An Economist Best Book of the Year A Financial Times Best Book of the Year A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year A ProMarket Best Political Economy Book of the Year One of The Week's Ten Best Business Books of the Year A cutting-edge look at how accelerating financial change, from the end of cash to the rise of cryptocurrencies, will transform economies for better and worse. We think we've seen financial innovation. We bank from laptops and buy coffee with the wave of a phone. But these are minor miracles compared with the dizzying experiments now underway around the globe, as businesses and governments alike embrace the possibilities of new financial technologies. As Eswar Prasad explains, the world of finance is at the threshold of major disruption that will affect corporations, bankers, states, and indeed all of us. The transformation of money will fundamentally rewrite how ordinary people live. Above all, Prasad foresees the end of physical cash. The driving force won't be phones or credit cards but rather central banks, spurred by the emergence of cryptocurrencies to develop their own, more stable digital currencies. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies themselves will evolve unpredictably as global corporations like Facebook and Amazon join the game. The changes will be accompanied by snowballing innovations that are reshaping finance and have already begun to revolutionize how we invest, trade, insure, and manage risk. Prasad shows how these and other changes will redefine the very concept of money, unbundling its traditional functions as a unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value. The promise lies in greater efficiency and flexibility, increased sensitivity to the needs of diverse consumers, and improved market access for the unbanked. The risk is instability, lack of accountability, and erosion of privacy. A lucid, visionary work, The Future of Money shows how to maximize the best and guard against the worst of what is to come.

Large infrastructure projects often face significant cost overruns and stakeholder fragmentation. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) allow governments to procure long-term infrastructure services from private providers, rather than developing, financing and managing infrastructure assets themselves. Aligning public and private interests and institutional logics to create robust, decades-long service contracts subject to shifting economic and political contexts is a significant cross-sectoral governance challenge. This work summarizes over a decade of research conducted by scholars at Stanford s Global Projects Center and multiple US and International collaborators to enhance the governance of both infrastructure projects and institutional investors, whose long term, cash flow obligations align especially well with the kinds of long term inflation-adjusted returns that PPP infrastructure projects can generate. In these pages, multiple theoretical perspectives are integrated and combined with empirical evidence to examine how experiences from more mature PPP jurisdictions can help improve PPP governance approaches worldwide. The information contained here will appeal to engineering, economics, political science, public policy and finance scholars interested in the delivery of high-quality, sustainable infrastructure services to the citizens in countries with established and emerging market economies. Officials in national, state/provincial and local government agencies seeking alternative financing and service provision strategies for their civil and social infrastructure, and legislators and their staff members interested in promoting PPP legislation will find this book invaluable. It will also be of high interest to long-term investment professionals from pension funds, sovereign funds, family offices and university endowments seeking to deploy money into the infrastructure asset class, and practitioners seeking insights into methods for enhancing stakeholder incentive alignment, reducing transaction costs and improving project outcomes in PPPs. Contributors: B.G. Cameron, G. Carollo, C.B. Casady, E.F. Crawley, K. Eriksson, W. Feng, M.J. Garvin, K.E. Gasparro, R.R. Geddes, W.J. Henisz, D.R. Lessard, R.E. Levitt, T. Liu, A.H.B. Monk, D.A. Nguyen, C. Nowacki, W.R. Scott, R. Sharma, A.J. South

Working capital refers to the money that a company uses to finance its daily operations. Proper management of working capital is critical to financial health and operational success. Working capital management (WCM) aims to maximize operational efficiency by maintaining a delicate balance among growth, profitability, and liquidity. WCM is a continuous responsibility focusing on a firm's day-to-day operations involving short-term assets and liabilities. By efficiently managing a firm's cash, accounts receivable, inventories, and accounts payable, managers can help maintain smooth operations and improve a company's earnings and profitability. By contrast, poor WCM could lead to a lower credit score, financial insolvency, legal troubles, liquidation of assets, and potential bankruptcy.This book provides an objective look into the dynamic world of WCM. Its coverage extends from discussing basic concepts and their applications to increasingly complex and real-world situations. The book stresses that WCM is a combination of both art and science. This volume spans the gamut from theoretical to practical while offering the right balance of detailed and user-friendly coverage. Readers can gain an in-depth understanding of this subject from experts in this field. Those who want a broad survey will benefit, as will readers looking for more in-depth presentations of specific areas within this field of study. In summary, Working Capital Management: Concepts and Strategies provides a fresh look at this intriguing but often complex subject of WCM.

