Now the retail banking business model looks set to be transformed too. In Bye Bye Banks? James Haycock and Shane Richmond describe these startups, and to which areas of the banking industry they are laying siege. It shows that this assault is already well underway and that many incumbents are poised to be displaced, diminished and disintermediated. It draws on extensive research and on-and-off the record interviews with senior executives in some of the biggest banks. Haycock and Richmond conclude with the recommendation that traditional banks need to reinvent themselves by launching a ‘Beta Bank’: a lean, stand-alone organisation fit for the future for which they provide a ten-point operating model. This short book is a bold, urgent and timely analysis of the forces shaping the future of financial services. Its message to industry leaders in the sector could not be more simple: adapt or prepare to be disrupted. “This work accurately and concisely captures the effects of the disruption brought to the banking industry by the digital revolution. The comments by other banking and innovation professionals about their own experiences are particularly intriguing.” - Alessandro Hatami, former Innovation Executive at Lloyds Banking Group “James Haycock is a key voice for how the banking industry should and will change.” - Tom Hopkins, Product Innovation Director, Experian Consumer Services “If you are an incumbent retail bank, read it, get on with it, make it happen.” - Lee Sankey, former Group Design Director, Barclays

    

    Companies are shutting down and laying off workers, 401ks are melting away, and the government is spending $700 billion dollars to bail out banks and financial institutions -- and that's only the beginning. The financial services industry, and the many industries that depend on it -- from housing to cars -- is in intensive care. So what happened? How did we get to this point of financial disaster? Is the economy just a huge, Madoff-esque Ponzi scheme? It is a complicated and confusing story -- but Daniel Gross of Newsweek has a special gift for making complicated matters easy to understand and even entertaining. In Dumb Money, he offers a guide to the debacle and to what the future may hold. This is not so much a book about who did what, though that's part of the story. Rather, it pieces together the building blocks of the debt-fueled economy, and distills the theory and personalities behind our late, lamented easy money culture. Dumb Money is a book that finally lays it all out in an engaging way, and might just help people invest their money smartly until the gloom passes.

    For the introductory Finance course, given during the junior year and required at all undergraduate business schools.Keown enables students to see the big picture by letting them understand the logic that drives finance rather than having them memorize formulas.

    When John Hargrave first invested in cryptocurrency, the price of a single bitcoin was about $125; a few years later, that same bitcoin was worth $20,000. He wasn’t alone: this flood of new money is like the early days of the Internet, creating a new breed of “blockchain billionaires.” Sir John has unlocked their secrets. In Blockchain for Everyone, Sir John reveals the formula for investing in bitcoin and blockchain, using real-life stories, easy-to-understand examples, and a healthy helping of humor. Packed with illustrations, Blockchain for Everyone explains how (and when) to buy bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and other blockchain assets, with step-by-step instructions. Blockchain for Everyone is the first blockchain investing book written for the layperson: a guide that helps everyone understand how to build wealth wisely. It’s the new investing manifesto!

    ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.Private Empire pulls back the curtain, tracking the corporation’s recent history and its central role on the world stage, beginning with the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 and leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The action spans the globe, moving from Moscow, to impoverished African capitals, Indonesia, and elsewhere in heart-stopping scenes that feature kidnapping cases, civil wars, and high-stakes struggles at the Kremlin. At home, Coll goes inside ExxonMobil’s K Street office and corporation headquarters in Irving, Texas, where top executives in the “God Pod” (as employees call it) oversee an extraordinary corporate culture of discipline and secrecy.The narrative is driven by larger than life characters, including corporate legend Lee “Iron Ass” Raymond, ExxonMobil’s chief executive until 2005. A close friend of Dick Cheney’s, Raymond was both the most successful and effective oil executive of his era and an unabashed skeptic about climate change and government regulation.. This position proved difficult to maintain in the face of new science and political change and Raymond’s successor, current ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, broke with Raymond’s programs in an effort to reset ExxonMobil’s public image. The larger cast includes countless world leaders, plutocrats, dictators, guerrillas, and corporate scientists who are part of ExxonMobil’s colossal story.The first hard-hitting examination of ExxonMobil, Private Empire is the masterful result of Coll’s indefatigable reporting. He draws here on more than four hundred interviews; field reporting from the halls of Congress to the oil-laden swamps of the Niger Delta; more than one thousand pages of previously classified U.S. documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act; heretofore unexamined court records; and many other sources. A penetrating, newsbreaking study, Private Empire is a defining portrait of ExxonMobil and the place of Big Oil in American politics and foreign policy.Winner of the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2012

