Banks were allowed to enter securities markets and become universal banks during two periods in the past century - the 1920s and the late 1990s. Both times the ensuing unsustainable booms led to destructive busts - the Great Depression of the early 1930s and the Global Financial Crisis of2007-09. Both times, universal banks made high-risk loans and packaged them into securities that were sold as safe investments to poorly-informed investors. Both times, governments were forced to arrange costly bailouts.Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 in response to the Great Depression. The Act broke up universal banks and established a decentralized financial system composed of three separate and independent sectors: banking, securities, and insurance. That system was stable and successful for overfour decades until the big-bank lobby persuaded regulators to open loopholes in Glass-Steagall during the 1980s and convinced Congress to repeal it in 1999.In Taming the Megabanks, Arthur Wilmarth, Jr. argues that we must separate banks from securities markets again to avoid another devastating financial crisis and ensure that our financial system serves Main Street business firms and consumers instead of Wall Street bankers and speculators. Wilmarth'scomprehensive and detailed analysis of the roles played by universal banks in the two worst financial catastrophes of the past century demonstrates that a new Glass-Steagall Act would make our financial system much more stable and less likely to produce boom-and-bust cycles. And giant universalbanks would no longer dominate our financial system or receive enormous subsidies.Congress did not adopt a new Glass-Steagall Act after the Global Financial Crisis. Instead, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act. Dodd-Frank's highly technical reforms tried to make banks safer but left the dangerous universal banking system in place. Universal banks continue to pose unacceptablerisks to financial stability and economic and social welfare. They exert far too much influence over our political and regulatory systems because of their immense size and their undeniable "too-big-to-fail" status.Taming the Megabanks forcefully makes the case for a a new Glass-Steagall Act to break up universal banks. A more decentralized and competitive system of independent banks and securities firms would not only provide better service to Main Street businesses and ordinary consumers but also bringstability to a volatile financial system.

I'm telling you why we broke up, Ed. I'm writing it in this letter, the whole truth of why it happened. Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped.

Can we prevent another financial crisis? We can! Break Up the Banks! is a sensible, actionable, and totally accessible call to arms from an acclaimed financial journalist It’s been eight years since the financial crisis, but has anyone taken real action to prevent the next one? Former Economist reporter David Shirreff thinks not, and in Break Up the Banks!, he gives us a short but essential guide to what exactly we can do. With great clarity and a keen sense of humor, Shirreff argues that banks have gotten far too big and far too powerful—and shows how they can be reined in.

"Breaking Windows" is a gripping account of Bill Gates's plan to establish a monopoly and create a new kind of business organism. Bank shows how the company's executives faced a tough legal challenge, and how they are dealing with the limits of Microsoft's growth.

Bella, Emily, Maddie, and Sam decide to create their very own start-up—a lemonade stand!—in this fifth book of the Craftily Ever After chapter book series. Bella, Emily, Maddie, and Sam have been hard at work in their craft studio—so busy in fact, that their supplies are starting to dwindle. It’s time to stock up! In order to add a little money to their piggy bank, the friends decide to combine their skills and use the last of their allowance to create their very own business: a lemonade stand! But something’s not quite right. While the stand looks fabulous, the lemonade is…not. And where are all their customers? Can these crafty entrepreneurs save their business before it’s too late? With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Craftily Ever After chapter books are perfect for emerging readers.

We’ve all been there—on the couch cocooned in blankets, puffy-eyed, clutching a pint of Chunky Monkey, and listening to “our song” on repeat as we alternate between fuming and crying. And because we’ve all been there, we’ve also all made the same promise to ourselves: we’re never going back. Annabel Acton’s Never Liked It Anyway is here to ensure that you keep that promise. Moving on today is about taking action, and taking it fast. It’s not about lying on a couch and talking it out with a therapist. It’s about throwing yourself back out there, back into the deep end, shaking off that breakup funk and bouncing back to your most fabulous self. After all, the best revenge is not revenge at all—it’s just being spectacularly you. Never Liked It Anyway is the very first breakup wreck-it-journal designed to unlock your super powers. It’s yours to play with, trash, love, abuse and use—and, of course, have fun with. It’ll get you moving, shaking, working, and twerking out of those breakup blues with a collection of quirky, quick, and future-focused challenges. It’ll shake things up and help you step outside your habitual patterns so there’s no room for moping! And it’ll entertain you with fascinating trivia about random things like heart metrics, tear production, and even the love lives of animals who definitely had it worse than you. Dry your eyes, save the ice cream for happier times, and pick up this book instead.