Appointed by George W. Bush as the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2006, Sheila Bair witnessed the origins of the financial crisis and in 2008 became--along with Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner--one of the key public servants trying to repair the damage to the global economy. "Bull by the Horns" is her remarkable and refreshingly honest account of that contentious time and the struggle for reform that followed and continues to this day.

Backing the Bold is a primer on the venture capital industry, business, and profession in Southeast Asia. The goal of the book's thirteen chapters has initially been to guide students of the Insignia Ventures Academy - Asia's first experiential venture capital accelerator - in their exploration of the venture capital industry and profession, specifically in the context of Southeast Asia's startup ecosystem and from the perspective of Insignia Ventures and its portfolio founders.Rather than being a book in the traditional sense of the word, such an origin and context for Backing the Bold has inevitably made this book a dynamic piece of literature, continuously growing and improving thanks to every new group of people who become part of the VC accelerator - as organizers, mentors, or participants.Now in print and in distribution, this first edition is available for all as a snapshot of Backing the Bold's progress as a continuously evolving repository of insights, best practices, and frameworks. It is for readers of any background or motivation to gain a better understanding of the venture capital investment process, portfolio management, and profession in the context of Southeast Asia's fast-growing technology markets.

As the spectrum of the internet of things (IoT) expands, artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted agile IoT is the way forward for sustainable finance. The depth of agile IoT has changed the financial market, and it may quickly evolve as a powerful tool in the future. The convergence of AI and IoT techniques will significantly extract valuable financial information and offer better services to customers. Some of the potential benefits of AI-assisted agile IoT for FinTech include prompt customer support, in-door client navigation, on-site queue management, improved customer experience, security and authenticity, wireless payments, increased business efficiency, self-checkout services, and business automation. There is no doubt that leveraging the complete potential of AI-assisted agile IoT will result in the creation of a new and innovative financial system. AI-Enabled Agile Internet of Things for Sustainable FinTech Ecosystems presents the advances in AI-assisted agile IoT for financial technologies (FinTech). It further explains the new applications, current issues, challenges, and future directions of the field of AI-assisted agile IoT for FinTech applications and ecosystems. Covering topics such as consensus algorithms, IoT-based banking, and secure authentication, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for business executives and managers, IT managers, librarians, students and faculty of higher education, researchers, and academicians.

This thought-provoking book introduces a financial economics perspective to the topic of eco-innovations and, more generally, sociotechnical transitions. It develops a model that illustrates how financial constraints can prevent the development of eco-innovations within companies and hinder the transition process towards a more sustainable regime. Edgardo Sica presents a review of the state of the art, as well as new data from original surveys aimed at testing the impact of financial constraints on eco-innovative decisions at radical and niche levels. He proposes a definitive conceptualisation of eco-innovations while stressing the relevance of the environmental performance of innovations, rather than the environmental motivation of the innovators. Through the use of a unique multilevel perspective model, the book critically analyses the extent to which financial constraints can hinder eco-innovative decisions, thereby crucially filling a gap in the current literature on eco-innovations. Firms, Finance and Sustainable Transitions will prove a stimulating read for academics, researchers and experts within the fields of eco-innovations, sustainable development, financial and environmental economics, and green finance.

Master the most important areas of today's tax law with Whittenburg/Gill's best-selling INCOME TAX FUNDAMENTALS 2023. This concise, practical introduction to tax preparation uses a unique, step-by-step workbook format that integrates real, current examples and uses the most recent actual tax forms. You learn the complexities of the U.S. income tax code as this edition's clear, up-to-date presentation walks you through the most recent tax laws, revisions and changes. Updated end-of-chapter problems and online exercises let you practice completing tax return problems using real source documents identical to those of actual clients. You also learn to use professional Intuit (R) ProConnect (TM) tax preparation software that accompanies each new book. In addition, study tools and helpful resources within the CNOWv2 online homework tool help you further refine your knowledge and practical skills to become a successful tax preparer.