Born into a Scottish family of Church clerics and goldsmiths in 1671, John Law grew up to exude little of the moral and much of the monetary influence in his blood. When, as a 23-year-old gambler and philandering playboy on the London scene, he killed a nobleman in a duel, he was thrown into prison and sentenced to death. After pursing legal channels of appeal and getting nowhere, he eventually escaped and began the life of a gambler-cum-aristocrat in exile. His uncanny knack at the card tables and renowned success with women earned him a dubious reputation within late seventeenth-century European social circles. But his equally outstanding mathematical skills and fascination with the mechanisms of credit also brought him to the attention of political leaders. After attempting to peddle his revolutionary scheme for creating a national bank that issued paper currency to officials in London, Scotland, Vienna, Turin, and elsewhere, Law finally convinced the war-impoverished French government to back his plan. The bank's success and the events that followed--Law's introduction of the "Mississippi scheme," a wild exercise in capital procurement and share offering that spawned the greatest bull market in history and its drastic crash--make this book fascinating reading for anyone playing the markets today.

Gleeson writes with clarity and style on topics that are notoriously complex and potentially dry. Without dumbing down her subject matter, she elucidates the finer points of credit-based financial systems and stock markets in readable English, welcoming both finance aficionados and illiterates to Law's tale. In that regard, the book is similar to Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman, and though ostensibly a record of the rise and fall of one of the world's most infamous--and ultimately influential--financiers, it is a story of murder, lust, politics, wealth, and poverty and far more intriguing than most fare in its often prosaic category. Indeed, this book will leap off your business bookshelf faster than you can ask who wants to be a millionaire. --S. Ketchum ]]> http://www.banks.ca/banks/millionaire-the-philanderer-gambler-and-duelist-who-invented-modern-finance/feed/ 0 http://www.banks.ca/insurance/modern-actuarial-risk-theory-using-r/ http://www.banks.ca/insurance/modern-actuarial-risk-theory-using-r/#comments Mon, 27 May 2013 23:20:29 +0000 http://www.banks.ca/insurance/modern-actuarial-risk-theory-using-r/ http://www.banks.ca/insurance/modern-actuarial-risk-theory-using-r/feed/ 0 http://www.banks.ca/investment/modern-security-analysis-understanding-wall-street-fundamentals-wiley-finance/ http://www.banks.ca/investment/modern-security-analysis-understanding-wall-street-fundamentals-wiley-finance/#comments Tue, 21 May 2013 06:57:44 +0000 http://www.banks.ca/investment/modern-security-analysis-understanding-wall-street-fundamentals-wiley-finance/ A legendary value investor on security analysis for a modern era

This book outlines Whitman's approach to business and security analysis that departs from most conventional security analysts. This approach has more in common with corporate finance than it does with the conventional approach. The key factors in appraising a company and its securities: 1) Credit worthiness, 2) Flows—both cash and earnings, 3) Long-term outlook, 4) Salable assets which can be disposed of without compromising the going concern, dynamics, 5) Resource conversions such as changes in control, mergers and acquisitions, going private, and major changes in assets or in liabilities, and 6) Access to capital.

• Offers the security analysis value approach Martin Whitman has used successfully since 1986
• Details Whitman's unconventional approach to security analysis and offers information on the six key factors for appraising a company
• Contains the three most overemphasized factors used in conventional securities investing

Written by Martin J. Whitman, Modern Security Analysis meets the challenge of today's marketplace by taking into account changes to regulation, market structures, instruments, and the speed and volume of trading.]]> http://www.banks.ca/investment/modern-security-analysis-understanding-wall-street-fundamentals-wiley-finance/feed/ 0 http://www.banks.ca/investment/the-modern-trader-wall-street-traders-reveal-their-formula-for-success/ http://www.banks.ca/investment/the-modern-trader-wall-street-traders-reveal-their-formula-for-success/#comments Sun, 05 May 2013 15:11:34 +0000 http://www.banks.ca/investment/the-modern-trader-wall-street-traders-reveal-their-formula-for-success/ http://www.banks.ca/investment/the-modern-trader-wall-street-traders-reveal-their-formula-for-success/feed/ 0 http://www.banks.ca/banks/the-house-of-morgan-an-american-banking-dynasty-and-the-rise-of-modern-finance/ http://www.banks.ca/banks/the-house-of-morgan-an-american-banking-dynasty-and-the-rise-of-modern-finance/#comments Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:04:47 +0000 http://www.banks.ca/banks/the-house-of-morgan-an-american-banking-dynasty-and-the-rise-of-modern-finance/ http://www.banks.ca/banks/the-house-of-morgan-an-american-banking-dynasty-and-the-rise-of-modern-finance/feed/ 0