Download or read book Naked Money A Revealing Look at Our Financial System written by Charles Wheelan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-04-04 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Wheelan’s wonderfully whimsical, best-selling Naked series tackles the weird, surprisingly colorful world of money and banking. Consider the $20 bill. It has no more value, as a simple slip of paper, than Monopoly money. Yet even children recognize that tearing one into small pieces is an act of inconceivable stupidity. What makes a $20 bill actually worth twenty dollars? In the third volume of his best-selling Naked series, Charles Wheelan uses this seemingly simple question to open the door to the surprisingly colorful world of money and banking. The search for an answer triggers countless other questions along the way: Why does paper money (“fiat currency” if you want to be fancy) even exist? And why do some nations, like Zimbabwe in the 1990s, print so much of it that it becomes more valuable as toilet paper than as currency? How do central banks use the power of money creation to stop financial crises? Why does most of Europe share a common currency, and why has that arrangement caused so much trouble? And will payment apps, bitcoin, or other new technologies render all of this moot? In Naked Money, Wheelan tackles all of the above and more, showing us how our banking and monetary systems should work in ideal situations and revealing the havoc and suffering caused in real situations by inflation, deflation, illiquidity, and other monetary effects. Throughout, Wheelan’s uniquely bright-eyed, whimsical style brings levity and clarity to a subject often devoid of both. With illuminating stories from Argentina, Zimbabwe, North Korea, America, China, and elsewhere around the globe, Wheelan demystifies the curious world behind the paper in our wallets and the digits in our bank accounts.
Download or read book Naked Money written by Charles Wheelan and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Wheelan’s wonderfully whimsical, best-selling Naked series tackles the weird, surprisingly colorful world of money and banking. Consider the $20 bill. It has no more value, as a simple slip of paper, than Monopoly money. Yet even children recognize that tearing one into small pieces is an act of inconceivable stupidity. What makes a $20 bill actually worth twenty dollars? In the third volume of his best-selling Naked series, Charles Wheelan uses this seemingly simple question to open the door to the surprisingly colorful world of money and banking. The search for an answer triggers countless other questions along the way: Why does paper money (“fiat currency” if you want to be fancy) even exist? And why do some nations, like Zimbabwe in the 1990s, print so much of it that it becomes more valuable as toilet paper than as currency? How do central banks use the power of money creation to stop financial crises? Why does most of Europe share a common currency, and why has that arrangement caused so much trouble? And will payment apps, bitcoin, or other new technologies render all of this moot? In Naked Money, Wheelan tackles all of the above and more, showing us how our banking and monetary systems should work in ideal situations and revealing the havoc and suffering caused in real situations by inflation, deflation, illiquidity, and other monetary effects. Throughout, Wheelan’s uniquely bright-eyed, whimsical style brings levity and clarity to a subject often devoid of both. With illuminating stories from Argentina, Zimbabwe, North Korea, America, China, and elsewhere around the globe, Wheelan demystifies the curious world behind the paper in our wallets and the digits in our bank accounts.
Download or read book Naked Economics Undressing the Dismal Science Fully Revised and Updated written by Charles Wheelan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-04-19 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeks to provide an engaging and comprehensive primer to economics that explains key concepts without technical jargon and using common-sense examples.
Download or read book Naked Statistics Stripping the Dread from the Data written by Charles Wheelan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-01-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller "Brilliant, funny…the best math teacher you never had." —San Francisco Chronicle Once considered tedious, the field of statistics is rapidly evolving into a discipline Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, has actually called "sexy." From batting averages and political polls to game shows and medical research, the real-world application of statistics continues to grow by leaps and bounds. How can we catch schools that cheat on standardized tests? How does Netflix know which movies you’ll like? What is causing the rising incidence of autism? As best-selling author Charles Wheelan shows us in Naked Statistics, the right data and a few well-chosen statistical tools can help us answer these questions and more. For those who slept through Stats 101, this book is a lifesaver. Wheelan strips away the arcane and technical details and focuses on the underlying intuition that drives statistical analysis. He clarifies key concepts such as inference, correlation, and regression analysis, reveals how biased or careless parties can manipulate or misrepresent data, and shows us how brilliant and creative researchers are exploiting the valuable data from natural experiments to tackle thorny questions. And in Wheelan’s trademark style, there’s not a dull page in sight. You’ll encounter clever Schlitz Beer marketers leveraging basic probability, an International Sausage Festival illuminating the tenets of the central limit theorem, and a head-scratching choice from the famous game show Let’s Make a Deal—and you’ll come away with insights each time. With the wit, accessibility, and sheer fun that turned Naked Economics into a bestseller, Wheelan defies the odds yet again by bringing another essential, formerly unglamorous discipline to life.
Download or read book Naked Economics Undressing the Dismal Science written by Charles Wheelan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2003-09-17 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeks to provide an engaging and comprehensive primer to economics that explains key concepts without technical jargon and using common-sense examples.
