{"title":"Charles R Geisst","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the world of finance and business history with Charles R. Geisst. Explore insightful analyses of Wall Street, investment banking, and corporate scandals. Perfect for economics enthusiasts!\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"beggar-thy-neighbor-book-charles-r-geisst-9780812224269","title":"Beggar Thy Neighbor","description":"The practice of charging interest on loans has been controversial since it was first mentioned in early recorded history. Lending is a powerful economic tool, vital to the development of society but it can also lead to disaster if left unregulated. Prohibitions against excessive interest, or usury, have been found in almost all societies since antiquity. Whether loans were made in kind or in cash, creditors often were accused of beggar-thy-neighbor exploitation when their lending terms put borrowers at risk of ruin. While the concept of usury reflects transcendent notions of fairness, its definition has varied over time and place: Roman law distinguished between simple and compound interest, the medieval church banned interest altogether, and even Adam Smith favored a ceiling on interest. But in spite of these limits, the advantages and temptations of lending prompted financial innovations from margin investing and adjustable-rate mortgages to credit cards and microlending.   In Beggar Thy Neighbor, financial historian Charles R. Geisst tracks the changing perceptions of usury and debt from the time of Cicero to the most recent financial crises. This comprehensive economic history looks at humanity's attempts to curb the abuse of debt while reaping the benefits of credit. Beggar Thy Neighbor examines the major debt revolutions of the past, demonstrating that extensive leverage and debt were behind most financial market crashes from the Renaissance to the present day. Geisst argues that usury prohibitions, as part of the natural law tradition in Western and Islamic societies, continue to play a key role in banking regulation despite modern advances in finance. From the Roman Empire to the recent Dodd-Frank financial reforms, usury ceilings still occupy a central place in notions of free markets and economic justice.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49508118036753,"sku":"GOR010897059","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008006783249,"sku":"NIN9780812224269","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51726118158609,"sku":"GOR014379312","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53117511467281,"sku":"CIN0812224264G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0812224264.jpg?v=1752316353"},{"product_id":"wall-street-book-charles-r-geisst-9780195130867","title":"Wall Street","description":"Wall Street is the stuff of legend and a source of nightmares, a force so powerful in American societyDSand, indeed, in world economics and cultureDSthat it has become an almost universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of commercial success and the basest impulses of greed and deception. How did such a small, concentrated pocket of lower Manhattan come to have such an enormous influence in national and world affairs? In this wide-ranging volume, economic historian Charles Geisst answers this question as he provides the first history of Wall Street, ranging over two centuries from the loose association of traders meeting on New York sidewalks and coffee houses in the late 18th century, to the modern billion-dollar computer-driven colossus of today. Taking in the Gold Rush, the economic boom (for the North) of the Civil War, the great stock market crash of 1929, and the junk bond frenzy and the merger mania of the 1980s, this is a tale of profits and losses, endlessly enterprising spirits, and the role Wall Street played in helping America become the most powerful economy in the world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49508489625873,"sku":"GOR006496450","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50277855265041,"sku":"GOR013909739","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52579728097553,"sku":"CIN0195130863VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52580304486673,"sku":"CIN0195130863G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195130863.jpg?v=1751356518"},{"product_id":"wall-street-book-charles-r-geisst-9780195170603","title":"Wall Street","description":"In the seven years since the publication of the first edition of \"Wall Street\", America's financial industry has undergone a series of wrenching events that have dramatically changed the nation's economic landscape. The bull market of the 1990's came to a close, ushering in the end of the dot com boom, a record number of mergers occurred, and accounting scandals in companies like Enron and WorldCom shook the financial industry to its core. In this wide-ranging volume, financial historian Charles Geisst provides the first history of Wall Street, explaining how a small, concentrated pocket of lower Manhattan came to have such enormous influence in national and world affairs. In this updated edition, Geisst sums up the recent turbulence that has threatened America's financial industry. He shows how in 1997 thirty NASDAQ market makers paid a record $1.3 billion fine for price irregularities in stocks. He makes sense of the closing of the bull market, and explains a major change in the accounting rules for mergers that caused monumental losses for companies like AOL Time Warner. And he recounts how in the aftermath of the speculative fever that swept Wall Street in the 1990's, the scandals at Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, and Conseco represent a last gasp of mergermania and a fallout from a bubble-like market. \"Wall Street\" is at once the story of the street itself, from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant, to the modern billion-dollar computer-driven colossus of today. In a broader sense it is an engaging economic history of the United States, the role Wall Street played in making America the most powerful economy in the world, and the many challenges to that role it has faced in recent years.