Bear Trap, The Fall of Bear Stearns and the Panic of 2008 (HC)

Bear Trap, The Fall of Bear Stearns and the Panic of 2008 (HC)
Author: Bill Bamber
Publisher: ibooks
Total Pages: 531
Release: 2009-05-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1883283639

Bamber says BEAR TRAP is not an exposé, not a tell-all tale. Instead, he says it's a book about the human drama of watching a venerable global institution's untimely collapse. Released on the day Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, BEAR TRAP rocketed to #400 on Amazon as the country held its breath waiting for the Panic and “Great Recession” that followed. “This (book) just tells the story from someone who's there. It takes the reader and puts them into my seat. We all know how this ended, but (this book) is really all about the journey there.’" -Anthony Cronin, Business Editor, The Day’s Business Bear, Stearns & Co., a storied Wall Street firm with a maverick reputation had endured many crises in its 85-year history. Nothing however could have prepared the firm for the sudden death spiral that would lead to its takeover for a pittance. In a dramatic showdown with JP Morgan and the Fed, this is the tragic story of how fortunes were made and lost. Bill Bamber, a senior executive at Bear Stearns, had a bird’s eye view of just what happened inside Bear’s offices and on the trading floor that led to the most sensational financial crisis of our times. He recounts in detail the chain of events that led to the death spiral–from Bear's point-of-view and from the global financial marketplace. He details the securities manipulations that precipitated the credit crisis–those same securities in our IRAs and 401Ks. Bamber reveals for the first time how foreign demand for U.S. capital played a role in the Bear's massacre, and provides an insider’s view of the unprecedented actions taken by the Treasury and Federal Reserve to avoid a world-wide financial crisis.

Banking and Financial Markets

Banking and Financial Markets
Author: Paola Ferretti
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2023-06-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3031325621

This book provides the foundational knowledge essential for comprehending the functioning of financial markets and institutions and their current challenges. First, the book provides a general overview on the functioning of the EU financial system, examining financial markets and financial intermediaries’ features and activity and their contribution to economic growth. It also outlines the evolution of the EU integration process, giving an overview of the most important regulatory steps related to the banking and financial system culminated in the creation of the Banking Union. Banking activity is also examined in the most important business areas: commercial versus investment banking. Lastly, the book introduces two important phenomena, which are currently characterizing the financial environment: FinTech and sustainable finance. Both FinTech and sustainable finance represent significant opportunities for the market and the operators, even if the challenges and risks associated are also relevant. This underlines the need to understand their intensity and their potential impact on the functioning of the financial system as a whole.

Rogue Traders (HC)

Rogue Traders (HC)
Author: Scott E.D. Skyrm
Publisher: ibooks
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2014-09-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1590190017

Ever since the earliest days of commerce, business people have organized themselves into partnerships. They formed groups with a common interest and worked together as a single unit, assuming both the risks and rewards of the business. It was a natural way of achieving a common goal. If the business succeeded, all of the partners made money. If it flourished, the partners even sometimes became rich. However, success wasn’t assured and if the business failed, they all suffered together. In addition to a multitude of other industries, this was the model that dominated how Wall Street firms operated up until the 1980’s. Beginning in the 1980’s, it was not uncommon to find that a freshly-hired trainee – a kid literally right out of college – knew more about the new financial instruments than the CEO of the firm that hired him. In some instances, the kids were learning about the finer points of newly-invented instruments before their managers knew they even existed. These were the new breed of traders scattered across the trading desks. The individuals whose stories compose the contents of this book are some of the smartest people you’ll ever read about. They had an intimate understanding of the markets and how best to make money from them, but they also had an equally in-depth knowledge of some of the flaws in the markets. Or sometimes, flaws in the systems at the banks themselves. They used their knowledge to make money. And when that failed, they often used their knowledge of how the system was structured to hide their losses. And when that failed, there was no turning back.

The Great Deformation

The Great Deformation
Author: David Stockman
Publisher: Public Affairs
Total Pages: 770
Release: 2013-04-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1586489127

A former Michigan congressman and member of the Reagan administration describes how interference in the financial markets has contributed to the national debt and has damaging and lasting repercussions.

