Kirjahaku

When Americans think of investment and finance, they think of Wall Street - though this was not always the case. During the dawn of the Republic, Philadelphia was the center of American finance. The first stock exchange in the nation was founded there in 1790, and around it the bustling thoroughfare known as Chestnut Street was home to the nation's most powerful financial institutions. "The First Wall Street" recounts the fascinating history of Chestnut Street and its forgotten role in the birth of American finance. According to Robert E. Wright, Philadelphia, known for its cultivation of liberty and freedom, blossomed into a financial epicenter during the nation's colonial period. The continent's most prodigious minds and talented financiers flocked to Philly in droves, and by the eve of the Revolution, the Quaker City was the most financially sophisticated region in North America. "The First Wall Street" reveals how the city played a leading role in the financing of the American Revolution and emerged from that titanic struggle with not just the wealth it forged in the crucible of war, but an invaluable amount of human capital as well. This capital helped make Philadelphia home to the Bank of the United States, the U.S. Mint, an active securities exchange, and several banks and insurance companies - all clustered in or around Chestnut Street. But as the decades passed, financial institutions were lured to New York, and by the late 1820s only the powerful Second Bank of the United States upheld Philadelphia's financial stature. But when Andrew Jackson vetoed its charter, he sealed the fate of Chestnut Street forever - and of Wall Street too. Finely nuanced and elegantly written, "The First Wall Street" will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the United States and the origins of its unrivaled economy.

Modern financial theories enable us to look at old problems in early American Republic historiography from new perspectives. Concepts such as information asymmetry, portfolio choice, and principal-agent dilemmas open up new scholarly vistas. Transcending the ongoing debates over the prevalence of either community or capitalism in early America, Wright offers fresh and compelling arguments that illuminate motivations for individual and collective actions, and brings agency back into the historical equation. Wright argues that the Colonial rebellion was in part sparked by destabilizing British monetary policy that threatened many with financial insolvency; that in areas without modern financial institutions and practices, dueling was a rational means of protecting one's creditworthiness; that the principle-agent problem led to the institutionalization of the U.S. Constitution's system of checks and balances; and that a lack of information and education induced women to shift from active business owners to passive investors. Economists, historians, and political scientists alike will be interested in this strikingly novel and compelling recasting of our nation's formative decades.

In The Wealth of Nations Rediscovered: Integration and Expansion in American Financial Markets, 1780–1850, Robert E. Wright portrays the development of a modern financial sector - with a central bank, a national monetary system, and efficient capital markets - as the driving force behind America's economic transition from agricultural colony to industrial juggernaut. This study applies the economic theory of information asymmetry to our understandings of early US financial development, expanding on scholarship of finance-led economic growth. The book's research is original, incorporating little-used archival material and data on early US securities prices, trading volumes, and stockholder patterns. The topics covered - securities trading, market liquidity, intermediation, banking reform, emerging market success, and foreign investment - are relevant to discussions in today's business community. Drawing from and building upon Adam Smith's lesser-known insights into financial relationships, The Wealth of Nations Rediscovered positions itself on the cusp of emerging paradigm shifts in history and economics.

In The Wealth of Nations Rediscovered: Integration and Expansion in American Financial Markets, 1780–1850, Robert E. Wright portrays the development of a modern financial sector - with a central bank, a national monetary system, and efficient capital markets - as the driving force behind America's economic transition from agricultural colony to industrial juggernaut. This study applies the economic theory of information asymmetry to our understandings of early US financial development, expanding on scholarship of finance-led economic growth. The book's research is original, incorporating little-used archival material and data on early US securities prices, trading volumes, and stockholder patterns. The topics covered - securities trading, market liquidity, intermediation, banking reform, emerging market success, and foreign investment - are relevant to discussions in today's business community. Drawing from and building upon Adam Smith's lesser-known insights into financial relationships, The Wealth of Nations Rediscovered positions itself on the cusp of emerging paradigm shifts in history and economics.