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49523731431697,"sku":"GOR009645567","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346182115601,"sku":"CIN0195170601VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346196795665,"sku":"CIN0195170601A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53152069976337,"sku":"CIN0195170601G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195170601.jpg?v=1750812351"},{"product_id":"wall-street-book-charles-r-geisst-9780195115123","title":"Wall Street","description":"Wall Street is the stuff of legend and a source of nightmares, a force so powerful in American society--and, indeed, in world economics and culture--that it has become an almost universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of commercial success and the basest impulses of greed and deception. How did such a small, concentrated pocket of lower Manhattan came to have such enormous influence in national and world affairs. In this wide-ranging volume, economic historian Charles Geisst answers this question as he provides the first history of Wall Street, ranging from the loose association of traders meeting on New York sidewalks and coffee houses in the late 18th century, to the modern billion-dollar computer-driven colossus of today. Here is a fascinating chronicle of America's securities industry and of its role in our nation's economic development. Geisst's narrative ranges over two centuries, from just after the Revolutionary War, to the California Gold Rush and the economic boom (for the North) of the Civil War, to the great stock market crash of 1929, right up to the recent junk bond frenzy and the merger mania of the 1980s that culminated in the fall of Drexel Burnham. The book traces many themes--the move of industry and business westward in the early 19th century, the rise of the great Robber Barons, the influence of the securities market on incredible growth of industry, particularly in the innovative financing of the railroads and major steel companies and crucial investments in Bell's and Edison's technical innovations. Geisst also looks at the gradual increase in government involvement in Wall Street, revealing how regulation had been minimal at first and many investors had suffered from the abuses of corrupt firms. But with the beginning of the New Deal, the government stepped in to pass a series of laws--centered on the Securities Exchange Commission--that severely restricted the ways that Wall Street firms could operate. Here began a heated debate that still rages today between those who want unfettered license to operate as they please and those who want the government to regulate the market to curb corruption. Of course, \"The Street\" has always been a breeding ground for characters with brazen nerve, and no history of the stock market would be complete without a look at the most ruthless wheeler dealers. Geisst for instance details the manipulations by which Jay Gould and associates cornered the gold market, leading to the terrifying market crash on \"Black Friday\" in September 1869. Here too are battles of will between powerful personalities and the determined rise to power of such \"self made men\" as John Jacob Astor, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius \"Commodore\" Vanderbilt--as well as the connivings of lesser known deal makers like William Crapo \"Billy\" Durant, reputed to have made $50 million in three months shortly before the stock market crash in 1929. Wall Street is at once a chronicle of the street itself, from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant, and in a broader sense it is an engaging economic history of the United States, a tale of profits and losses, endlessly enterprising spirits, and the role Wall Street played in helping America become the most powerful economy in the world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49543083458833,"sku":"GOR003694093","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50172192030993,"sku":"CIN0195115120VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50303459295505,"sku":"GOR002607710","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346100752657,"sku":"CIN0195115120G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50434563637521,"sku":"GOR013950209","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415551312145,"sku":"CIN0195115120A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195115120.jpg?v=1751324097"},{"product_id":"wall-street-book-charles-r-geisst-9780195396218","title":"Wall Street","description":"Originally published in 1997 and revised in 2004, Charles Geisst's Wall Street: A History remains the most definitive take on how a small, concentrated pocket of lower Manhattan came to have such enormous influence in national and world affairs.  This timely new edition will contain two new chapters, picking up after the fall of Enron and reflecting on the recent events of the global financial crisis.  The first will cover the events precipitating the recent financial meltdown, and the second will cover the imminent policy changes of the Obama administration, which Geisst foresees will mark the end of an era of opposition to strong government, and the beginning of a period of state-dominated capitalism.      Wall Street is at once the story of the street itself, from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade  to the modern era in which it is the economic colossus of today, and an engaging economic history of the United States, and the role Wall Street played in making America the most powerful economy in the world, and the many challenges to that role it has faced in recent years.