For more than two decades, he has conferred with central bankers (such as Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke) and advised top Wall Street executives and investors, from George Soros to Michael Steinhardt to Stan Druckenmiller. Political leaders (from Bill Bradley to Jack Kemp) have regularly sought his policy advice.The World Is Curved picks up where Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat left off, taking readers on an insider’s tour through the private offices of central bankers, finance ministers, even prime ministers. Smick reveals how today’s risky environment came to be—and why the mortgage mess is a symptom of potentially far more devastating trouble. He wrestles with the two questions on everyone’s mind: How bad could things really get in today’s volatile economy? And what can we do about it? Drawing on riveting anecdotes in language anyone can understand, Smick explains:Why the churning cauldron we call China (the next great bubble to burst) represents a powerful threat to everyone’s pocketbook How Japanese housewives have taken control of their nation’s savings, and why it matters to us How greed-driven bankers and investment bankers have put everyone’s pensions and 401(k)s at risk Why today’s “incredible shrinking central banks” may not be able to save us when the next crisis hits Why the big-money Russian, Chinese, Saudi, and Dubai sovereign wealth funds represent a tectonic shift in global financial power, away from the United States, Europe, and Japan Why the world desperately needs a “big think” financial doctrine to guide today’s dangerous ocean of moneyThe World Is Curved is the rare book that speaks simultaneously to the Wall Street, Washington, and London elite, yet its apt storytelling shows Main Street readers how to survive in these turbulent times.

    Across the globe, it has become increasingly accepted dogma that economic activities should be dominated by market forces, not political concerns. With chapters on Europe, the US, Britain, the Third World, the Arab States, Asia, China, India, Latin America, and the former communist countries, Yergin and Stanislaw provide an incisive overview of the state of the economy, and of the battles between governments and markets in each region. Now updated throughout and with two new chapters, The Commanding Heights explains a revolution which is unfolding before our very eyes.

    Pettifor argues that democracies can, and indeed must, reclaim control over money production and restrain the out-of-control finance sector so that it serves the interests of society, as well as the needs of the ecosystem.The Production of Money examines and assesses popular alternative debates on, and innovations in, money, such as “green QE” and “helicopter money.” She sets out the possibility of linking the money in our pockets (or on our smartphones) to the improvements we want to see in the world around us.

    No governments, no companies, no central banks, no money printing. It’s a revolution as big as the internet. And it’s never been hacked.Entrepreneur and investor Jason A. Williams is the first author to put bitcoin in context of the 2020 crisis - a year of financial disaster and unprecedented money creation (money printer go brrr!)Not only was bitcoin the best-performing asset on the planet in 2020, it quietly established itself as the next global reserve currency as central banks around the world desperately printed their money into oblivion.Hard Money You Can’t F*ck With explains bitcoin in simple, readable terms and maps out how this ‘magic internet money’ will grow into the best form of money we’ve ever had.What’s inside?Part 1: Why Bitcoin Matters Now- What is bitcoin?- Who created it?- Why bitcoin is ‘money you can’t f*ck with’- How bitcoin emerged out of the 2008 banking crisis.- Why money printing slowly destroys your wealth.Part 2: A brief history of money (and money printing)- Take a step back and learn ‘what exactly is money?’- Why ‘printing cash’ has always led to the death of currency.- Why bitcoin is the best form of money ever created.Part 3: How bitcoin becomes the next global reserve currency- A deep dive into the 2020 financial crisis and how bitcoin emerged strongest- The emergence of national digital currencies to compete.- Why some nation states are now holding and trading in bitcoin.

     What You Will Learn Through easy-to-understand examples and practical tips, Nathan will show you how anyone can achieve financial independence and investment success through dividend investing. In these pages, you'll discover: Why traditional investment strategies fail. The most dangerous investment strategy out there right now (and how to avoid it). How to dramatically improve your investment results while taking less risk. How to outperform most "passive index" strategies. How to practically guarantee a positive investment return over the long-term. Why dividends are the safest, most consistent, and common sense way to build wealth. What dividends are and where they come from. How dividends can replace your paycheck in retirement. Who Should Read It This book is for anyone who wants to build wealth and improve their investment returns. It’s not complicated. There are no fancy formulas or Wall Street mumbo jumbo. Beginning investors who just want to better understand how to make money investing in stocks. Experienced investors who have been burned by other investment strategies. Anyone who is afraid to lose money investing in the stock market. Those nearing retirement who wants to generate passive, consistent, and growing income. Retired people who are tired of getting 1% returns in their checking accounts and 3% (or less) from bond funds. Anyone considering buying an annuity. Who Should NOT Read It Those looking for “get-rich-quick” investing strategies. This strategy is about consistently and predictably growing your wealth over long time periods (20+ years). This book is targeted to people with little-to-no experience with dividend investing or investing in general. If you have a lot of experience with dividend investing, there probably isn’t much here for you. Annuity salespeople. If you want to sell an annuity, don’t read this book. And definitely don’t let your potential victims (errr… “clients”) read it. Testimonials "The book is well written and understandable for anyone with even minimal investing experience." -JCS "One of the best books on dividend growth investing. I wish I had known about this 10 years ago as I compared my tax-free bonds versus dividend growth investing would have doubled my portfolio if I had followed his books advice." -David "An investment strategy that makes sense. The book is short and to the point. Reading it will be time well spent." "I'm already employing the strategy in my own investments, but this book gave me a lot of confidence that I'm absolutely doing the right thing. It is short, but there's every bit as much content as a much longer book.