The nature of America's early economy has been hotly contested for several decades. Historians have often focused on the question of when America became "capitalist," while economists have tried to determine when American economic growth sped up. In The Origins of Commercial Banking in America, Robert E. Wright argues that the ultimate causes of American economic development and transformation into a modern society can be reduced to the causes of American banking. In the first full analysis of the origins of American commercial banking since Bray Hammond's monumental study forty-five years ago, Wright skillfully examines the political and economic forces that contributed to the origins and rise of banks in cities such as Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as well as in smaller towns servicing rural America. Wright expertly assesses the impact of the war for independence, Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris' policies under the Confederation, the economic and political effects of the postwar depression of 1784-86, the attempts of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to address the country's economic problems, and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's financial program under the new Constitution. Wright looks at both the macro and micro sides of issues—how state and national governments addressed problems and chartered (and sometimes unchartered banks) as well as how private individuals tried to cope with the need to obtain capital and the effects on them of early bankruptcy laws. He describes the varied and sometimes arcane financial and commercial instruments that existed both before and after the establishment of banks, and how they fostered economic development. We are introduced to an emerging capitalist system struggling to provide capital needed by America's voracious economy. The Origins of Commercial Banking in America is essential reading for anyone interested in the political and economic origins of the early republic.

The nature of America's early economy has been hotly contested for several decades. Historians have often focused on the question of when America became "capitalist," while economists have tried to determine when American economic growth sped up. In The Origins of Commercial Banking in America, Robert E. Wright argues that the ultimate causes of American economic development and transformation into a modern society can be reduced to the causes of American banking. In the first full analysis of the origins of American commercial banking since Bray Hammond's monumental study forty-five years ago, Wright skillfully examines the political and economic forces that contributed to the origins and rise of banks in cities such as Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as well as in smaller towns servicing rural America. Wright expertly assesses the impact of the war for independence, Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris' policies under the Confederation, the economic and political effects of the postwar depression of 1784-86, the attempts of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to address the country's economic problems, and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's financial program under the new Constitution. Wright looks at both the macro and micro sides of issues—how state and national governments addressed problems and chartered (and sometimes unchartered banks) as well as how private individuals tried to cope with the need to obtain capital and the effects on them of early bankruptcy laws. He describes the varied and sometimes arcane financial and commercial instruments that existed both before and after the establishment of banks, and how they fostered economic development. We are introduced to an emerging capitalist system struggling to provide capital needed by America's voracious economy. The Origins of Commercial Banking in America is essential reading for anyone interested in the political and economic origins of the early republic.

From bank bailouts and corporate scandals to the financial panic of 2008 and its lingering effects, corporate governance in America has been wracked by crises. Amid a weakening system of checks and balances in which corporate executives have little incentive to protect shareholder interests, U.S. corporations are growing larger and more irresponsible at the same time. But dependence on corporate profit was crucial to the early republic's growth, success, and security: despite protests that incorporated business was an inefficient and potentially corrupting system, U.S. state governments chartered more corporations per capita than any other nation-including Britain-effectively making the United States a "corporation nation." Drawing on legal and economic history, Robert E. Wright traces the development and decline of corporate institutions in America, connecting today's financial failures to deteriorating corporate law. In the nineteenth century, checks and balances kept managerial interests aligned with those of stockholders, and public opinion grew supportive as corporations raised billions of dollars to finance infrastructure such as transportation networks, financial systems, and manufacturing operations. But many of these checks and balances were dismantled after the Civil War, creating a space for the managerial malfeasance that spiraled into economic crisis in the twenty-first century. Bolstered with archival and original data, including the first complete count of American business corporations before the Civil War, Corporation Nation makes a compelling argument for improved internal governance and more effective external government regulation.