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49584283156753,"sku":"GOR009140178","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49967834693905,"sku":"CIN0195396219G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332708630801,"sku":"CIN0195396219VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52134246940945,"sku":"NLS9780195396218","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195396219.jpg?v=1751195651"},{"product_id":"just-price-in-the-markets-book-charles-r-geisst-9780300268331","title":"Just Price in the Markets","description":"A concise history of “just price,” from Aristotle to the present day     The question of what constitutes a fair price has been at the center of market interactions since the time of Aristotle. Should a seller sell to the highest bidder, or is there some other standard, such as a morally defined price, to be applied? Charles R. Geisst traces the ways that philosophers, religious leaders, and economists have sought to answer that question, from antiquity through the modern era.     Aristotle’s thinking on usury influenced the idea of pricing well into the Renaissance. In his view, money was barren and should not be used to beget more money. As trade became more extensive, the strictures placed on pricing by Aristotelian thinking began to fall away, replaced by Roman and common-law conceptions of value and interest. Geisst’s book follows the evolution of that thought—influenced along the way by figures such as Copernicus, Fibonacci, Adam Smith, Marx, Cassel, and Keynes—and charts parallel developments in European and Islamic notions of fair pricing.     Today, pricing is seen as an economic inevitability, dictated by the laws of supply and demand. But this has not always been the case. As Geisst argues, the idea of a just price was once a moral concept, long before it was an economic one.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49743992324369,"sku":"NGR9780300268331","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52864208601361,"sku":"GOR013384692","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300268335.jpg?v=1750738665"},{"product_id":"last-partnerships-book-charles-r-geisst-9780071369992","title":"The Last Partnerships","description":"Long part of the Wall Street financial structure, the great partnerships of Wall Street ruled American finance from the turn of the 19th century with a combination of financial expertise, political power, and a mythical power that borrowed on true folklore. These money dynasties have disappeared from the financial landscape. While their place has been taken by the large well-capitalized securities firms of the 21st century, it is doubtful whether any 21st century firm could match their influence in helping develop American capitalism. Their histories often read like a soap opera, full of stories of financial wixadry, skulluggery and occasionally love and violence. The partners of the firms were amony New York's, and the country's, best-known and colourful figures. Their largesses and excesses became part of American folklore. The Seligmans helped support Mary Todd Lincoln after her husband was assassinated. Jay Cooke feverishly raised money for the Unioon during the Civil War. J.P. Morgan helped bail out the Treasury during the financial crisis of 1839-94. On the other side of the coin, their inability to recognize the dangers of the 1920s market helped bring about the 1929 Crash and their lack of leadership in its aftermath resulted directly in the securities and banking regulations of the 1930s during the New Deal. This text takes the reader back inside the boardrooms of the most superior and exclusive Wall Street partnerships where it discusses their influence, deals, successes and multi-million dollar losses over the years. Throughout it examines the forces that made the dynasties the financial arbiters of the 19th and 20th centuries - and then rendered them virtually obsolete by the end of the 20th century.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49775505801489,"sku":"GOR005257015","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50797115867409,"sku":"CIN0071369996VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50953824108817,"sku":"CIN0071369996G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51320529092881,"sku":"GOR004415258","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51421044211985,"sku":"GOR014267488","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0071369996.jpg?v=1750876285"},{"product_id":"undue-influence-book-charles-r-geisst-9780471656630","title":"Undue Influence","description":"A critical look at over 80 years of conflict, collusion, and corruption between financiers and politicians  Undue Influence paints a vivid portrait of the dealings between \"the few\", in this case members of Congress, the banking community, and the Fed, and sheds light on how radical new deregulatory measures could be introduced by unelected officials and then foisted upon Congress in the name of progress. In the process, the background of the new financial elite is examined-because they are markedly different than their predecessors of the 1920s and 1930s. Undue Influence also brings readers up to speed on other important issues, including how the financial elite has been able to perpetuate itself, how the markets lend themselves to these special interest groups, and how it is possible that after 80 years of financial regulation and regulatory bodies the same problems of financial malfeasance and fraud still plague the markets.  Charles R. Geisst (Oradell, NJ) is the author of 15 books, including Wheels of Fortune (0-471-47973-X), Deals of the Century (0-471-26397-4) and the bestsellers Wall Street: A History and 100 Years of Wall Street. Geisst has taught both political science and finance, worked in banking and finance on Wall Street and in London, as well as consulted. His articles have been published in the International Herald Tribune, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Newsday, Wall Street Journal, and Euromoney.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49908850557201,"sku":"CIN0471656631G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52478852399377,"sku":"NLS9780471656630","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52735426461969,"sku":"NIN9780471656630","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0471656631.jpg?v=1751326151"},{"product_id":"loan-sharks-book-charles-r-geisst-9780815729006","title":"Loan Sharks","description":"\u003cb\u003ePredatory lending: A problem rooted in the past that continues today.