This book provides detailed independent analyses of the successes and limitations of one of the most successful economic relationships in recent history: the Deutsche Mark and the Deutsche Bundesbank. With European economic and monetary union approaching, the lessons to be learnt from the German experience are now more important than ever. The Deutsche Mark has been one of the most stable currencies in the world for decades. The combination of a sound monetary structure and an anti-inflationary monetary policy have been the bedrock for unprecedented German economic success. This success, however, has not been unlimited or without risk. Fifty Years of the Deutsche Mark will give future European montary policy-makers the invaluable benefit of the German experience. The book combines chronological articles with others which follow the developments of a specific issue over the entire 50-year period. Issues covered include the central bank constitution, the central bank's relationship with fiscal policy-makers and with other banks, the role of the Bundesbank in European monetary integration, and the international significance of the Deutsche Mark. Individual accounts of the key monetary policy events in 1948 and 1990 as well as general articles on the `message' of German monetary policy and on academic deabte over German monetary policy round the book off. Sixteen eminent independent scholars were asked by the Bundesbank to contribute to this volume, and given full access to the Bank's records. The resulting articles provide comprehensive analysis of the successes and limitations of Europe's most powerful central bank. On June 20th, 1998, the Deutsche Mark will be 50 years old: this book will ensure that its legacy lives on.

Whether the source is more industry-based or academic research, there certainly appears to be a growing interest in the field of cryptocurrency. The New York Times had a cover story on March 24, 2022, titled "Time to Enter the Crypto Zone?," and they talked about institutional investors pouring billions into digital tokens, salaries being taken in Bitcoins, and even Bitcoin ATMs in grocery stores. Certainly, there have been ups and downs in crypto, but it has a kind of alluring presence that tempts one to include crypto as part of one’s portfolio. Those who are "prime crypto-curious" investors are usually familiar with the tech/pop culture and feel they want to diversify a bit in this fast-moving market. Even universities are beginning to offer more courses and create "Centers on Cryptocurrency." Some universities are even requiring their students who take a crypto course to pay the course tuition via cryptocurrency. In response to the growing interest and fascination about the crypto industry and cryptocurrency in general, Cryptocurrency Concepts, Technology, and Applications brings together many leading worldwide contributors to discuss a broad range of issues associated with cryptocurrency. The book covers a wide array of crypto-related topics, including: Blockchain NFTs Data analytics and AI Crypto crime Crypto industry and regulation Crypto and public choice Consumer confidence Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Presenting various viewpoints on where the crypto industry is heading, this timely book points out both the advantages and limitations of this emerging field. It is an easy-to-read, yet comprehensive, overview of cryptocurrency in the U.S. and international markets.

Whether the source is more industry-based or academic research, there certainly appears to be a growing interest in the field of cryptocurrency. The New York Times had a cover story on March 24, 2022, titled "Time to Enter the Crypto Zone?," and they talked about institutional investors pouring billions into digital tokens, salaries being taken in Bitcoins, and even Bitcoin ATMs in grocery stores. Certainly, there have been ups and downs in crypto, but it has a kind of alluring presence that tempts one to include crypto as part of one’s portfolio. Those who are "prime crypto-curious" investors are usually familiar with the tech/pop culture and feel they want to diversify a bit in this fast-moving market. Even universities are beginning to offer more courses and create "Centers on Cryptocurrency." Some universities are even requiring their students who take a crypto course to pay the course tuition via cryptocurrency. In response to the growing interest and fascination about the crypto industry and cryptocurrency in general, Cryptocurrency Concepts, Technology, and Applications brings together many leading worldwide contributors to discuss a broad range of issues associated with cryptocurrency. The book covers a wide array of crypto-related topics, including: Blockchain NFTs Data analytics and AI Crypto crime Crypto industry and regulation Crypto and public choice Consumer confidence Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Presenting various viewpoints on where the crypto industry is heading, this timely book points out both the advantages and limitations of this emerging field. It is an easy-to-read, yet comprehensive, overview of cryptocurrency in the U.S. and international markets.