    What they had in common was their aftermath -- each required compensation for lives lost, bodies maimed, livelihoods wrecked, economies and ecosystems upended. In each instance, an objective third party had to step up and dole out allocated funds: in each instance, Presidents, Attorneys General, and other public officials have asked Kenneth R. Feinberg to get the job done. In Who Gets What?, Feinberg reveals the deep thought that must go into each decision, not to mention the most important question that arises after a tragedy: why compensate at all? The result is a remarkably accessible discussion of the practical and philosophical problems of using money as a way to address wrongs and reflect individual worth.

    This highly accessible book is aimed at anyone who wants to improve their financial situation, from the financial novice who needs clear basic guidelines on how to deal with money to those who are more financially savvy but want to supplement their knowledge. Covering a range of topics, from saving, investing, debt management, buying a house to blunders to avoid, Become Your Own Financial Advisor provides people of all ages and levels of wealth with practical information on how to improve their finances. And, in the process, proves that financial freedom is possible for everyone.

    My objective is to identify and invest in what I call the stars of tomorrow—the fastest growing, most innovative companies in the world.” Michael Moe was one of the first research analysts to identify Starbucks as a huge opportunity following its IPO in 1992, when its market cap was $220 million. Today, its market cap is $23 billion. Lucky? Maybe a little. Art or science? Both. For more than fifteen years Moe has made great calls on many other stocks, earning a reputation as one of today’s most insightful market experts. Now, in his first book, Moe shows how winners like Dell, eBay, and Home Depot could have been spotted in their start-up phase and how you can find Wall Street’s future giants. He forecasts the areas with the greatest potential for growth, including peer-to- peer networking, nanotechnology, and alternative energy. And he explains his four Ps of future superstars: great people, leading product, huge potential, and predictability. Ironically, while the opportunities for outsized returns for investors lie in identifying early-stage growth companies, large investment banks are driven by the economics of trading volume and therefore generally ignore the stars of tomorrow. If you are looking to invest in tomorrow’s winners it’s unlikely you will find them by reading Wall Street research. Mainly, Wall Street is focused on reporting on companies everybody already knows about. Coincidentally, to identify and invest in tomorrow’s stars, you are unlikely to be battling Wall Street’s finest—they aren’t there. Throughout the book Moe includes interviews with some of the biggest names in business—from Howard Schultz and Bill Campbell to Vinod Khosla and Michael Milken—who reveal their own insights into how they discover the stars of tomorrow. For Wall Street insiders and individual investors alike, Finding the Next Starbucks is an indispensable guide to spotting growth opportunities.

    You can live and work anywhere in the world, be independent from the routine, and not answer to anybody. This is the life of a successful trader.Many aspire to it but few succeed. Newcomers often fail to prepare for the markets’ tough challenges. They keep making serious mistakes that could easily be avoided.This book will help you decide whether trading is for you and teach you its key essential rules.Success in trading is based on three Ms: Mind (psychology), Method (tactics), and Money (risk management). Each of these areas is covered in its own section of this ebook. The final section covers such practical topics as record-keeping, finding a broker, beginning to trade and continuing education.CONTENTSHow this book is organized / Free updates & the honor code / Is it possible to trade for a living? / Can anyone become a successful trader?MIND - Trading Psychology for BeginnersWhat you need to succeed / Who should not trade? / No illusions / A trading aptitude test / Trading psychology resourcesMETHOD: Trading Rules for BeginnersTwo ways to analyze markets / Mind the gap between price and value / Live data and day-trading / Going long, selling short, or spreading / What stocks to trade / Futures, options, and forex / Use multiple timeframes / Discretionary and systematic trading / Placing orders / Profit targets / Protective stopsMONEY MANAGEMENT for BeginnersThe three essential numbers for every trade / The 2% Rule / The 6% RuleTrade sizing - the iron triangle of risk control / What account size is good for beginners?PRACTICALITIES for BeginnersPaper trading / Record-keeping / What is your edge? / Opening a brokerage account / Taxes / Continuing education: books, software, etc.Alexander Elder, M.D. is a professional trader based in New York. He is the author of several best-selling books: Trading for a Living, Come into My Trading Room, Entries & Exits, and The New Sell and Sell Short (all with Study Guides). Dr. Elder taught psychiatry at Columbia University. His experience provides him with unique insight into the psychology of trading. Dr. Elder is a sought-after speaker at worldwide conferences.