The Panic of 1907

The Panic of 1907
Author: Robert F. Bruner
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2009-04-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0470452587

"Before reading The Panic of 1907, the year 1907 seemed like a long time ago and a different world. The authors, however, bring this story alive in a fast-moving book, and the reader sees how events of that time are very relevant for today's financial world. In spite of all of our advances, including a stronger monetary system and modern tools for managing risk, Bruner and Carr help us understand that we are not immune to a future crisis." —Dwight B. Crane, Baker Foundation Professor, Harvard Business School "Bruner and Carr provide a thorough, masterly, and highly readable account of the 1907 crisis and its management by the great private banker J. P. Morgan. Congress heeded the lessons of 1907, launching the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to prevent banking panics and foster financial stability. We still have financial problems. But because of 1907 and Morgan, a century later we have a respected central bank as well as greater confidence in our money and our banks than our great-grandparents had in theirs." —Richard Sylla, Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets, and Professor of Economics, Stern School of Business, New York University "A fascinating portrayal of the events and personalities of the crisis and panic of 1907. Lessons learned and parallels to the present have great relevance. Crises and panics are as much a part of our future as our past." —John Strangfeld, Vice Chairman, Prudential Financial "Who would have thought that a hundred years after the Panic of 1907 so much remained to be written about it? Bruner and Carr break significant new ground because they are willing to do the heavy lifting of combing through massive archival material to identify and weave together important facts. Their book will be of interest not only to banking theorists and financial historians, but also to business school and economics students, for its rare ability to teach so clearly why and how a panic unfolds." —Charles Calomiris, Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions, Columbia University, Graduate School of Business

Crisis and Control

Crisis and Control
Author: Renate Mayntz
Publisher: Campus Verlag
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Financial crises
ISBN: 9783593396712

In reaction to the international financial crisis of 2007, a network of social scientists from seven countries analyzed the various changes in the regulation of financial markets, and this book presents their results. The articles published herein show patterns of institutional change that were triggered by the economic crisis on different political levels, of their implementation and effectiveness, as well as their results. An indispensible tool for political scientists, Crisis and Control contributes significantly to the theory of institutional change.

Civilization's Crisis: A Set Of Linked Challenges

Civilization's Crisis: A Set Of Linked Challenges
Author: John Scales Avery
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2017-04-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9813222476

Modern civilization faces a broad spectrum of daunting problems, but rational solutions are available for them all. This book explores the following issues: (1) Threats to the environment and climate change; (2) a growing population and vanishing resources; (3) the global food and refugee crisis; (4) intolerable economic inequality; (5) the threat of nuclear war; (6) the military-industrial complex; and (7) limits to growth. These problems are closely interlinked, and their possible solutions are discussed in this book.

The Future of Finance

The Future of Finance
Author: Henri Arslanian
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2019-07-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030145336

This book, written jointly by an engineer and artificial intelligence expert along with a lawyer and banker, is a glimpse on what the future of the financial services will look like and the impact it will have on society. The first half of the book provides a detailed yet easy to understand educational and technical overview of FinTech, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies including the existing industry pain points and the new technological enablers. The second half provides a practical, concise and engaging overview of their latest trends and their impact on the future of the financial services industry including numerous use cases and practical examples. The book is a must read for any professional currently working in finance, any student studying the topic or anyone curious on how the future of finance will look like.

Monetary Alternatives

Monetary Alternatives
Author: James A. Dorn
Publisher: Cato Institute
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2017-03-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1944424458

What monetary system best serves society? The current system of pure government fiat monies, managed by discretionary central banks, is inefficient and unstable. Monetary Alternatives explores fundamental and controversial ideas that move our monetary system and economy beyond repeated crises to sustainable stability and prosperity. The contributors to this volume energetically question the status quo and provide compelling arguments for moving to a monetary system based on freedom and the rule of law.

Pre-budget Report 2008

Pre-budget Report 2008
Author: Great Britain. Treasury
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2008
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780101748421

The 2008 Pre-Budget Report presents updated assessments and forecasts of the economy and public finances, and reports on how in the face of major global economic shocks the Government intends to support the economy, businesses and households through these uncertain times while delivering its long-term goals. Measures announced include: temporarily reducing the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate to 15 per cent from1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009; bringing forward £3 billion of capital spending from 2010-11 including introducing a green stimulus supporting low carbon growth and jobs; introducing a new additional higher rate of income tax of 45 per cent for those with incomes above £150,000 from April 2011; increasing national insurance contributions by 0.5 per cent from April 2011; increasing alcohol and tobacco duties; a two pence per litre increase in fuel duty from 1 December). Immediate action to help those individuals and businesses most affected by the economic downturn include: increases in the income tax personal allowance; bringing forward the increase in Child Benefit; increases of the Child Tax Credit and a payment of £60 to all pensioners; help through mortgage rescue and Support for Mortgage Interest schemes for eligible homeowners in difficulty and a commitment from major mortgage lenders not to initiate repossession action within at least three months of an owner-occupier going into arrears; an additional £1.3 billion to support for the unemployed to find a new job; measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises facing credit constraints; a new HMRC Business Payment Support Service to allow businesses in temporary financial difficulty to pay their HMRC tax bills on a timetable they can afford; and more generous tax relief for businesses now making losses and the modification of a number of planned tax reforms, including vehicle excise duty, air passenger duty, and the deferral of the increase in the small companies' rate of corporation tax.