When his father, a chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, is killed in a brazen attack on the White House lawn, Bobby Astor, a rising hedge fund manager, untangles a web of lies to reveal a sophisticated plot against the U.S. financial system.

A founder of the acclaimed quarterly The International Economy explains the economic problems behind the credit and mortgage issues of the past two years, identifying hidden connections between key events and the global economy.

The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a financial phenomenon: it was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge. Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers. The Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piñata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack at...

Professor Connel Fullenkamp of Duke University guides you through four centuries of economic disasters--from tulip mania in the 1600s to the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Each of his 24 lectures (30 Minutes per lectures) covers a notable incident of financial misfortune or folly that is worthy of a Hollywood thriller. You hear how Charles Ponzi conducted the moneymaking scam that bears his name; how mining companies in the Old West sprang up like...

"Winner of the 2013 Spear's Book Award in Financial History" "Co-Winner of the 2014 Bronze Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards" "One of The Motley Fool's (John Reeves) 10 Great Books on American Economic History 2014" "One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best History Books of 2013" "One of Bloomberg News' Top Business Books of 2013" "One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Nonfiction Books of the Year for 2013 in Business and Economics" "One of Bloomberg/Businessweek...

"St. John Larrimer was a well known Wall Street investment banker who had earned returns for his wealthy clients that exceeded even their fondest hopes. But it turns out that the returns existed only in St. John's imagination. By the time his staff and associates were detained and questioned, St. John had disappeared. Louis Morgon, a long retired CIA operative now living in France, had a little money invested with a money manager who was also taken...

With recent economic turmoil monopolizing the headlines, it has become more important than ever to understand fundamental economic terms and concepts.

As trade flows expanded and trade agreements proliferated after World War II, governments, most notably the United States, came increasingly to use their power over imports and exports to influence the behaviour of other countries. But trade is not the only way in which nations interact economically. Over the past two decades, another form of economic exchange has risen to a level of vastly greater significance and political concern: the purchase...

Bestselling author, economist and historian Niall Ferguson takes a look at how money evolved, from the concept of credit and debt in the Renaissance to the emergence of a global economy and the subprime crisis we face today.