Who holds the power in financial markets? For many, the answer would probably be the large investment banks, big asset managers, and hedge funds that are often in the media's spotlight. But more and more a new group of sovereign investors, which includes some of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, government pension funds, central bank reserve funds, state-owned enterprises, and other sovereign capital-enabled entities, have emerged to become the most influential capital markets players and investment firms, with $30 trillion in assets under management ("super asset owners"). Their ample resources, preference for lower profile, passive investing, their long-time horizon and adherence to sustainability as well as their need to diversify globally and by sector have helped to transform the investment world and, in particular, private markets for digital companies. They have helped create and sustain an environment that has fostered the rise of the likes of Uber, Alibaba, Spotify and other transformative players in the digital economy, while providing their founders and business models the benefit of long-term capital. Despite this increasingly important impact, sovereign investors remain mostly unknown, often maintaining a low profile in global markets. For the same reason, they're also among the most widely misunderstood, as many view investments made by sovereign investors as purely driven by political aims. The general perception is that most sovereign investors lack transparency and have questionable governance controls, causing an investee nation to fear exposure to risks of unfair competition, data security, corruption, and non-financially or non-economically motivated investments. The current global tensions around the AI race and tech competition - and now the corona virus pandemic - have exacerbated such misperceptions, spawning controversies around sovereign investors and capital markets, governments, new technologies, cross-border investments, and related laws and regulations. As such, sovereign capital and the global digital economy are undergoing an unprecedented, contentious moment. In short, the emergence of sovereign funds symbolizes a major shift of the world's economic power. For the first time, investment funds from developing countries are playing with OECD financial giants as equals. Furthermore, their investments into high tech enable them to participate at the cutting-edge of the fourth industrial revolution, challenging traditional innovation powerhouses like the US and Germany. For all stakeholders, from tech unicorns, VC funds, asset managers, financial firms, to policymakers, law firms, academics, and the general public, this is the must-have book to get to know these new venture capitalists and "super asset owners".

Law and the Financial System: Securitization and Asset Backed Securities provides students and practitioners with a comprehensive source of materials and references for understanding the process and issues that surround the conversion of illiquid financial assets into tradable securities. The book begins with an overview of the financial system and the place of securitization in the system. The book focuses on the process and law of securitization and is derived largely from Tamar Frankel's treaties, Securitization (2nd ed. 2005). The book concludes with a global view of securitization and an assessment of the impact and future of securitizing financial assets. The legal text is enhanced with case studies and simulation exercises that bring context and practical application to the subject. Study questions covering law, business and public policy provide students with an opportunity to discuss and debate areas where answers are complex and often indeterminate. Simulation exercises enable students to test their own ideas with their peers using real world examples. The book can be used as a stand alone course on securitization or as a supplementary text for courses on financial regulation. Practitioners will find the book a useful desk reference. This is the second book co-authored by Mark Fagan and Tamar Frankel. The first was "Trust and Honesty in the Real World" (2007). About the authors: Tamar Frankel authored Fiduciary Law (2008), Trust and Honesty, America's Business Culture at a Crossroad (2006), Securitization (2d.ed 2006), The Regulation of Money Managers (2d ed. 2001 with Ann Taylor Schwing), and more than 70 articles. A long-time member of the Boston University School of Law faculty, Professor Frankel was a visiting scholar at the Securities and Exchange Commission and at the Brookings Institution. A native of Israel, Professor Frankel served in the Israeli Air Force, was an assistant attorney general for Israel's Ministry of Justice and the legal advisor of the State of Israel Bonds Organization in Europe. She practiced in Israel, Boston and Washington, D.C. and is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, the American Law Institute, and The American Bar Foundation. Mr. Fagan's research centers on the role of regulation in competitive markets. He has written about the impact of deregulation in the financial, transportation and electricity sectors. He teaches courses and guest lectures at Boston University School of Law and at Harvard Kennedy School. He has been a frequent seminar speaker at Harvard Kennedy School's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government; recent topics include the subprime disaster, securitization, Ponzi schemes, and financial bubbles. Mark Fagan is a founding partner of Norbridge, Inc. a general management consulting firm. He works with clients in the transportation, telecommunications and utility industries as they grapple with increasing shareholder value in a deregulated world. Prior to Norbridge, he was a Vice President of Mercer Management Consulting.

Have you ever thought of investing in gold? Gold is one of the most stable precious metals; it is described as a protection for you and your family against financial uncertainly and inflation. This is one of the most recommended investment opportunities especially for someone who has never invested on anything before. The future for gold investments always have a golden lining since the price of the metal has increased for about three to four times its value in just a matter of a decade.

