Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy

In the mid-1980s, Robert P. Smith, a young, brash economic mercenary, traveled to war-torn El Salvador looking to make money trad­ing dollar-denominated government bonds. As an American, he had to remain innocuous and virtually invisible while traveling the danger­ous streets of San Salvador. Then one morn­ing, he was shaken out of bed by an explosion at the Sheraton Hotel, just blocks from where he was staying. Not only did he escape with his life, he had just managed to make a killing within a matter of days, he was able to buy and sell $3 million of these bonds at an impressive mark-up. But there was a catch. Smith s buyer would only pay in colones, the local currency. To realize his profit, Smith would then have to enter the shad­owy word of the cambista, or money changer.

Today, Smith is a certified legend in the world of finance. Part adventurer and part economic war­­rior, this Indiana Jones of the financial world has spent more than thirty years trav­­­el­ing through five continents buying and sel­ling high-risk securities in the world s most derelict and down­trodden economies. So ten­u­ous was his operation and so covert the trans­actions that an overnight fluctuation in a coun­­try s cur­rency rate could mean the differ­ence between a spectacular profit and a devas­tating loss. Throughout his career, he has made and lost tens of millions of dollars by investing in economies wracked by war, revolution, and cor­ruption. Today, the trade in emerging mar­ket debt is worth more than five billion dollars a day, but it was virtually nonexistent when Smith a one-time collections lawyer in a rumpled, cheap seersucker suit, bow-tie, and bad toupee pioneered the business in the late 1970s.

Riches Among the Ruins is the extraordinary story of Robert Smith s ability to utilize his impec­cable instincts and incredible knowl­­edge of the global economy to make big money doing the riskiest kind of business. As he races through the streets of Baghdad after the fall of Saddam, wheels and deals on the streets of Vietnam, and loses more than $15 million dollars in one day in post-communist Russia, we travel with him through the precarious, treacherous, and exhilarating world of the debt trader. As he negotiates with unseemly businessmen on the streets of Istanbul, ducks shakedown artists in Nigeria, and alternately charms and infuriates corporate big shots in Guatemala, we experi­ence all of the thrill and terror that accompanies making big money in the third world. At once adrenaline-fueled and utterly compelling, this is the gripping story of one man s quest for fortune where others fear to tread.

Robert P. Smith is the founder and managing director of the Boston-based Turan Corpo­ration, which specializes in trading emerging markets sovereign debt and evaluating creditor claims against for­eign governments. Smith is a noted authority on developing-world debt and has been cited or quoted in numerous pub­lications including The Wall Street Journal, Africa Economic Digest, The Financial Times, International Business, and various publications of Euromoney Publications of London. He is a sought-after speaker and has addressed numer­ous professional groups on matters relating to emerging markets. He and his family live in Boston and New York.­­

Peter Zheutlin, a freelance journalist, is the au­thor of Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie London­derry s Extraordinary Ride and co-author, with Thomas Graboys, M.D., of Life in the Balance: A Physi­cian s Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss w

Praise for Riches Among the Ruins:

If you want to understand what goes on behind the scenes in international business and finance, and be treated to a fascinating account of the adventures of a financial entrepreneur who knows the most remote areas of the world on intimate terms, this is the book for you.

Robert Hormats, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs (International)

With guts, brains, and more than a little chutzpah, bond trader Robert Smith traversed the third world for three decades searching for fortune and often finding that adven­ture came along with the deals. A colorful, intensely personal chronicle of life on the early frontiers of globalization.

Richard M. Smith, Chairman, Newsweek

If you wanted to hear what was going on in the more interesting and dangerous parts of international finance, you called up Bob Smith. He is the antithesis of the clueless, charmless, tiresome MBAs and careerists who got us into the present mess.

John Dizard, columnist, Financial Times

A frontiersman in the risky world of global finance, Smith s adventures read like a spy novel.

Robert Lenzner, National Editor, Forbes

As one of the most imaginative and skillful financiers working in the behind-the-scene trenches of sovereign debt crises, Robert Smith has written an exciting and enjoyable account of his many ups and downs in the art of asset value creation.

Charles Dallara, Managing Director, Institute of International Finance, Inc.

A real page turner, with economic lessons to be learned in each chapter on globaliza­tion and the world s economic connectivity.

Gary Mueller, CEO and Chairman, Institutional Investor

Outrageous, intriguing truth stranger than fiction….Riches Among the Ruins is a rare treat: an entertaining glimpse into a remote arena of globalization by a true financial pioneer. Bob Smith knows all and tells all in a highly enjoyable read.

Peter Marber, HSBC Halbis, author of Seeing the Elephant: Understanding Globalization from Trunk to Tail