Contemporary financial markets have been characterized by sociocultural phenomena such as "meme stocks", the Gamestop short squeeze, and "You Only Live Once (YOLO) trading". These are movements led by small-scale retail investors banding together to participate forcefully in financial markets through decentralized but coordinated actions. This book deploys many different subdisciplines to explore the recent ‘power grabbing’ of retail investors and the online environment that enables them to join the ranks of major financial players, and participate in contemporary capitalism. It offers multiple perspectives on the genesis, role, motivations, power, and future prospects of retail investors as a force in contemporary financial markets. Drawing upon the insights of authors hailing from many different countries, the book frames YOLO capitalism through numerous angles that help to explain the context and the importance of activist retail investors in modern financial markets, and thereby explore the possibilities of a transformed financial future with much wider small-scale participation. The book assesses the potential of online - and other - communities in enabling global coordination in impacting or even driving financial and crypto markets, and the challenges that come with it and weighs the competing narratives both positive and negative regarding YOLO capitalism. It strikes a balanced assessment of their legal, cultural, behavioural, economic, and political roles in modern finance. This book will be of interest to a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary audience of scholars in financial markets, financial regulation, political economy, public administration, macroeconomics, corporate governance, and the philosophy and the sociology of finance.

European economies have been plagued by successive crises, from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to the COVID-19 pandemic, through to the economic and geopolitical instability in Ukraine. These events, the uncertainty they generate combined with dynamic technological progress and significant sociocultural changes, have profoundly modified the character of modern finance. Understanding what happened, what mechanisms worked, and the reaction of the banking sector, bank customers, and policymakers require an in-depth and structured analysis. This book critically assesses the impact of these events, notably the COVID-19 pandemic, on the performance of the banking sector in Europe and serves as a compendium of knowledge on recent changes in European banking from two perspectives: firstly, European banking transformation, analyzing the process of what has already taken place, in particular, the GFC and COVID-19 crises; secondly, the challenges facing the operations and strategic management of European banks. It identifies specific areas of impact on the activity of commercial banks and the determining factors that will shape the economic and financial condition of banks and their customers – borrowers – in the future. Risk management, particularly credit risk, is a key focus of this volume. Each chapter, implicitly or explicitly, address a variety of questions that can help the reader to understand the complex nature of the transformation of the banking sector. The book provides a structured reference for those concerned with the impact of volatility on the business models of modern banks. As such, it will find a broad audience among students, academics, banking, financial, business, and industry professionals, policymakers, and market regulators.

This book provides unique insights into the politics of finance and the socio-political relations which drive financial policymaking in Hong kong, Singapore, and Shanghai. While the existing literature in the field focuses mainly on economic explanations for financial centre development, this book fills a gap by focusing on the socio-political relations which underpin the financial policy-making process. Drawing on extensive interviews with senior policy-makers and financial sector professionals, the book describes how state-industry relations drive financial policy-making in three major financial hubs. Insights and policy recommendations drawn from these interviews will be particularly useful for policy-makers and financial sector professionals hoping to draw lessons from the successful development of the three leading Asian financial centres. Business and Politics in Asia's Key Financial Centres draws on public policy theoretical frameworks for its analytical basis. The three chapters focusing on the historical development of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai also provide a consolidated narrative with regard to the development of these three cities as leading financial centres, while also serving as independent case studies. Scholars focusing on policy processes and political factors that underpin financial sector development, as well as instructors and students of public policy, international political economy, and financial sector policy, will find this book useful for their research.