Like mass incarceration and slavery, financial exclusion, discrimination, and predation serve the interests of the few at the expense of their direct victims and overall economic efficiency. Yet those banes persist, evolve, and even thrive because governments often foster them with one hand while ineffectually combatting them with another.In Financial Exclusion, Robert E. Wright shows that America once ameliorated financial discrimination by leveraging the power of competition, allowing people who felt they were irrationally deprived of loans, insurance, or other financial services for reasons of ethnicity, gender, race, or religion to form their own financial institutions. Abandonment of that tradition for top-down government regulation in the 1990s led inevitably to the financial crisis of 2008. More regulation or direct government provision of financial services will not aid the those living in the hopeless, hungry side of town as much as a return to America's free market traditions will.Robert E. Wright has served Augustana University as the inaugural Nef Family Chair of Political Economy since 2009. After receiving his Ph.D. in economic history from SUNY Buffalo in 1997, Wright taught economics at the University of Virginia and New York University's Stern School of Business. His 18 previous books include Mutually Beneficial, The First Wall Street, Financial Founding Fathers, One Nation Under Debt, Bailouts, Fubarnomics, Corporation Nation, Little Business on the Prairie, and The Poverty of Slavery.

This book explains how six policies collectively called the North American Wildlife Conservation Model (NAWCM), put in place around the turn of the twentieth century, saved numerous iconic big game species from extinction. Rigid adherence to the NAWCM, however, especially its ban on the commercial sale of wild game meat, has allowed deer and some other species to become overabundant pests in areas where hunting pressure recently declined and habitat rebounded. Texas and South Africa have proven that scientific insight and market incentives can combine to prevent game overabundance and decrease the fragility and extend the range of iconic mammal game species. This book outlines how intermediate steps, like proxy hunting and other wildlife regulation reforms, could be used to lure more hunters into the field and move other states towards the Texas model incrementally, thereby minimizing risks to wildlife or human stakeholders.

During his presidency, FDR led the American public to believe that the US government could set policy that would transform the economy. This book argues that this assumption, which ultimately became embedded into the general American psyche, has impacted our economy today in more ways than one. Robert E. Wright breaks down the negative societal impact of the New Deal throughout this book. The chapters highlight the lasting influence of these policies, providing new perspectives and never-before-seen archival research related to FDR's policies. The book provides insight into how assumptions of governmental intervention in the economy have shifted the direction of the economy over time. It also dives into socioeconomic topics related to social justice, critiquing the New Deal in its original and historical contexts. Wright brings a long-term public-choice perspective to the New Deal, providing interdisciplinary insights into socioeconomic topics such as gender, race, and climate. The resulting book is ideal for those interested in economics, American history, law, and policy.

This ground-breaking book adds an economic angle to a traditionally moral argument, demonstrating that slavery has never promoted economic growth or development, neither today nor in the past. While unfree labor may be lucrative for slaveholders, its negative effects on a country’s economy, much like pollution, drag down all members of society. Tracing the history of slavery around the world, from prehistory through the US Antebellum South to the present day, Wright illustrates how slaveholders burden communities and governments with the task of maintaining the system while preventing productive individuals from participating in the economy.Historians, economists, policymakers, and anti-slavery activists need no longer apologize for opposing the dubious benefits of unfree labor. Wright provides a valuable resource for exposing the hidden price tag of slaving to help them pitch antislavery policies as matters of both human rights and economic well-being.

A lively history of one of America's oldest publishing houses, published in conjunction with Wiley's bicentennial Founded in New York City when Thomas Jefferson was president, Wiley has been a significant player in the publishing industry for two centuries. Now, on the occasion of Wiley's bicentennial, a distinguished team of authors brings Wiley's rich history to life, showing how the company has reacted to trends within the publishing industry as well as to larger economic, social, and cultural forces. Knowledge for Generations sheds light on the long-term strengths and weaknesses of Wiley's business, illuminates the continuities and changes over time, and shows how family ownership has influenced the company's strategies, values, and corporate culture. Drawing on unrestricted access to company archives and interviews with key executives, the authors capture a story of sustained business success, intriguing personalities, and dramatic changes in the industry. Illustrated throughout with illuminating photographs and graphics, Knowledge for Generations is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of publishing.

