Name: Money, Greed and Risk: Why Financial Crises and Crashes Happen
Author: Charles R. Morris (Author)
ISBN: 9780471626015

Money, Greed and Risk: Why Financial Crises and Crashes Happen book cover

Money, Greed and Risk: Why Financial Crises and Crashes Happen

Author(s): Charles R. Morris (Author)

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Publication Date: 4 Nov. 1999
Language: English
Print length: 318 pages
ISBN-10: 0471626015
ISBN-13: 9780471626015

Book Description

The world seems awash in financial crises. The Asian crisis of 1998, the near-demise of Long Term Capital Management, and the black hole of Russia are just a few of the most recent. Are they the result of greedy speculators, crony capitalism, or the warp speed of the forces of globalization? Can we send in the repairmen and get things fixed through the legal and regulatory system? Or are there other causes at work that may be beyond our control? Money, Greed, & Risk is that rare book which, through adroit analysis of both historical and contemporary events and their leading players, lends new insights into the causes of financial turmoil. Charles Morris: Explores the eternal cycle of financial crises: from brilliant innovation to gross excess and inevitable crash, before investors and institutions catch up Explains the shift of financial power from Britain to across the Atlantic, culminating in the American financial system growing from a capital-starved backwater in the nineteenth century to one that plays a leading role in the world today Examines the technological, economic, demographic, and industrial experiences that caused the financial engine to kick into such a high gear in the 1980s and 1990s Shows how the boom-and-bust cycle in early American history helps illuminate recent global events such as in South Asia and Russia. In the process we become more realistic about what to expect during the nascent stages of capitalism and market development everywhere Explains that globalization is nothing new. The investment system in the nineteenth century was perhaps even more global that the world today Looks at contemporary financial geniuses – Michael Milken is a good example – and shows that they didn’t invent any financial instruments that nineteenth-century counterparts like Jay Gould hadn’t already thought of

Editorial Reviews

Amazon Review

If you are investing in technology shares or a technology fund with your eyes to the sky, get this book. Author Charles R Morris has a fantastic, almost privileged, way with words. He describes other times in history when investors became so enthralled with the promise of new ways of doing things that they threw good money after bad. He describes how the British bank Barings largely financed the construction of the American railroad system, the Internet of the last century. And while America got a great railroad system, British investors did not do so well, as he documents in the chapter, “Fleecing the British”. “The completion of the transcontinental railroad link in America in 1869 inspired financial imaginations, and London swarmed with a new breed of stock jobbers pushing American ventures of every description … an immense variety of North American rail ventures–almost all of which came to grief”, Morris says. He unearths tremendous facts and weaves them together in a magical tale that is spellbinding. “The market crash of 1892-93 was mostly about railroads, which accounted for almost 60 per cent of all stock market issues. Even the endlessly masochistic Europeans had had enough.” The first third of the book recounts the building of the American system of credit and exchange, while the latter two-thirds describes the various financial collapses in the last 20 years. Morris, a financial historian, sheds new light on the LBOs, junk bonds, hedge funds and other financial rises and falls during our lives. Even though we’ve all lived through enough in the last 20 years, he explains them in a way that offers new insight into well-trodden ground. —Bruce McWilliams

Review

“…Morris provides amazing insights into financial booms and busts over the past century.” — Shares, 21st December 2000

From the Back Cover

The world seems awash in financial crises. The Asian crisis of 1998, the near-demise of Long Term Capital Management, and the black hole of Russia are just a few of the most recent. Are they the result of greedy speculators, crony capitalism, or the warp speed of the forces of globalization? Can we send in the repairmen and get things fixed through the legal and regulatory system? Or are there other causes at work that may be beyond our control? Money, Greed, & Risk is that rare book which, through adroit analysis of both historical and contemporary events and their leading players, lends new insights into the causes of financial turmoil. Charles Morris: * Explores the eternal cycle of financial crises: from brilliant innovation to gross excess and inevitable crash, before investors and institutions catch up * Explains the shift of financial power from Britain to across the Atlantic, culminating in the American financial system growing from a capital-starved backwater in the nineteenth century to one that plays a leading role in the world today * Examines the technological, economic, demographic, and industrial experiences that caused the financial engine to kick into such a high gear in the 1980s and 1990s * Shows how the boom-and-bust cycle in early American history helps illuminate recent global events such as in South Asia and Russia. In the process we become more realistic about what to expect during the nascent stages of capitalism and market development everywhere * Explains that globalization is nothing new. The investment system in the nineteenth century was perhaps even more global that the world today * Looks at contemporary financial geniuses – Michael Milken is a good example – and shows that they didn’t invent any financial instruments that nineteenth-century counterparts like Jay Gould hadn’t already thought of

About the Author

Charles R. Morris has many highly praised books to his credit, ranging from Computer Wars (on the fall of IBM) to American Catholic (on the rise of the American Catholic Church). He has published his opinion pieces in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic and the Harvard Business Review. He was for many years managing partner of a consulting firm specializing in the financial services and investment banking industries, and was also a group executive at Chase Manhattan Bank.

View on Amazon

电子书代发PDF格式价格30元我要求助