Download or read book Nickel and Dimed written by Barbara Ehrenreich and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestselling work of undercover reportage from our sharpest and most original social critic, with a new foreword by Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job—any job—can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you int to live indoors. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-rent America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity—a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. Read it for the smoldering clarity of Ehrenreich's perspective and for a rare view of how "prosperity" looks from the bottom. And now, in a new foreword, Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, explains why, twenty years on in America, Nickel and Dimed is more relevant than ever.
Download or read book The Centrist Manifesto written by Charles Wheelan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-04-19 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vision—and detailed road map to power—for a new party that will champion America’s rational center. From debt ceiling standoffs to single-digit Congress approval ratings, America’s political system has never been more polarized—or paralyzed—than it is today. As best-selling author and public policy expert Charles Wheelan writes, now is the time for a pragmatic Centrist party that will identify and embrace the best Democratic and Republican ideals, moving us forward on the most urgent issues for our nation. Wheelan—who not only lectures on public policy but practices it as well (he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2009)—brings even more than his usual wit and clarity of vision to The Centrist Manifesto. He outlines a realistic ground game that could net at least five Centrist senators from New England, the Midwest, and elsewhere. With the power to deny a red or blue Senate majority, committed Centrists could take the first step toward giving voice and power to America’s largest, and most rational, voting bloc: the center.
Download or read book Write for Your Life A Guide to Clear and Purposeful Writing and Presentations written by Charles Wheelan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best-selling author’s practical guide to writing clearly and convincingly in every professional setting. How would you create a winning pitch for your latest investment idea? Or persuasively argue for a major policy change? Or successfully ask your boss for a raise? The answer: clear and effective communication, whether in writing or through a presentation. Best-selling author Charles Wheelan has spent decades mastering effective communication skills in his work as a writer, college professor, journalist, speechwriter, political candidate, and public speaker. In Write for Your Life, he shares his best tips. Taking readers through all the steps required to arrive at a coherent first draft, he then explains the best ways to improve and fine-tune your writing. He covers how to organize and present information, why it’s necessary to adapt your tone to different audiences, and when to use summaries, sidebars, bullet points, and other tools for making information more digestible. He explores the truth behind popular clichés like "Show, don’t tell" and "Kill your darlings," and discusses the proper use and attribution of quotations from secondary sources. And he goes on to cover how to speak effectively, providing helpful advice for preparing a winning presentation or delivering a speech. Writing with his signature wit and humor, Wheelan illustrates his points with entertaining examples from his own life, as well as memorable anecdotes from leading magazine and newspaper writers, political figures from Winston Churchill to Barack Obama and Elena Kagan, and a diverse array of the best communicators from the worlds of culture, sports, and politics. Write for Your Life is an essential guide for anyone needing to get their ideas across whether in an email, memo, report, presentation, fund-raising letter, or speech.
Download or read book Bailout written by Neil Barofsky and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-02-05 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes a new foreword to the paperback edition.
Download or read book The Lost Bank written by Kirsten Grind and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-07-16 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on reporting for which the author was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Gerald Loeb Award, this book traces the rise and spectacular fall of Washington Mutual.
Download or read book Stress Test written by Timothy F. Geithner and published by Crown. This book was released on 2014-05-12 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller Washington Post Bestseller Los Angeles Times Bestseller Stress Test is the story of Tim Geithner’s education in financial crises. As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then as President Barack Obama’s secretary of the Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner helped the United States navigate the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, from boom to bust to rescue to recovery. In a candid, riveting, and historically illuminating memoir, he takes readers behind the scenes of the crisis, explaining the hard choices and politically unpalatable decisions he made to repair a broken financial system and prevent the collapse of the Main Street economy. This is the inside story of how a small group of policy makers—in a thick fog of uncertainty, with unimaginably high stakes—helped avoid a second depression but lost the American people doing it. Stress Test is also a valuable guide to how governments can better manage financial crises, because this one won’t be the last. Stress Test reveals a side of Secretary Geithner the public has never seen, starting with his childhood as an American abroad. He recounts his early days as a young Treasury official helping to fight the international financial crises of the 1990s, then describes what he saw, what he did, and what he missed at the New York Fed before the Wall Street boom went bust. He takes readers inside the room as the crisis began, intensified, and burned out of control, discussing the most controversial episodes of his tenures at the New York Fed and the Treasury, including the rescue of Bear Stearns; the harrowing weekend when Lehman Brothers failed; the searing crucible of the AIG rescue as well as the furor over the firm’s lavish bonuses; the battles inside the Obama administration over his widely criticized but ultimately successful plan to end the crisis; and the bracing fight for the most sweeping financial reforms in more than seventy years. Secretary Geithner also describes the aftershocks of the crisis, including the administration’s efforts to address high unemployment, a series of brutal political battles over deficits and debt, and the drama over Europe’s repeated flirtations with the economic abyss. Secretary Geithner is not a politician, but he has things to say about politics—the silliness, the nastiness, the toll it took on his family. But in the end, Stress Test is a hopeful story about public service. In this revealing memoir, Tim Geithner explains how America withstood the ultimate stress test of its political and financial systems.
Download or read book The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report written by Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.