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLooking for an investment return that could exceed 500 percent annually; maybe even twice that much? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePrivate, unregulated lending to high-risk borrowers is the answer, or at least it was in the United States for much of the period from the Civil War to the onset of the early decades of the twentieth century. Newspapers called the practice loan sharking because lenders employed the same ruthlessness as the great predators in the ocean. Slowly state and federal governments adopted laws and regulations curtailing the practice, but organized crime continued to operate much of the business. In the end, lending to high-margin investors contributed directly to the Wall Street crash of 1929. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eLoan Sharks\u003c\/i\u003e is the first history of predatory lending in the United States. It traces the origins of modern consumer lending to such older practices as salary buying and hidden interest charges. Yet, as Geisst shows, no-holds barred loan sharking is not a thing of the past. Many current lending practices employed today by credit card companies, payday lenders, and providers of consumer loans would have been easily recognizable at the end of the nineteenth century. Geisst demonstrates the still prevalent custom of lenders charging high interest rates, especially to risky borrowers, despite attempts to control the practice by individual states. Usury and loan sharking have not disappeared a century and a half after the predatory practices first raised public concern.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49932056002833,"sku":"CIN0815729006G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50368422773009,"sku":"CIN0815729006A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52414905680145,"sku":"NIN9780815729006","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52534357098769,"sku":"NLS9780815729006","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53395935953169,"sku":"GOR009609778","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0815729006.jpg?v=1757759736"},{"product_id":"monopolies-in-america-book-charles-r-geisst-9780195123012","title":"Monopolies in America","description":"In this incisive and comprehensive history, business historian Charles Geisst traces the rise of monopolies from the railroad era to today's computer software empires. The history of monopolies has been dominated by strong and charismatic personalities. Adding a fascinating element to his book, Geisst tells the stories behind the individuals-from John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie to Michael Milken and Bill Gates-who forged these business empires with genius, luck, and an often ruthless disregard for fair competition. He also analyses the viewpoints of their equally colorful critics, from Louis Brandeis to Ralph Nader.  These figures enliven the narrative, offering insight into how large businesses accumulate power.  Viewed as either godsends or pariahs, monopolies have sparked endless debate and often conflicting responses from Washington. Monopolies in America surveys the important pieces of legislation and judicial rulings that have emerged since the post-Civil War era, and proposes that American antitrust activity has had less to do with hard economics than with political opinion. What was considered a monopoly in 1911 when Standard Oil and American Tobacco were broken up was not applied again when the Supreme Court refused to dismantle U.S. Steel in 1919. Charting the growth of big business in the United States, Geisst reaches the startling conclusion that the mega-mergers that have dominated Wall Street headlines for the past fifteen years are not simply a trend, but a natural consequence of American capitalism. Intelligent and informative, Monopolies in America skillfully chronicles the course of American big business, and allows us to see how the debate on monopolies will be shaped in the twentieth-first century.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50093842628881,"sku":"CIN0195123018G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51334037373201,"sku":"CIN0195123018VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51682709995793,"sku":"GOR005833732","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195123018.jpg?v=1751227347"},{"product_id":"investment-banking-in-the-financial-system-book-charles-r-geisst-9780023414312","title":"Investment Banking in the Financial System","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Unlikeliest Olympian\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy: Stephen Porpora\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1982, six-year-old Devon Porpora suffered a severe, life threatening seizure. His future was bleak. Because no one knew if the initial seizure was injury-induced, he needed to be on heavy doses of long- term and debilitating neurological drugs. His parents were told that Devon would need to re-learn everything in a special school and that he might never have a normal life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut Devon's remarkable mom, Judi, refused to accept that dark diagnosis for her son. She saw a sliver of hope and made it her mission to focus her life around healing his injured brain. Together, his parents worked with Devon to keep him learning and in his normal elementary school. In addition to classwork, in eighth grade Devon joined an obscure little crew club. His dad worked diligently for two years to transform it into a vibrant varsity rowing team. Devon became an accomplished student and athlete. In his senior year of high school he was admitted to Yale University and also qualified for the 1994 Olympic Festival rowing team. This is Devon's unlikely story as told by his father.