New York Times Bestseller New York Times reporter and "Corner Office" columnist David Gelles reveals legendary GE CEO Jack Welch to be the root of all that's wrong with capitalism today and offers advice on how we might right those wrongs. In 1981, Jack Welch took over General Electric and quickly rose to fame as the first celebrity CEO. He golfed with presidents, mingled with movie stars, and was idolized for growing GE into the most valuable company in the world. But Welch's achievements didn't stem from some greater intelligence or business prowess. Rather, they were the result of a sustained effort to push GE's stock price ever higher, often at the expense of workers, consumers, and innovation. In this captivating, revelatory book, David Gelles argues that Welch single-handedly ushered in a new, cutthroat era of American capitalism that continues to this day. Gelles chronicles Welch's campaign to vaporize hundreds of thousands of jobs in a bid to boost profits, eviscerating the country's manufacturing base, and destabilizing the middle class. Welch's obsession with downsizing-he eliminated 10% of employees every year-fundamentally altered GE and inspired generations of imitators who have employed his strategies at other companies around the globe. In his day, Welch was corporate America's leading proponent of mergers and acquisitions, using deals to gobble up competitors and giving rise to an economy that is more concentrated and less dynamic. And Welch pioneered the dark arts of "financialization," transforming GE from an admired industrial manufacturer into what was effectively an unregulated bank. The finance business was hugely profitable in the short term and helped Welch keep GE's stock price ticking up. But ultimately, financialization undermined GE and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies. Gelles shows how Welch's celebrated emphasis on increasing shareholder value by any means necessary (layoffs, outsourcing, offshoring, acquisitions, and buybacks, to name but a few tactics) became the norm in American business generally. He demonstrates how that approach has led to the greatest socioeconomic inequality since the Great Depression and harmed many of the very companies that have embraced it. And he shows how a generation of Welch acolytes radically transformed companies like Boeing, Home Depot, Kraft Heinz, and more. Finally, Gelles chronicles the change that is now afoot in corporate America, highlighting companies and leaders who have abandoned Welchism and are proving that it is still possible to excel in the business world without destroying livelihoods, gutting communities, and spurning regulation.

Global Financial Systems is an innovative, interdisciplinary text that explores the 'why' behind global financial stability. Danielsson draws on economic theory, finance, mathematical modelling, risk theory, and policy to posit a coherent and current analysis of the global financial system. "Nicely and clearly written for an undergraduate audience...the book has a fresh perspective that will differentiate it from pre-crisis texts" Professor Goodhart, Professor Emeritus, London School of Economics "Global Financial Systems: Stability and Risk, looks to be an important book... it will appeal to those interested in regulation as well as those more on the regulatory side." Professor Caprio, William Brough Professor of Economics at Williams College and Chair, Center for Development Economics Jon Danielsson is Director of the Systemic Risk Centre, London School of Economics, and Reader in Finance Visit the author's personal website at http://www.globalfinancialsystems.org/ to read two online chapters covering the latest developments.

This is a new edition of Sterling in Decline with a new introduction by Barry Eichengreen. The book traces the decline of sterling from the world's pre-eminent currency alongside the dollar's rise to prominence. There are parallels to be drawn with the euro's emergence as a full-fledged competitor to the dollar for international currency status. The new introduction will bring sterling's story up to date and draw out the implications for the dollar and the euro.

The Great Monetary Experiment designed and administered by the Federal Reserve under the Obama Administration unleashed strong irrational forces in global asset markets. The result was a 'monetary plague' which has attacked and corrupted the vital signalling function of financial market prices. This book analyses how quantitative easing caused a sequence of markets to become infected by asset price inflation. It explains how instead of bringing about a quick return to prosperity from the Great Recession, the monetary experiment failed in its basic purpose. Bringing about economic debilitation, major financial speculation, waves of mal-investment in particular areas, and a colossal boom in the private equity industry, the experiment instead produced monetary disorder. Brendan Brown puts the monetary experiment into a global and historical context, examining in particular Japanese 'folklore of deflation' and the Federal Reserve's first experiment of quantitative easing in the mid-1930s. The author couples analysis from the Austrian school of monetary economics and Chicago monetarism with insights from behavioral finance, and concludes with major proposals for the present and the future, including ideas for monetary reform in the United States, and suggestions for how investors can survive the current market 'plague'.

