At the peak of the financial crisis a high-flying team of egotistical, ambitious and international bankers flying to a global emergency financial bailout meeting are visited by a duo of egotistical, ambitious, intergalactic alien bankers. The alien bankers ask if earth requires an intergalactic bailout that could save earth's crumbling economy by selling a part of earth to the alien banker's clients from across the galaxy. For the hot shot earthling bankers, keen to win deals and redemption, it is a clash of greed, ego, plus classic over and under-valuation of their own planet. Also, the alien bankers might be a different species but the game is the same: Thanks to the financial crash earth is going cheap, yet what is it really worth? Who are the alien's clients and what are their goals and assets? For the deal to be closed requires the usual twists of brinkmanship hedged on universally accepted fundamentals of return on value, depreciation, and of course bonuses. As with every deal there is a hitch - and for this intergalactic merger and acquisition it could be the short-sightedness of the earthling bankers, or the greed of the alien bankers from across the universe, or the clients: the high-risk and no-assets parasitic Klonger race, looking to invest in a new planet to call home. Can the earthling bankers save earth without 'selling out' earth, get back their vision, and earn their capitalist redemption? Will the alien bankers alter the course of humanity, or is earth just too much of a risk? How will historians of the future, both human and the artificially intelligent, view this clash of civilizations?

Argues that the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent Depression occurred as a result of poor decisions on the part of four central bankers who jointly attempted to reconstruct international finance by reinstating the gold standard.

In this searing exposéformer Wall Street insider Nomi Prins shows how the 2007-2008 financial crisis turbo-boosted the influence of central bankers and triggered a massive shift in the world order. Central banks and international institutions like the IMF have overstepped their traditional mandates by directing the flow of epic sums of fabricated money without any checks or balances. Meanwhile, the open door between private and central banking has ensured endless opportunities for market manipulation and asset bubbles -- with government support. Through on-the-ground reporting, Prins reveals how five regions and their central banks reshaped economics and geopolitics. She discloses how Mexico navigated its relationship with the US while striving for independence and how Brazil led the BRICS countries to challenge the US dollar's hegemony. She explains how China's retaliation against the Fed's supremacy is aiding its ongoing ascent as a global superpower and how Japan is negotiating the power shift from the West to the East. And she illustrates how the European response to the financial crisis fueled instability that manifests itself in everything from rising populism to the shocking Brexit vote. Packed with tantalizing details about the elite players orchestrating the world economy -- from Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi to Ben Bernanke and Christine Lagarde -- Collusion takes the reader inside the most discreet conversations at exclusive retreats like Jackson Hole and Davos. A work of meticulous reporting and bracing analysis, Collusion will change the way we understand the new world of international finance.

Now featuring a New Preface on The Eurozone Debt Crisis Praise for Banker to the World "From Ukraine to China and Nigeria to Egypt debt and finance are central to global stability and United States interests. No one else has nearly as much experience on the front lines as Bill Rhodes. All who care about the 21st century will profit from close study of his thoughts."--Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University, former Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, and former Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama "Rhodes's recollections are lively and richly detailed, replete with glimpses of top-ranking personalities from the world of banking and government interacting under pressure, and they provide a rare window into how these important but normally secretive operations of high-level international finance actually work. ..." -The New York Review of Books "Mr. Rhodes was one of the few members of the financial establishment to sense that the world was on the brink of a calamity in 2007 (most of the prophets of doom were either academic theoreticians or maverick financiers) ... Mr. Rhodes is rightly proud of his record in defusing debt bombs and calming financial storms. Let's hope that his successors will be able to make similar boasts in the decades to come." -The Wall Street Journal "Bill Rhodes has made it his life's work to bring common sense to the most serious international problems. On something I know firsthand, the Brady Plan, Bill's steady support and energy were invaluable to its conclusion. This comes as no surprise--that's what he always does." -Nicholas Brady, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury " Banker to the World, a book exceptionally well titled, is an illuminating lesson in leadership, diplomacy, vision, and tenacity. It will be required reading at all levels of finance." -Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State "His memoir is a must for anyone who wants to recapture the behind-the-scenes details of this important recent era of banking history." -Robert Mundell, Nobel Laureate and Professor, Columbia University "William Rhodes' book is an important and interesting one, and something that those who want to understand the past and present better would do well to read. A highly talented banker and wise statesman, Rhodes' book is essential reading as a history, business, and life lesson." -Forbes.com "[S]hould be required r ...

This fascinating chronicle of the world's great financial families offers candid profiles of the personalities behind seven legendary banking houses: Hambros, which now survives in name only; Barings, the oldest British banking dynasty; the Rothschilds, who amassed the largest private fortune in modern history; the Warburgs, a German dynasty of Venetian origin dating from the sixteenth century; the venerable Hermann Josef Abs, long-time chairman of Deutsche Bank; Lehman Brothers, formerly the oldest continuing partnership in American investing; and the eccentric and culturally savant financier Raffaele Mattioli, who headed Banca Commerciale Italiana. Focusing on figures of late-nineteenth-century London, this chronicle marks the distinctions between the cloistered Old World aristocracy and the rise of the high-stakes investors of Wall Street. Written by a longtime correspondent for the New Yorker, this fascinating account of daring financial adventures and their merchant banker orchestrators provides a wealth of context for understanding the evolution of modern investment banking. A new Foreword has been written specially for this edition by Christopher Kobrak, Wilson/Currie Chair of Canadian Business and Financial History at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Dover (2014) republication of the edition originally published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1966. See every Dover book in print at www.doverpublications.com

A Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg Businessweek Book of the Year Why our banking system is broken—and what we must do to fix it New bank failures have been a rude awakening for everyone who believed that the banking industry was reformed after the Global Financial Crisis—and that we’d never again have to choose between massive bailouts and financial havoc. The Bankers’ New Clothes uncovers just how little things have changed—and why banks are still so dangerous. Writing in clear language that anyone can understand, Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig debunk the false and misleading claims of bankers, regulators, politicians, academics, and others who oppose effective reform, and they explain how the banking system can be made safer and healthier. Thoroughly updated for a world where bank failures have made a dramatic return, this acclaimed and important book now features a new preface and four new chapters that expose the shortcomings of current policies and reveal how the dominance of banking even presents dangers to the rule of law and democracy itself.