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor the majority of his career, Stephen Porpora worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange while he and his wife Judi raised their kids Devon and Mairin in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. He worked as both a floor trader and a specialist. While at the NYSE, he became a frequent contributor with CNBC, CBS Evening News, CNFN, Fox Business Channel and other media outlets. When he retired in 2008, Stephen began writing Op Eds for the financial newspaper\u003cem\u003e Investor's Business Daily\u003c\/em\u003e and, more recently, a monthly essay for the local Long Island magazine \u003cem\u003eHuntington Bay Life\u003c\/em\u003e. He also founded a rental real estate business in Vermont.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the years, Stephen has enjoyed sketching and his hand-drawn images appear throughout the book. He lives in Huntington Bay, New York. This is his first published book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50312337752337,"sku":"CIN0023414316VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0023414316.jpg?v=1751069387"},{"product_id":"100-years-of-wall-street-book-charles-r-geisst-9780071373524","title":"100 Years of Wall Street","description":"There is probably no other \"street\" in the world that is as influential as Wall Street. From robber barons to money trusts; the Depression to the great 1950s bull market; increased government regulation and war to the ongoing 1990s boom; from insider trading and fraud to antitrust suits; from J.P. Morgan, Michael Milken, Ivan Boetsky to Bill Gates, Wall Street is a site of history-making events and unforgettable figures. This book gives a decade-by-decade, pictorial eyewitness account of Wall Street's past, its people and events throughout the 20th century.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50344010776849,"sku":"CIN0071373527G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53214434459921,"sku":"CIN0071373527VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0071373527.jpg?v=1751164251"},{"product_id":"deals-of-the-century-book-charles-r-geisst-9780471263975","title":"Deals of the Century","description":"Throughout history, mergers and acquisitions have been the major game played on Wall Street. These deals have had far reaching effects, on the worlds of finance and industry more than most commentators or financiers are publicly willing to admit. \"Deals of the Century\" captures this dynamic moment in history by taking an in depth look at the most notable merger and acquisition deals of the twentieth century. From Carnegie Steel in 1901 to the creation of the former AOL Time Warner, renowned business historian and bestselling author Charles Geisst traces the deals that have had the most dramatic impact on the worlds of both finance and industry over the past century. Decade by decade, you'll be introduced to the personalities behind each event, as industries are built, dismantled, and reorganized by \"professionals\" driven mainly by the profits extracted from the deals themselves. Engaging and informative, \"Deals of the Century\" paints an exciting portrait of the incredible M\u0026amp;A journey and illustrates how many of these deals changed the face of business, creating a modern capitalist society that continues to grow.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50356206666001,"sku":"CIN0471263974G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50419618349329,"sku":"CIN0471263974VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52108662178065,"sku":"GOR007137361","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0471263974.jpg?v=1751260843"},{"product_id":"collateral-damaged-book-charles-r-geisst-9781576603253","title":"COLLATERAL DAMAGED","description":"Sometime in the 1970s and 1980s, the use of credit cards, which had begun as a convenience, began to grow into an addiction. \u003ci\u003eCollateral Damaged: The Marketing of Consumer Debt to America\u003c\/i\u003e explains how a nation of savers became a nation of consumers and how Wall Street used consumers' addiction to spending to create the toxic securities that threaten to bring about the collapse of the global economy. \u003cp\u003eGeisst looks at the policy implications of the credit crisis and describes how the United States can get its fiscal house in order: \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eDebt must be brought back onto the issuer's balance sheet.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eInvestors must have the assurance of recourse to the debt issuer's own funds, rather than the empty promise of a valueless document.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eRegulators must be educated to know at least as much about financial engineering as the structured finance instruments' architects do.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis book connects the dots from consumer spending to credit cards to home-equity loans and back to credit cards.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50383300231441,"sku":"CIN1576603253VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50943178014993,"sku":"CIN1576603253G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1576603253.jpg?v=1751245510"},{"product_id":"encyclopedia-of-american-business-history-book-charles-r-geisst-9780816043507","title":"Encyclopedia of American Business History","description":"Provides detailed coverage of America's business history, from the Hudson fur trade to the Internet. More than 400 entries profile corporate titans and tycoons, Wall Street wizards, industry leaders, and major events and institutions of American business - spanning the period after American independence.