Download or read book Layered Money written by Nik Bhatia and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this fascinating deep dive into the evolution of monetary systems around the globe, Nik Bhatia takes us into the origins of how money has evolved to function in a "layered" manner. Using gold as an example of this term, he traces the layers of this ancient currency from raw mined material, to gold coins, and finally to bank-issued gold certificates. In a groundbreaking manner, Bhatia offers a similar paradigm for the evolution of digital currencies. Bhatia's analysis begins in Renaissance Florence with the gold Florin coin and a burgeoning banking culture, continues with the evolution of central banking, and concludes with a vision for the future of our international monetary system. As central banks around the world prepare to launch their own crypto-competitors, Bhatia illustrates how the invention of Bitcoin created a seismic shift in money and merged the monetary and cryptography sciences. His unique analysis of "layered money" illuminates money markets for the general reader and shows how Bitcoin is becoming a trusted global currency. Readers will come away with an understanding of the mechanics of our financial system, why the dollar is deeply entrenched despite its state of disrepair, and how Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and cryptocurrencies will interact in our new monetary future.
Download or read book The Financial System and the Economy written by Maureen Burton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 710 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attempts to assess whether the United States is in economic decline. Appropriate to general readers as well as economics students and scholars, this book examines the fears of Americans about their economic future.
Download or read book 1 the Book That the Financial Establishment Doesn t Want You to Read The First Ever Behind The Curtain Look at How Banks Really Function and Thei written by Robert Sharratt and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-01-18 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the driving force behind most populist and protest movements? A feeling of INEQUALITY. From Occupy groups to global trade demonstrations, from American middle class angst to yellow vest frustration in France to the Arab Spring, a common feeling unites them that something in the system is unfair. Blue-collar supporters of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump use remarkably similar language to express a core belief: that the establishment's economic model is rigged against them. The same protest sentiment is expressed globally. Statistically, these movements are correct: inequality is rising in all developed economies around the world. But, what is the common cause? This book shows that the structure of the banking system is the cause of inequality in society. But, it isn't a protest book. It isn't meant to make you feel outraged or to provide an historical account of inequality or a lot of statistics. It is more useful than that. This book demonstrates technically how inequality is caused by the banking system. This is the first book ever that gives a genuine behind-the-curtain look at how banks really function and their impact on society. It reveals that banks create most of the money in an economy, not the state. It shows why inequality and discrimination against out-groups are institutional. It explains the banking mechanism that transfers wealth from the many to the few over time. It shows that, unlike almost all other industries, the banking sector enjoys unparalleled protection by the establishment against competition. This book solves some mysteries, like the following: - Why is fractional reserve banking like a distorted version of the game Monopoly? - Why does the establishment find women's sexual education repugnant? - Why does the economy blow up from time to time? - Why was Karl Marx so pissed off? - What does Professor Sybill Trelawney have in common with the governors of the Federal Reserve? It shows that the 1% derive much of their power from their preferential access to bank-created money. Money and the banking system underlie inequality and discrimination in society; if you want to address these issues, you have to start at the source. In the end, this is not really a book about money and banking; it is more about our values as a society.
Download or read book Organized Money written by Keith Mestrich and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two leading figures from the world of finance show how progressives can take their money away from conservative financial institutions and put it to good, lasting social use The U.S. financial system may be working for some people, but it isn't working for most of us who care about progressive causes. In fact, our financial system taps your money to pay for a conservative agenda. It's a heads-they-win, tails-you-lose game when the fees you pay to use your credit card finance fossil fuels even when you buy green products. Conservative "money muscle" shapes our culture, society, politics, and public policy. In this bold call to action, two leaders from the world of progressive finance propose a strategy to challenge this conservative dominance of the financial sector: organized progressive money. It's a $10 trillion plan for a full- service, market-scale progressive financial system. Mestrich and Pinsky explain how progressives can take control with financial institutions of their own and products that align with progressive values. Organized Money warns that until progressives organize their money, they will lose again and again while conservatives will keep winning. It's a crucial message for the next progressive era, starting with the make-or-break 2020 election cycle, where American voters will be presented with a choice between conservative market fundamentalism that leaves them out or inclusive restorative capitalism that is good for people as well as profits. Written in clear, engaging prose for non- financial readers and finance leaders alike, Organized Money is required reading for everyone ready to confront the excesses of conservative power and influence.
Download or read book Money in One Lesson written by Gavin Jackson and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2022-01-20 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Superb' - Tim Harford, author of How to Make the World Add Up Money is essential to the economy and how we live our lives, yet is inherently worthless. We can use it to build a home or send us to space, and it can lead to the rise and fall of empires. Few innovations have had such a huge impact on the development of humanity, but money is a shared fiction; a story we believe in so long as others act as if it is true. Money is rarely out of the headlines – from the invention of cryptocurrencies to the problem of high inflation, extraordinary interventions by central banks and the power the West has over the worldwide banking system. In Money in One Lesson, Gavin Jackson answers the most important questions on what money is and how it shapes our world, drawing on vivid examples from throughout history to demystify and show how societies and its citizens, both past and present, are always entwined with matters of money. ‘A highly illuminating, well-researched and beautifully written book on one of humanity’s most important innovations’ – Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator, Financial Times
