George J. Benston, professor of Finance, Accounting, and Economics at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, died unexpectedly in January 2008. He was an impassioned advocate for corporate integrity and a unique scholar; his research interests were as broad as those of any recent academician. His colleagues have selected and organized his most important papers into two volumes. This second volume consists of his publications in the fields of accounting and finance. The editor has selected a broad range of papers from each of the major areas that are representative of Benston's work in that particular field. James D. Rosenfeld, Professor of Finance, Accounting, and Economics, Goizueta Business School, Emory University, serves as the editor and is assisted by an editorial advisory board including George Kaufman, Greg Waymire, Bob Eisenbeis, Larry Wall, Rashad Abdel-Kalik, and Lemma Senbet.

The advancement in FinTech especially artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), has significantly affected the way financial services are offered and adopted today. Important financial decisions such as investment decision making, macroeconomic analysis, and credit evaluation are getting more complex in the field of finance. ML is used in many financial companies which are making a significant impact on financial services. With the increasing complexity of financial transaction processes, ML can reduce operational costs through process automation which can automate repetitive tasks and increase productivity. Among others, ML can analyze large volumes of historical data and make better trading decisions to increase revenue. This book provides an exhaustive overview of the roles of AI and ML algorithms in financial sectors with special reference to complex financial applications such as financial risk management in a big data environment. In addition, it provides a collection of high-quality research works that address broad challenges in both theoretical and application aspects of AI in the field of finance.

Risks can be identified, evaluated, and mitigated, but the underlying uncertainty remains elusive. Risk is present across all industries and sectors. As a result, organizations and governments worldwide are currently experiencing higher levels of risk and have had to make risky decisions during times of crisis and instability, including the COVID-19 pandemic, economic and climate perils, and global tensions surrounding terrorism. It is essential that new studies are undertaken to understand strategies taken during these times to better equip business leaders to navigate risk management in the future. Global Risk and Contingency Management Research in Times of Crisis examines the impact of crises including the COVID-19 pandemic, which has tested organizational risk and contingency management plans. It provides significant insights that should benefit business leaders on risk and contingency management in times of crisis. It emphasizes strategies that leaders can undertake to identify potential future risks and examines decisions made in past crises that can act as examples of what to do and what not to do during future crisis events. Covering topics such as auditing theories, risk assessment, and educational inequality, this premier reference source is a crucial resource for business leaders, executives, managers, decision makers, policymakers, students, government officials, entrepreneurs, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

This book is not deep research work, as I am not a Ph.D. professor at any international university.

I was a teacher. I was also a real estate investor. And now I am a fulltime writer. Nevertheless, I am also research addicted reading two books per month.

Moreover, as I studied Macroeconomics, I found out that the world has been threatened by a new virus, the decentralized digital virus. Metaverse, Decentraland, blockchain, bitcoin standard, smart contracts, protocols, nodes, tokens, and halvings suddenly invaded my eyes with such a power that I had to understand what the hell was that about. If you do not know what these concepts are, you are in the right place.

Some of these articles are controversial, others you might agree with, but most of them try to explain how the world is shifting into a fully digital mode.

Central banks and governments are trying to keep the boat afloat in a perfect MMT style, while politicians still do not quite understand how the moneyprinting machine works. They keep saying we need raise taxes to pay the debt when the government is the only issuer, so it cannot become insolvent.

With deflationary pressure from technological innovations, the need for fresh money puts central banks in the red to control inflation. Covid-19 hit hard on every economy, but only the issuers can control the orchestra. Straightforwardly, as a non-native writer, I will try to give you a perspective about how the world is changing, from analog to digital, from the real world to the metaverse, with a fascinating silent war between centralized money printing power and decentralized fully digital crypto ecosystems.