    Strapped-for-cash beginnings motivated her to strive for abundance and financial independence-goals she exceeded by age thirty as the founder of a multimillion-dollar business.Now she reveals the lessons she learned and the savvy strategies of other amazing women like designer Diane von Furstenberg and Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn. She shows how to: Say Yes to Yourself: Turn toward people and situations that enhance your well-being, and away from those that don't. Fall in Love with Your Money: When you treat your money with respect, keep track of it, and spend and save wisely, your money will always love you back. Act as If: Start your transformation by acting as if you already are as successful, intelligent, and prosperous as you want to be.

    Starting in the early 1980s the top one percent (1%) broke away from the rest of us to become the most unstable force in the economy. An elite that had once been the flat line on the American income charts - models of financial propriety - suddenly set off on a wild ride of economic binges.              Not only do they control more than a third of the country’s wealth, their increasing vulnerability to the booms and busts of the stock market wreak havoc on our consumer economy, financial markets, communities, employment opportunities, and government finances.        Robert Frank’s insightful analysis provides the disturbing big picture of high-beta wealth. His vivid storytelling brings you inside the mortgaged mansions, blown-up balance sheets, repossessed Bentleys and Gulfstreams, and wrecked lives and relationships: • How one couple frittered away a fortune trying to build America’s biggest house —90,000 square feet with 23 full bathrooms, a 6,000 square foot master suite with a bed on a rotating platform—only to be forced to put it on the market because “we really need the money”.    • Repo men who are now the scavengers of the wealthy, picking up private jets, helicopters, yachts and racehorses – the shiny remains of a decade of conspicuous consumption financed with debt, asset bubbles, “liquidity events,” and soaring stock prices.  • How “big money ruins everything” for communities such as Aspen, Colorado whose over-reliance on the rich created a stratified social scene of velvet ropes and A-lists and crises in employment opportunities, housing, and tax revenues.  • Why California’s worst budget crisis in history is due in large part to reliance on the volatile incomes of the state’s tech tycoons.  • The bitter divorce of a couple who just a few years ago made the Forbes 400 list of the richest people, the firing of their enormous household staff of 110, and how one former spouse learned  the marvels of shopping at Marshalls,  filling your own gas tank, and flying commercial.  Robert Frank’s stories and analysis brilliantly show that the emergence of the high-beta rich is not just a high-class problem for the rich. High-beta wealth has national consequences: America’s dependence on the rich + great volatility among the rich = a more volatile America.   Cycles of wealth are now much faster and more extreme. The rich are a new “Potemkin Plutocracy” and the important lessons and consequences are brought to light of day in this engrossing book.  high-beta rich (hi be’ta rich) 1. a newly discovered personality type of the America upper class prone to wild swings in wealth. 2. the winners (and occasional losers) in an economy that creates wealth from financial markets, asset bubbles and deals. 3. derived from the Wall Street term “high-beta,” meaning highly volatile or prone to booms and busts. 4. an elite that’s capable of wreaking havoc on communities, jobs, government finances, and the consumer economy. 5. a new Potemkin plutocracy that hides a mountain of debt behind the image of success, and is one crisis away from losing their mansions, private jets and yachts.From the Hardcover edition.

    Bagehot's book set down the principles that helped define the role of modern central banks, particularly in times of crisis--but the recent global financial meltdown has posed unforeseen challenges. The New Lombard Street lays out the innovative principles needed to address the instability of today's markets and to rebuild our financial system.Revealing how we arrived at the current crisis, Perry Mehrling traces the evolution of ideas and institutions in the American banking system since the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913. He explains how the Fed took classic central banking wisdom from Britain and Europe and adapted it to America's unique and considerably more volatile financial conditions. Mehrling demonstrates how the Fed increasingly found itself serving as the dealer of last resort to ensure the liquidity of securities markets--most dramatically amid the recent financial crisis. Now, as fallout from the crisis forces the Fed to adapt in unprecedented ways, new principles are needed to guide it. In The New Lombard Street, Mehrling persuasively argues for a return to the classic central bankers' "money view," which looks to the money market to assess risk and restore faith in our financial system.