On 1 January 1999 eleven EU Member States adopted a new currency - the euro. The introduction of the euro was a remarkable feat in the history of European monetary, financial, economic and political integration. It was an event of worldwide significance. Despite much criticism and predictions that it would quickly collapse, the first decade of the euro has been a remarkable success. The euro area has now expanded to 16 members with a combined population of 326 million and contributes 16 per cent of global output. This 2010 book was the first to provide a wide-ranging strategic review of the first decade of the euro. Written by an impressive line-up of academic and professional economists, The Euro: The First Decade is an invaluable reference for scholars and policy makers who wish to know more about the successes and failures of the euro and the challenges that lie ahead.

Current systems are failing the poor because these systems are unable to provide the financial inclusion needed for basic subsistence and commerce, which in turn would drive micro and macro-economic growth. This book introduces the reader to a new way of thinking about how value can be created, captured, measured and understood, economically and financially, and within in the context of social contract. It underscores the need to revisit such models through technological advancements, namely Industrial Revolution 4.0, in order to solve pressing global issues like economic inclusion and poverty eradication. The book proposes that for humanity to make the leap forward and for any real sustainable development to occur, the world needs a disruptive approach to value creation using currency systems, considering that currencies underpin value exchange. This disruption will result in a level of decentralization that facilitates peer-to-peer value exchange and drives financial inclusion, all of which should be underscored by a new, digital social contract. The author asserts that a time-based digital currency could address these issues by creating a new and truly inclusive currency model that allows economies to gain more value than previously possible. In addition, by leveraging 4IR technologies, a currency system can be designed where each unit of money accurately reflects the context and range of socio-economic factors that influence each human interaction. This book is aimed at futurists, technologists, researchers, policymakers, and anyone that is curious about how technology could make a difference in our collective futures. It cuts across a range of subject areas from economics, finance, philosophy, innovation to social development and takes an interdisciplinary approach to present a logical framework and theoretical foundation for the monetization of time as a digital currency.

This volume of intellectual biography records the work of Michal Kalecki's maturity: his work on monetary economics and the theory of profits; his work on the problems of socialism and developing countries; and the extension of his theory of capitalism to define his work in relation to Keynes and previous political economic principles. Kalecki had, by 1939, laid out the essential elements of his theory of the business cycle in capitalism. This book begins at Oxford where, at the Institute of Statistics, he worked on the economic planning and financing of World War Two, as well as extending and detailing the particulars of his theory and examining the conditions for full employment in the post-War international monetary and financial system. Kalecki would then work for the United Nations on full employment, inflation, and developing countries. He departed from the United Nations in 1955, and returned to Poland to extend two new directions of his ideas - on the economics of developing countries and his theory of growth in the socialist economy, alongside further work on business cycles. This book is essential reading for all those who want to understand Kalecki's lasting contribution to economic theory and policy.

Music Business and the Experience Economy is the first book on the music business in Australasia from an academic perspective. In a cross-disciplinary approach, the contributions deal with a wide-range of topics concerning the production, distribution and consumption of music in the digital age. The interrelationship of legal, aesthetic and economic aspects in the production of music in Australasia is also highlighted as well as the emergence of new business models, the role of P2P file sharing, and the live music sector. In addition, the impact of the digital revolution on music experience and valuation, the role of music for tourism and for branding, and last but not least the developments of higher music education, are discussed from different perspectives.

This book presents the theoretical framework for the evolution of the international monetary system and the internationalization of the RMB. Combining theoretical research and empirical study, it then provides an in-depth analysis of the relevant issues from multiple perspectives based on this framework. Written by former chief economist at the Bank of China, this book explains the "two-step strategy" from the capital account opening to the full convertibility of the RMB, it also analyzes the status and functions of the HK offshore financial market in internationalizing the RMB.

