Positing that the treasure of the Jews was brought to France after the Visigoth sack of Rome, the authors explore the Middle Ages and Renaissance profusion of secret societies, and suggest that they were established to protect this hidden wealth, which remains a political power in the 1990s.

Some commodities command massive economic, social, and political influence. This title examines the business around gold, one of the most sought-after and valuable metals on Earth. It explores gold's historical significance as a monetary standard and as the motivator for boom-or-bust expansion as well as gold's contemporary ties to underdeveloped economies, the environment, and technological innovation. Features include essential facts, a glossary, selected bibliography, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

This book presents detailed case studies of the first commercial internet digital currency systems developed between 1996 and 2004. Transactions completed with the new technology circumvented all US financial regulations, an opening that transnational criminals exploited. Mullan explains how an entire industry of companies, agents, and participants turned a blind eye to crimes being committed in this unsupervised environment. He then tracks the subsequent changes made to US regulations that now prevent such unlicensed activity, illustrating the importance of supervising products and industries that arise from new disruptive technology. This book distills hundreds of hours of interviews with the creators and operators of early digital currency businesses to create detailed case studies of their practices.

Provides information on accessing the features, programs, and processes of Microsoft Windows Vista.