Best of
Banking

2019

The Real Business of Blockchain


David Furlonger - 2019
    What's your strategy? Forward-thinking organizations such as the Australian Stock Exchange, Equinor, the City of Austin, and dozens of others are exploring how blockchain can transform the way they create and seek value. Whether to streamline multi-party processes, create and trade new assets, or leverage artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, blockchain enables entirely new business opportunities.This is just the start. As blockchain is more widely adopted, it has the potential to radically reinvent the way companies and societies operate, as radical a paradigm shift as happened with the launch of the internet.The Real Business of Blockchain is one of the first books on this transformative technology written for business leaders. Authors David Furlonger and Christophe Uzureau--both of Gartner, the world-renowned research and advisory company--will help you:Assess how blockchain will impact your business by cutting through the hype and finding the real storyExplore the value proposition that blockchain technologies offerMake smart near- and mid-term investments in your blockchain strategyPosition you and your organization in a new competitive landscape in the futureTimely, visionary, and practical, The Real Business of Blockchain cuts through the hype and helps you unlock the vast potential of this transformative and potentially world-changing technology.

How Money Became Dangerous: The Inside Story of Our Turbulent Relationship with Modern Finance


Christopher Varelas - 2019
    You might have had a bank account and a mortgage, perhaps some basic investments. Wall Street didn’t have a reputation for greed and recklessness. That all started to change in the eighties, as our financial systems became increasingly complex, moving beyond the understanding of the general public while impacting our lives in innumerable ways. The financial world began to feel like an enigma—a rogue force working against us, seemingly controlled by no one. From an industry veteran who’s had firsthand involvement in the events that shaped modern money, How Money Became Dangerous journeys from the crime-ridden LA jewelry district to the cutthroat Salomon Brothers trading floor, from the high-stakes world of investment banking to the center of the technology boom, capturing the key deals, developments, and players that made the financial world what it is today. The book illuminates the dark, hidden forces of Wall Street and how it has dehumanized and left behind everyday Americans. A fresh and enlightening take on how we reached this point, How Money Became Dangerous also makes the case for why Wall Street needs to be saved, if only to save ourselves.

Brooklyn Bankster


Lance Morcan - 2019
    The problem is no-one knows who the hell Bill Hogan is. Does he even exist?All is not what it seems in this fast-paced, short story.

Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic


Christopher W. Shaw - 2019
    With its corruptive influence on politics and stranglehold on the American economy, Wall Street is held in high regard by few outside the financial sector. But the pitchforks raised against this behemoth are largely rhetorical: we rarely see riots in the streets or public demands for an equitable and democratic banking system that result in serious national changes.Yet the situation was vastly different a century ago, as Christopher W. Shaw shows. This book upends the conventional thinking that financial policy in the early twentieth century was set primarily by the needs and demands of bankers. Shaw shows that banking and politics were directly shaped by the literal and symbolic investments of the grassroots. This engagement remade financial institutions and the national economy, through populist pressure and the establishment of federal regulatory programs and agencies like the Farm Credit System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Shaw reveals the surprising groundswell behind seemingly arcane legislation, as well as the power of the people to demand serious political repercussions for the banks that caused the Great Depression. One result of this sustained interest and pressure was legislation and regulation that brought on a long period of relative financial stability, with a reduced frequency of economic booms and busts. Ironically, this stability led to the decline of the very banking politics that brought it about.Giving voice to a broad swath of American figures, including workers, farmers, politicians, and bankers alike, Money, Power, and the People recasts our understanding of what might be possible in balancing the needs of the people with those of their financial institutions.