Bankers are administrators of other people's money, and they are responsible both to their depositors and to other stakeholders. Human nature being what it is, however, they sometimes fall prey to overweening ambition, coming to see themselves as the rightful beneficiaries of the moneys entrusted to them. This can lead them to make poor lending decisions and engage in risky practices, eventually moving on to cosmetic accounting and the concealment of problems, speculation and even outright fraud. Supervisors are there to prevent such behaviour, of course. They are responsible to government and the general public alike for the stability of the financial system, the proper allocation of financial resources by the banks and the protection of depositors and creditors. Their responsibility is, then, subsidiary to that of the bankers themselves. Where supervision is lax and ineffective, however, it encourages bad management by bankers, creating a vicious circle that eventually leads to financial crises, which has most often to be cured using tax-payers' money. Of course, it also hurts the broader economy. That is why the inseparable trio of regulation, supervision and resolution must exist. In this collection of his writings over a period of some 50 years, Aristobulo de Juan describes the causes, characteristics and consequences of financial crises based on his own experience as a central banker, world bank expert and consultant spanning a career of more than 55 years. In a nutshell, the papers brought together in this book recount circumstances that have always plagued banking, and that are only too likely to recur in the future.

Existe la historia oficial de un pais, y la "otra" historia que jovenes investigadores y eruditos tales como Julio Pinto Vallejos y Carlos Ruiz Rodriguez han ido revelando en sus trabajos, creando un balance mas justo en el recuento de los hechos que ha vivido la nacion chilena. Juan Daniel Brito no es un historiador, sin embargo en conversaciones con escritores y periodistas de su pais, llega a la conclusion de que la recopilacion de testimonios de "sus mayores," y familiares le abrian una nueva perspectiva acerca de su origen, y al hecho de pertenecer a una primera generacion de hijos de campesinos del sur o de mineros del norte que llegaron a Santiago en la decada de los anos 30, ' y que con esfuerzo y sacrificios fueron parte del proceso de expansion demografica de Santiago hacia sus cuatro puntos cardinales. Son estos "exiliados" del sur y del norte quienes fundan las "poblaciones," cuya historia se tiene aun que narrar.