    You don’twant to be the old employee working as a door greeter at your big chain department store. It will also be frustrating and very depressing if you are not financially aware of your future. Time seems to go faster the older you get and it’s never too late to get started.But getting started might be one of your problems. There is too much information available and too many scammers are trying to get you to invest in shady companies. You also don’t have the time to figure everything out by yourself, because it might seem too hard and complicated.However, getting the investing part of your life handled will improve your life tremendously. You will have peace of mind when you think about your future and you will also have the confidence to make sound investing decisions. You’ll also have the knowledge to talk intelligently with your peers and financial advisors, making it easy to spot when someone is giving you wrong information.I begin with the basics, like what are stocks and how the stock market works. I then transition into how you can make money in the stock market, give you some stocks you should have on your watch list and some of the lies and mistakes you will have to deal with as an investor.So, don’t wait and get this book now. It’s on sale at this moment, but the price will go up!

    But the meeting at Bretton Woods in 1944 was different. It was the only time countries from around the world have agreed to overhaul the structure of the international monetary system. Against all odds, they were successful. The system they set up presided over the longest, strongest and most stable period of growth the world economy has ever seen. Its demise some decades later was at least partly responsible for the periodic economic crises that culminated in the financial collapse of the 2000s.But what everyone has always assumed to be a dry economic conference was in fact replete with drama. The delegates spent half the time at each other's throats and the other half drinking in the hotel bar. The Russians nearly capsized the entire project. The French threatened to walk out, repeatedly. All the while war in Europe raged on.At the very heart of the conference was the love-hate relationship between the Briton John Maynard Keynes, the greatest economist of his day, who suffered a heart attack at the conference itself and who was a true worldwide celebrity - and his American counterpart Harry Dexter White (later revealed to be passing information secretly to Russian spies). Both were intent on creating an economic settlement which would put right the wrongs of Versailles. Both were working to prevent another world war. But they were also working to defend their countries' national interests.Drawing on a wealth of unpublished accounts, diaries and oral histories, this brilliant book describes the conference in stunning color and clarity. Bringing to life the characters, events and economics and written with exceptional verve and narrative pace, this is an extraordinary debut from a talented new historian.

    

    

    But the heart of the matter is that, as the crisis unfolds, the basic rules of European democracy are being subverted or turned into their opposite, bypassing parliaments, governments and EU institutions. Multilateralism is turning into unilateralism, equality into hegemony, sovereignty into the dependency and recognition into disrespect for the dignity of other nations. Even France, which long dominated European integration, must submit to Berlin's strictures now that it must fear for its international credit rating.How did this happen? The anticipation of the European catastrophe has already fundamentally changed the European landscape of power. It is giving birth to a political monster: a German Europe. Germany did not seek this leadership position - rather, it is a perfect illustration of the law of unintended consequences. The invention and implementation of the euro was the price demanded by France in order to pin Germany down to a European Monetary Union in the context of German unification. It was a quid pro quo for binding a united Germany into a more integrated Europe in which France would continue to play the leading role. But the precise opposite has happened. Economically the euro turned out to be very good for Germany, and with the euro crisis Chancellor Angela Merkel became the informal Queen of Europe.The new grammar of power reflects the difference between creditor and debtor countries; it is not a military but an economic logic. Its ideological foundation is 'German euro nationalism' - that is, an extended European version of the Deutschmark nationalism that underpinned German identity after the Second World War. In this way the German model of stability is being surreptitiously elevated into the guiding idea for Europe. The Europe we have now will not be able to survive in the risk-laden storms of the globalized world. The EU has to be more than a grim marriage sustained by the fear of the chaos that would be caused by its breakdown. It has to be built on something more positive: a vision of rebuilding Europe bottom-up, creating a Europe of the citizen. There is no better way to reinvigorate Europe than through the coming together of ordinary Europeans acting on their own behalf.