Mutually Beneficial tells the story of the evolution of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, one of the most important life and health insurers in the history of the U.S. economy and life insurance industry. Relying on exclusive access to the company's archives, interviews with its current executive officers, the public record, and scholarly articles and monographs, Robert E. Wright and George David Smith provide a strategic analysis of Guardian, from its founding to its standing in the insurance world today. Mutually Beneficial also describes the origin of Guardian's distinctive approach to business—its corporate culture and policy—and how these principles flow from the ethical and business precepts of its founders. By rigorously attending to its policyholders as a matter of practice as well as principle, Guardian has long been one of the most consistently profitable life insurance firms as measured by return on net wealth. This unique history will be of interest to anyone in the insurance business, as well as financial and economic professionals.

This book presents the most compelling arguments for and against implementing a basic income guarantee today, in the voice of proponents and critics, in alternating chapters. Tables, figures, and pictures illustrate the key concepts and evidence, which include benefit cliffs and disincentive deserts, time series macroeconomic data, business, economic, and technological change (BETC), artificial intelligence and other general purpose technologies, along with advanced robotics, the environmental Kuznets Curve, income distributions, democracy, social justice, dependence, autonomy, and economic freedom. A neutral, non-partisan tone introduction defines UBI and covers the history of universal income plans, while the conclusion summarizes the main arguments for and against UBI before surveying alternative policies, including universal basic asset, credit, service, job, and training plans.

This book presents the most compelling arguments for and against implementing a basic income guarantee today, in the voice of proponents and critics, in alternating chapters. Tables, figures, and pictures illustrate the key concepts and evidence, which include benefit cliffs and disincentive deserts, time series macroeconomic data, business, economic, and technological change (BETC), artificial intelligence and other general purpose technologies, along with advanced robotics, the environmental Kuznets Curve, income distributions, democracy, social justice, dependence, autonomy, and economic freedom. A neutral, non-partisan tone introduction defines UBI and covers the history of universal income plans, while the conclusion summarizes the main arguments for and against UBI before surveying alternative policies, including universal basic asset, credit, service, job, and training plans.

The Wall Street Journal Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators that Really Matter is a must-have guide for investors. Dow Jones columnist Simon Constable and respected financial historian Robert E. Wright offer valuable tips and insight to help investors forecast and exploit sea changes in the global macroeconomic climate. Unlike other investment handbooks, Constable and Wright's guide explores the not widely known economic indicators that the smartest investors watch closely in order to beat the stock market-from "Big Macs" to "Zombie Banks." Not only valuable and informative, The Wall Street Journal Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators that Really Matter is also wonderfully irreverent and endlessly entertaining, making it the most fun to read investors' guide on the market.

Turn Crisis Into CashMoney matters got a lot scarier in 2020 and there is no end to the volatility in sight. Crisis means danger but also opportunity. To turn a profit during the next bust, or the next burst of inflation, individual investors and businesspeople must understand the economics of money, banking, and finance.That's what this book provides, in concise and understandable prose, with pictures. Understand inflation and interest rates, stock prices, money and monetary policy, and the basics of information and macroeconomic theory in short order.You might not beat the market after reading just this book, but if you learn its lessons the market won't beat up your business or investment portfolio the next time the economy tanks due to pandemic, war, high taxes, or alien invasion.

Turn Crisis Into CashMoney matters got a lot scarier in 2020 and there is no end to the volatility in sight. Crisis means danger but also opportunity. To turn a profit during the next bust, or the next burst of inflation, individual investors and businesspeople must understand the economics of money, banking, and finance.That's what this book provides, in concise and understandable prose, with pictures. Understand inflation and interest rates, stock prices, money and monetary policy, and the basics of information and macroeconomic theory in short order.You might not beat the market after reading just this book, but if you learn its lessons the market won't beat up your business or investment portfolio the next time the economy tanks due to pandemic, war, high taxes, or alien invasion.