This book examines the history of what became one of Portugal's largest banks, the Caixa Geral de Depositos. The bank was founded in 1876 by the state to run public deposits, and evolved into a savings bank, catering for both public and private deposits. Its history goes beyond the history of banking, as it ties in with the role of the state in the banking sector and financial markets. The book weaves in and out of different political and international contexts, following the many changes of the Portuguese political regime and of its interactions with the national and international economy. The most important lesson from the study is that publicly owned institutions can compete successfully with the private sector when they simultaneously cater for the interests of policy makers as well as those of the public, in this case, the depositors. The history of the Caixa Geral de Depositos therefore shows how the state of a peripheral economy is capable of successfully managing a large financial institution when the right set of incentives is in place. This work will be a valuable resource for researchers and students of financial and economic history at both the advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It will also provide interesting insights for practitioners in the financial sector.

Following the British referendum held on June 23, 2016, voters supported the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union (EU) (Brexit), a starting point for the third round of European crisis, following the eurozone debt crisis and the migration crisis. This volume provides an overview of the process and consequences of Brexit for EU member states, with an emphasis on possible future EU-UK relations, and a particular focus on countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The authors assess the extent to which firms in CEE states have already put in place strategies to counter the new economic reality post-Brexit and identify the strategies that firms are exploiting to better cope with the anticipated implications of Brexit. The book includes a ranking of countries most and least likely to be affected by Brexit; identification of the main determinants of the expansion of companies on the British market and the creation of a typology of strategies used by these companies in the face of Brexit. The book stands out as a complex and multidimensional research work that draws its roots from distinct yet simultaneously interlinked research areas. It will find a broad audience among academics and students across diverse fields of study, as well as practitioners and policy makers. It is a key reference for all those who want to better understand the complex nature of Brexit and its implications, not only for EU member states but, first and foremost, the business environment.

This book is about how the rise of democracy has transformed economics over the past 150 years. As voting was expanded to the masses in the late 19th century, political leaders faced emergent pressures to deliver prosperity to their newly enfranchised populations. This led to the rise of the guardian state: a state whose prime directive was to protect economic growth and employment. Domestic economic goals now became sacrosanct, and if that meant a failure on the international stage to construct solutions to problems in monetary relations, so be it. The book traces the history of international monetary diplomacy during this long period to show how the guardian state has manifested itself, and how it has shaped the course of international monetary relations. Each of the most important international monetary conferences in history is scrutinized with respect to how nations sought to protect the prosperity within their national economies. The historical narratives give a bird's-eye view into how domestic political priorities have intruded on and shaped economic relations among nations. The book clearly demonstrates the advantages of an interdisciplinary understanding of how politics shapes economics. It will be invaluable reading for scholars and students of international economics, politics and economic history.

For decades, science and technology (sci-tech) have influenced world trade, world economy, and international finance. However, their specific impacts are seldom known and related empirical studies are rare. Thus, we must quantify and empirically explore how sci-tech influences such areas as mentioned above. The purpose of this book is to explore how sci-tech influences world trade, foreign exchange, and currency internationalization in various ways through quantifying science & technology first. This book empirically explores how major world currencies might change their relative international positions with continuous innovation and diffusion of sci-tech.Currency internationalization is measured by the percentage share of the average daily turnover of a particular currency in the global foreign exchange market over the corresponding overall daily turnover of the global foreign exchange market. Sci-tech as a commodity is borderless, yet its inventors and related businesses are bound by the intellectual property laws of their own countries. Patents, especially international patents, are useful representations of science & technology. They cannot be compared directly because of different criteria of patent regulators worldwide, and thus the quality of patents varies across patent regulators. Based on patent data from annual IP 5 Statistics Reports and charges for the use of IP of major currency issuers released by WTO, this book defines and quantifies sci-tech originality capability using data of charges for the use of IP of each economy and sci-tech internationalization using weighted patent families first, and proceeds to study how sci-tech internationalization affects currency internationalization.

