, but since inflation targeting really is a very simple concept (announce an inflation target, describe why you aim to hit this target, make it clear how you shall go about achieving this target and at all times be transparent in your pursuit of that target) the book tends to be repetitive. This book simply goes over too many similar regimes and thus cannot help but cover the same points over again. The last chapter is a study of the U.S. (a rare example of a country with very steady inflation which has not introduced an explicit inflation target) with some recommendations on how (and why) it should implement an inflation target. This book is recommended if you want very indepth case studies on the introduction of inflation targeting in countries as different as Sweden, New Zealand, The U.K. and Australia, but if you only need a quick overview of what inflation targeting is then buy a good general Economics textbook and read the section on it. ... Read more