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50763195678993,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50763197251857,"sku":"CIN0816043507G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53139118391569,"sku":"GOR014769264","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0816043507.jpg?v=1750703755"},{"product_id":"wall-street-book-charles-r-geisst-9780190613549","title":"Wall Street","description":"Wall Street is an unending source of legend-and nightmares. It is a universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of economic prosperity and the basest impulses of greed and deception. Charles R. Geisst's Wall Street is at a chronicle of the street itself-from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant to the latest highs and lows. It is also an engaging economic history of the United States, a tale of profits and losses, enterprising spirits, and key figures that transformed America into the most powerful economy in the world. The book traces many themes, like the move of industry and business westward in the early 19th century, the rise of the great Robber Barons, and the growth of industry from the securities market's innovative financing of railroads, major steel companies, and Bell's and Edison's technical innovations. And because \"The Street\" has always been a breeding ground for outlandish characters with brazen nerve, no history of the stock market would be complete without a look at the conniving of ruthless wheeler-dealers and lesser known but influential rogues.  This updated edition covers the slow recovery following the lowest points of the Great Recession and the tensions of regulation. Geisst illustrates the cyclical nature of Wall Street as recent crises are strikingly reminiscent of past economic failings. As Wall Street and America have changed irrevocably after the crisis, Charles R. Geisst offers the definitive chronicle of the relationship between the two, and the challenges and successes it has fostered that have shaped our history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50999568728337,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999571611921,"sku":"NIN9780190613549","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51782919684369,"sku":"CIN0190613548VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52465425056017,"sku":"NLS9780190613549","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0190613548.jpg?v=1750779683"},{"product_id":"loan-sharks-book-charles-r-geisst-9780815734321","title":"Loan Sharks","description":"Predatory lending: A problem rooted in the past that continues today.  Looking for an investment return that could exceed 500 percent annually; maybe even twice that much?  Private, unregulated lending to high-risk borrowers is the answer, or at least it was in the United States for much of the period from the Civil War to the onset of the early decades of the twentieth century. Newspapers called the practice “loan sharking” because lenders employed the same ruthlessness as the great predators in the ocean. Slowly state and federal governments adopted laws and regulations curtailing the practice, but organized crime continued to operate much of the business. In the end, lending to high-margin investors contributed directly to the Wall Street crash of 1929.  Loan Sharks is the first history of predatory lending in the United States. It traces the origins of modern consumer lending to such older practices as salary buying and hidden interest charges. Yet, as Geisst shows, no-holds barred loan sharking is not a thing of the past. Many current lending practices employed today by credit card companies, payday lenders, and providers of consumer loans would have been easily recognizable at the end of the nineteenth century. Geisst demonstrates the still prevalent custom of lenders charging high interest rates, especially to risky borrowers, despite attempts to control the practice by individual states. Usury and loan sharking have not disappeared a century and a half after the predatory practices first raised public concern.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51687394836753,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51687395000593,"sku":"NIN9780815734321","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52452141924625,"sku":"NLS9780815734321","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0815734328.jpg?v=1759402323"},{"product_id":"beggar-thy-neighbor-book-charles-r-geisst-9780812244625","title":"Beggar Thy Neighbor","description":"The practice of charging interest on loans has been controversial since it was first mentioned in early recorded history. Lending is a powerful economic tool, vital to the development of society but it can also lead to disaster if left unregulated. Prohibitions against excessive interest, or usury, have been found in almost all societies since antiquity. Whether loans were made in kind or in cash, creditors often were accused of beggar-thy-neighbor exploitation when their lending terms put borrowers at risk of ruin. While the concept of usury reflects transcendent notions of fairness, its definition has varied over time and place: Roman law distinguished between simple and compound interest, the medieval church banned interest altogether, and even Adam Smith favored a ceiling on interest. But in spite of these limits, the advantages and temptations of lending prompted financial innovations from margin investing and adjustable-rate mortgages to credit cards and microlending.   In Beggar Thy Neighbor, financial historian Charles R. Geisst tracks the changing perceptions of usury and debt from the time of Cicero to the most recent financial crises. This comprehensive economic history looks at humanity's attempts to curb the abuse of debt while reaping the benefits of credit. Beggar Thy Neighbor examines the major debt revolutions of the past, demonstrating that extensive leverage and debt were behind most financial market crashes from the Renaissance to the present day. Geisst argues that usury prohibitions, as part of the natural law tradition in Western and Islamic societies, continue to play a key role in banking regulation despite modern advances in finance. From the Roman Empire to the recent Dodd-Frank financial reforms, usury ceilings still occupy a central place in notions of free markets and economic justice.