Economics is an integral aspect to every successful society, yet basic financial practices have gone unchanged for decades. Analyzing unconventional finance methods can provide new ways to ensure personal financial futures on an individual level, as well as boosting international economies. Alternative Decision-Making Models for Financial Portfolio Management: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential reference source that discusses methods and techniques that make financial administration more efficient for professionals in economic fields. Featuring relevant topics such as mean-variance portfolio theory, decision tree analysis, risk protection strategies, and asset-liability management, this publication is ideal for academicians, students, economists, and researchers that would like to stay current on new and innovative methods to transform the financial realm.

Why do so many smart professional people make bad investments? Why do they often fail to accumulate significant wealth and sometimes make truly disastrous financial decisions? This book offers some answers to these questions. It then provides specific recommendations to help doctors, lawyers, scientists, teachers, and many other intelligent people avoid serious financial errors and achieve superior investment results. Sensible self-directed investing with long-term compounding of returns and avoidance of all unnecessary fees can produce remarkable accumulations of capital with limited risk. You can choose to be successful as a largely passive investor or as one more seriously involved in making individual investment decisions. This book tells you how to do it. Buying this short volume and then putting its advice into practice may become the most important financial decisions you have ever made. About the author - Joseph D. Schulman is an internationally known physician, medical research scientist, and biomedical entrepreneur. He is also a successful investor. Dr. Schulman is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and of the Executive M.B.A. (OPM) program at Harvard Business School. He lives with his wife, Dixie, in Oxford, MD and Palm Springs, CA.

Investing isn't a man's world anymore--and that's a good thing for individual portfolios, Wall Street, and the world's financial system.

Warren Buffettand the women of the world have one thing in common: they are better investors than the average man. Psychologists and scientists have shown that women have the kind of temperaments that help them achieve long-term success in the market. For instance, women spend more time researching their investment choices and tend to take less risk than men do, which prevents them from chasing "hot" tips and trading on whims. And women aren't as susceptible to peer pressure as men are, which results in a more levelheaded, patient approach to investing. This book shows that women, with their patience and good decision making, epitomize the Foolish temperament of the most successful investor in the world. It will empower and educate women--and the men smart enough to embrace a "feminine" investing style--on how to strengthen their portfolios and find success in the market.

In the midst of globalization, technological change and economic anxiety, we have deep doubts about how well that task of investor protection is being performed. In the U.S., the focus is on the Securities & Exchange Commission. Part of the explanation is economic and political: the failure to know the right balance between investor protection and capital formation, and the resulting battle among interest groups over their preferred solutions. This book's main claim, however, is that regulation is also frustrated at nearly every turn by human nature, as exhibited both on the buy-side (investors) and sell-side (corporate executives, bankers, stockbrokers). There is plenty of savvy and guile, but also ample hope, fear, ego, overconfidence, social contagion and the like that persistently filter and distort the messages regulators try to send. This book is the first sustained effort to link the key initiatives of securities regulation with our burgeoning awareness in the social sciences of how people and organizations really behave in economic settings. It examines why corporate fraud occurs and how best to deter it and compensate its victims; the search for an edge via insider trading; the disclosure apparatus and its gatekeepers; sales efforts and manipulation in Ponzi schemes, internet scams, private offerings and crowdfunding; and how this all helps explain the recent global financial crisis. It ends by turning these insights back on the task of regulation itself, and the strategies (and frustrations) of making regulation work in a financial world that is at once increasingly sophisticated yet deeply human and incurably flawed.

Many highly paid investment gurus will insist that successful investing is a function of painfully collected experience, expansive research, skillful market timing, and sophisticated analysis. Others emphasize fundamental research about companies, industries, and markets.

Based on thirty years in the investment industry, I say the ingredients for a successful investment portfolio are stubborn belief in the quality, diversification, growth, and long-term principles from Investments and Management 101. Unlike MBA textbooks, which tend to be more theoretical, Investment Discipline provides more practical insight into what works and what does not, based on my own errors and success and includes recommendations of what to repeat and what to avoid.

Investment Discipline contains no secrets and no magic equations. It discusses the most common mistakes and provides advice on how to avoid these errors in order to become a successful investor. It will guide you in your decisions, from setting up your investment objectives, conducting research, and buying/selling securities to adjusting your portfolio to achieve long-term returns that match your personal objectives.

You will learn how to:

- Define your investment profile and your specific objectives;

- Establish a sustainable investment process based on your objectives;

- Analyze information and perform your own research; and

- Make sound investment decisions.

Famous investment professionals, such as Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch, have made mistakes, but they did not repeat them. They held on stubbornly to their investment approach and showed discipline over a long time period, resulting in superior returns. Obviously they were lucky as well; however, they played the numbers right, and over time their performance was better than the performance of their peers.

In Investment Discipline, you will learn how to become a successful, disciplined investor.