The Death Of The Banker

National Book Award winner Ron Chernow expertly traces the decline of the big bankers and the rise of small investors. The reader is taken on a fascinating tour of Anglo-American high finance over the past two centuries, with detours into Canadian, German and Japanese finance. As the point of departure for his colourful, panoramic survey, Mr. Chernow poses a historic riddle: Why did the great financial dynasties - the Rothschilds, Barings, Morgans and Warburgs - flare so brilliantly in the 19th and 20th centuries and then enter into a precipitous decline? Why did such heavyweights give way to more anonymous financial conglomerates? And, most curious of all, why have small investors, banded together in mutual funds, suddenly inherited the financial earth? The Death of the Banker shows how American reformers mounted a spirited campaign to pry captive companies loose from their traditional bankers and restored competition to financial markets. In a world criss-crossed by capital flows, the banker will never again exercise such spectacular but arbitrary rule over clients.

Glittering with perception and anecdote, The Death of the Banker is at once a panorama of twentieth-century finance and a guide to the new era of giant mutual funds on Wall Street.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning bestselling author of Alexander Hamilton, the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical, comes this definitive biography of the Warburgs, one of the great German-Jewish banking families of the twentieth century. Bankers, philanthropists, scholars, socialites, artists, and politicians, the Warburgs stood at the pinnacle of German (and, later, of German-American) Jewry. They forged economic dynasties, built mansions and estates, assembled libraries, endowed charities, and advised a German kaiser and two American presidents. But their very success made the Warburgs lightning rods for anti-Semitism, and their sense of patriotism became increasingly dangerous in a Germany that had declared Jews the enemy. Ron Chernow's hugely fascinating history is a group portrait of a clan whose members were renowned for their brilliance, culture, and personal energy yet tragically vulnerable to the dark and irrational currents of the twentieth century.

Another delightful excursion into the world of Marcus Didius Falco by multimillion-copy bestselling author Lindsey Davis. Bringing Ancient Rome to life with its vivid description and characterisation, this is perfect for fans of S. J. Parris, Donna Leon, Steven Saylor and C. J. Sansom. 'Davis's writing zings with fun' -- Daily Mail 'One of the best of the current writers in this field' -- Donna Leon, The Times 'Fantastic! I'm addicted to Falco!' -- ***** Reader review 'Totally brilliant!' -- ***** Reader review 'Wonderful plot - full of suspense, as usual. Brilliant!!!!' -- ***** Reader review 'Subline - can't put these books down!' -- ***** Reader review ******************************************************************************** WRITING FOR MONEY, PUBLISHING DEATH AD74: it's a long, hot summer and Marcus Didius Falco, private informer and spare-time poet, is giving a reading for his family and friends. Things get out of hand - as usual... The event is taken over by Aurelius Chrysippus, a wealthy Greek banker and patron to a group of struggling writers, who offers to publish Falco's work - a golden opportunity that rapidly palls. A visit to the Chrysippus scriptorium implicates him in a gruesome literary murder so when Petronius Longus, the over-worked vigiles enquiry chief, commissions him to investigate, Falco is forced to accept. Lindsey Davis' twelfth novel wittily explores Roman publishing and banking, taking us from the jealousies of authorship and the mire of patronage, to the darker financial world, where default can have fatal consequences...

The National Book Award–winning history of American finance by the renowned biographer and author of Hamilton: “A tour de force” (New York Times Book Review). The House of Morgan is a panoramic story of four generations in the powerful Morgan family and their secretive firms that would transform the modern financial world. Tracing the trajectory of J. P. Morgan’s empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the financial crisis of 1987, acclaimed author Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the family’s private saga and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved—a world that included Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, Franklin Roosevelt, Nancy Astor, and Winston Churchill. A masterpiece of financial history—it was awarded the 1990 National Book Award for Nonfiction and selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century—The House of Morgan is a compelling account of a remarkable institution and the men who ran it. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the money and power behind the major historical events of the last 150 years.

A USA Today Bestseller "Immersive, satisfying, tense--and timely: This is probably happening for real right now."--Lee Child "First-rate...Slick, heart-hammering entertainment."--The New York Times Book Review On an early morning in November, a couple boards a private plane bound for Geneva, flying into a storm. Soon after, it simply drops off the radar, and its wreckage is later uncovered in the Alps. Among the disappeared is Matthew Werner, a banking insider at Swiss United, a powerful offshore bank. His young widow, Annabel, is left grappling with the secrets he left behind, including an encrypted laptop and a shady client list. As she begins a desperate search for answers, she determines that Matthew's death was no accident, and that she is now in the crosshairs of his powerful enemies. Meanwhile, ambitious society journalist Marina Tourneau has finally landed at the top. Now that she's engaged to Grant Ellis, she will stop writing about powerful families and finally be a part of one. Her entry into the upper echelons of New York's social scene is more appealing than any article could ever be, but, after the death of her mentor, she agrees to dig into one more story. While looking into Swiss United, Marina uncovers information that implicates some of the most powerful men in the financial world, including a few who are too close to home. The story could also be the answer to Annabel's heartbreaking search--if Marina chooses to publish it. The Banker's Wife is both a high-stakes thriller and an inside look at the personal lives in the intriguing world of finance, introducing Cristina Alger as a powerful new voice in the genre.

Stanley McKnight is at the top of his game, a private banker with charm, talent, and more than a bit of luck. When he is promoted by his private bank, Laville & Cie, to take on their largest Russian clients, it looks like his star will only continue to rise. As the excesses of his multibillionaire client, the oligarch Gagarin, grow ever more extreme, McKnight starts to fall for the lifestyle of travel, drugs, women and fast cars, and discovers that work can also be fun. As McKnight follows Gagarin around the world, coming up with new ways to skirt the law and wash his money, he must play an increasingly feverish game of cat-and-mouse between the American government, and the state-sanctioned Russian mob.