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51819520950545,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51819521507601,"sku":"CIN0812244621G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780812244625.jpg?v=1752549949"},{"product_id":"entrepot-capitalism-book-charles-r-geisst-9780275938949","title":"Entrepot Capitalism","description":"This is the first history on the subject of foreign investment in the United States since 1920. It shows how the United States changed from a debtor nation to a supplier of capital to the rest of the world, and then details the structural shifts to this creditor position after the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system in 1972. Geisst demonstrates that the United States has always been a magnet for foreign portfolio and direct investment. Traditionally, this has come from northern European or Canadian sources, but in the 1970s the Japanese became a major force. Currently, both types of investment in the United States are at historically high levels, but Geisst asserts that this foreign interest exerts a positive rather than a negative impact on the economic climate.    This study is a counterpart to the author's earlier examination of domestic investment in the United States, Visionary Capitalism: Financial Markets and the American Dream in the Twentieth Century. It will be of interest to scholars and professionals in finance and investments, business history, and American history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52334937637137,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52334938194193,"sku":"NLS9780275938949","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780275938949.jpg?v=1758158492"},{"product_id":"visionary-capitalism-book-charles-r-geisst-9780275932831","title":"Visionary Capitalism","description":"This groundbreaking new work presents the first financial history of the United States in the 20th century from the commercial and investment banking perspective. The author traces the development of both industries from the 1920s through the conditions of the present marketplace and looks at the simultaneous development of the federal regulatory agencies that grew up around the financial markets. Arguing that the ideal of an American Dream finds its best tangible expression in the ways in which the financial markets have been used to foster and protect the ideals of quality housing, higher education, and agricultural production, the author analyzes the successes and failures of the markets in producing a high standard of living and well-being over the past 70 years.    Geisst begins by describing the manner in which the financial system and its regulators responded to the developments leading up to the crash of 1929, demonstrating that this period saw the first recognition that government agencies could effectively intervene in capital markets in times of financial crisis. He then reviews, in separate chapters, capital markets since the crash and the commercial banking industry as it evolved after 1934. Turning to a more specific focus on the markets' impact on individuals, Geisst assesses American capitalism's ability to fulfill the goals of universal home ownership, widened access to higher education, and liberal farm credit. He then addresses the financial innovations of the past two decades, evaluating their effects in furthering the general acquisition of wealth. Finally, Geisst looks at the relationships between Republicans and Democrats and the markets. Throughout, Geisst seeks to determine how the complex interactions between the markets themselves and the agencies that oversee and regulate them have fostered and protected the ideals of the American Dream. Ideal as a supplemental text for courses in business and economic history, this book will also be of significant interest to professionals and executives in the commercial and investment banking fields.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52475816444177,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52475817853201,"sku":"NLS9780275932831","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780275932831.jpg?v=1759843109"},{"product_id":"wheels-of-fortune-book-charles-r-geisst-9780471479734","title":"Wheels of Fortune","description":"An intriguing history of the futures market and speculation  From Jay Gould's attempt to corner the gold market in the 1860s to the Hunt brothers' scandalous efforts to control the silver market in the 1980s, Wheels of Fortune traces the rich, colorful history of the futures market on its quest for respectability and profit. This comprehensive account shows readers why the markets have been grabbing headlines for over 100 years as both respectable economic institutions and hotbeds of gambling activity and scandal. Charles Geisst brings the personalities and strategies behind the futures market and speculation in general to life, against a backdrop of American life that begins prior to the Civil War.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52476771500305,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52476772483345,"sku":"NLS9780471479734","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780471479734.jpg?v=1759844581"},{"product_id":"political-thought-of-john-milton-book-charles-r-geisst-9781349071494","title":"The Political Thought of John Milton","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52588372230417,"sku":"NLS9781349071494","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781349071494.jpg?v=1761057991"},{"product_id":"guide-to-the-financial-institutions-book-charles-r-geisst-9780333386231","title":"A Guide to the Financial Institutions","description":"An introductory survey of financial institutions in Britain and the United States. Discusses the structure and functions of commercial banks, building associations, investment banks, life insurance companies and pension funds, and American federal agencies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53134996275473,"sku":"GOR014765470","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780333386231.jpg?v=1771393514"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-ie\/collections\/author-books-by-charles-r-geisst.oembed?page=2","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}