The digital transformation of finance and banking enables traditional services to be delivered in a more effective and efficient way but, at the same time, presents crucial issues such as fast growing new asset classes, new currencies, datafication and data privacy, algorithmization of law and regulation and, last but not least, new models of financial crime. This book approaches the evolution of digital finance from a business perspective and in a holistic way, providing cutting-edge knowledge of how the digital financial system works in its three main domains: banking, insurance and capital markets. It offers a bird's eye view of the major issues and developments in these individual sectors. The book begins by examining the wider framework of the subsequent analysis and over the next three parts, discusses the opportunities, risks and challenges facing the digitalization of these individual financial subsectors, highlighting the similarities and differences in their digitalization agenda, as well as the existing linkages and dependencies among them. The book clarifies the strategic issues facing the development of digital finance in these major subsectors over the coming years. The book has three key messages: that digital transformation changes fundamentally the way financial businesses operate; that individual trades have their own digitalization agenda; and that the State with its regulatory power and central banking and money has a particularly important role to play. It will be of interest to scholars, students and researchers of finance and banking, as well as policymakers wishing to understand the values and limitations of new forms of digital money.

This book shows that the use of money transforms a market economy into a payment society where production and employment are subordinated to the logic of asset markets. Monetary policy emerged out of private banking business and was always exposed to the risk of losing credibility and reputation. The stability of key currency systems was based on different policy preferences. A simple game-theoretic macro model explains the working and the downfall of the gold standard, Bretton Woods and the European Monetary System. It is shown that waning willingness to accept foreign leadership in monetary policy affairs propelled the creation of the euro.

The S&L crisis of the 1990s has given many a reason to review the events which led to a (in many ways) similar banking crisis sixty years ago, and the subsequent legislation of the Emergency Banking Act, the Banking Act of 1933, the Banking Act of 1935, and other related legislation. The reconstituted financial structure produced the longest period of financial stability in the US history, lasting one-half of a century. The book has two goals: provide an understanding of the reasons the banking reforms enacted in the 1930s were so successful; and present a set of policy proposals which offer the institutional provisions for both the financing of the capital development of the economy, and a safe payments system.

This book presents an innovative history of the first Portuguese public bank, by exploring the relationship between banking activities and the political context. It provides an overview of the origins of the banking system in Portugal, and also in Brazil, and explores new archive materials related to the first years of activity of the Bank of Lisbon and to the public debates on monetary and public finance topics. It discusses the main features of the Bank of Lisbon: a private bank with a mandate to issue banknotes for the purposes of regulating monetary circulation, and with the function of financing the State for current payments, as well as for the amortisation of public debt and the creation of new debt. The aim of contributing to the re-establishment of public trust and credit conferred upon the Bank of Lisbon the status of a quasi-central bank with the obligations of lending and issuing money. This historical case study offers new insights for a better understanding of the role of banks on the regulation of monetary circulation and on the management of sovereign debt. By stressing the relevance of the political context, it also illustrates the key issues of trust, independence and rules associated to decision-making processes in the study of European banking history. The main focus is the link between banking practices and the political environment. However, the reader will also engage in discussions on theoretical and economic policy issues on the main economic topics under survey: money, paper money, public debt and credit system.

This edited collection seeks to advance thinking on money and the monetary nature of the economy, macroeconomic analysis and economic policy, setting it within the context of current scholarship and global socioeconomic concerns, and the crisis in the economics discipline. A key aim is to highlight the central contribution that Sheila Dow has made to these fields. Bringing together an impressive panel of contributors, this volume explores topics including central bank independence, liquidity preferences, money supply endogeneity, financial regulation, regional finance and public debt. The essays in this first collection of two will be thought-provoking reading for advanced students and scholars of macroeconomics, monetary economics, central banking and heterodox economics. Contributors have a broad range of professional experience at universities, central banks, business, development institutions and policy advisories.