    Rogers always had a restless curiosity to experience and understand the world around him.  In Street Smarts, he takes us through the highlights of his life in the financial markets, from his school days at Yale and Oxford --  where despite the fact that he didn’t have enough money to afford the appropriate pair of shoes, he coxed the crew and helped to win the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race as well as the Thames Cup, the first of his three Guiness World Records -- to his first heady taste of Wall Street in the mid - 1960s, and his years helping to run the most successful hedge fund on Wall Street.  As a result of his extraordinary success with the Quantum Fund, Rogers was able to retire at the age of thirty-seven.  Since then he has taught classes in finance at Columbia University, hosted television programs, and traveled the world seeing firsthand how revolutions in Chile affect coffee prices in Seattle, and how shortages of  copper in Africa affect electricity brownouts in Ohio.   In the course of his new book, Rogers offers often surprising observations on how the  world works – and what trends he sees in the future.  He explains why Asia will be the dominant economic force in the twenty-first century – and how he and his wife and two daughters moved to Singapore to prepare his family for the coming changes..  He discusses why America and the European Union are in decline, and what we need to do to right our economy and society.  The age of Wall Street, Rogers claims, when the finance industry drove 25% of America’s growth, is over.  Tomorrow’s economy will be driven by those who make things – food, energy, goods and consumables.  Regarded as one of the most astute investors Wall Street has ever known, Jim Rogers once again is at his acerbic and storytelling best.

    Each of these investors has at least a few decades of experience investing in the Indian stock markets, and have successfully navigated the highs and lows of the market. They bring together different investment styles, thus giving us a variety of perspectives and tools to use in the market.The areas covered in the book are:– their background and how they started in the stock markets– evolution of the investment framework– case studies of their past investment successes– case studies of their mistakes (both omission and commission)– the process of idea generation and portfolio construction– views of investing in cyclicals, taking leverage, going short, timing the markets at the extremes– views on macros– developing the right temperament and habits– the process of wealth creation with capital milestones– advise to new investors

    Remarkably, he did it by spurning popular Wall Street trends, adhering instead to his own unique discipline, one the world has come to know as Buffettology. In The Buffettology Workbook, internationally acclaimed writer and lecturer Mary Buffett has again joined forces with David Clark, the world's leading authority on Warren Buffett's investment methods, to create an in-depth, step-by-step guide to the concepts and equations Warren Buffett uses to create fantastic wealth.Here you will learn: The difference between a great company and a great undervalued company How the short-sightedness of Wall Street pundits can work to your advantage Where to look for investments with long-term, consistent, and extraordinary growth potential To perform the same financial calculations Buffett uses, and apply them to stocks you'd like to buy

    Americans may be earning more than ever before, but we’re paying a steep price: we’re working longer, seeing our families less, and our communities are fragmenting.With the clarity and insight that are his hallmarks, Reich delineates what success has come to mean in our time. He demonstrates that although we have more choices as consumers, and investors, the choices themselves are undermining the rest of our lives. It is getting harder for people to be confident of what they will be earning next year, or even next month. At the same time, our society is splitting into socially stratified enclaves--the wealthier walled off and gated, the poorer isolated and ignored. Although the trends he discusses are powerful, they are not irreversible, and Reich makes provocative suggestions for how we might create a more balanced society and more satisfying lives. Some of his ideas may surprise you; all should spark a healthy–and essential–national debate.

    This book takes you beyond the currency ("Blockchain 1.0") and smart contracts ("Blockchain 2.0") to demonstrate how the blockchain is in position to become the fifth disruptive computing paradigm after mainframes, PCs, the Internet, and mobile/social networking. Author Melanie Swan, Founder of the Institute for Blockchain Studies, explains that the blockchain is essentially a public ledger with potential as a worldwide, decentralized record for the registration, inventory, and transfer of all assets—not just finances, but property and intangible assets such as votes, software, health data, and ideas. Topics include: Concepts, features, and functionality of Bitcoin and the blockchain Using the blockchain for automated tracking of all digital endeavors Enabling censorship?resistant organizational models Creating a decentralized digital repository to verify identity Possibility of cheaper, more efficient services traditionally provided by nations Blockchain for science: making better use of the data-mining network Personal health record storage, including access to one’s own genomic data Open access academic publishing on the blockchain This book is part of an ongoing O’Reilly series. Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Crypto-Currencies introduces Bitcoin and describes the technology behind Bitcoin and the blockchain. Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy considers theoretical, philosophical, and societal impact of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.

    And that evolution has huge implications for everything we see, buy and do online. Rejecting the zero-sum, vending-machine model of ecommerce practiced by other leading internet retailers, who view the Internet purely as a facilitator of speed and profit, Hiroshi Mikitani argues for an alternate model that benefits merchants, consumers, and communities alike by empowering players at every step in the process. He envisions retail "ecosystems," where small and mid-sized brick-and-mortar businesses around the world partner with online marketplaces to maximize their customer bases and service capabilities, and he shows why emphasizing collaboration over competition, customization over top-down control, and long-term growth over short-term revenue is by far the best use of the Internet's power, and will define the 3.0 era.Rakuten has already pioneered this new model, and Marketplace 3.0 offers colorful examples of its success in Japan and around the world. Mikitani reveals how the company enforces a global mindset (including the requirement that all its employees speak English, even in Tokyo); how it incorporates new acquisitions rather than seeking to completely remake or sell them for a quick profit; and how it competes with other retailers on speed and quality, without sacrificing the public good. Marketplace 3.0 is an exciting new vision for global commerce, from a company that's challenging all the accepted wisdom.