Unassuming but formidable, American maritime insurers used their position at the pinnacle of global trade to shape the new nation. The international information they gathered and the capital they generated enabled them to play central roles in state building and economic development. During the Revolution, they helped the U.S. negotiate foreign loans, sell state debts, and establish a single national bank. Afterward, they increased their influence by lending money to the federal government and to its citizens. Even as federal and state governments began to encroach on their domain, maritime insurers adapted, preserving their autonomy and authority through extensive involvement in the formation of commercial law. Leveraging their claims to unmatched expertise, they operated free from government interference while simultaneously embedding themselves into the nation's institutional fabric. By the early nineteenth century, insurers were no longer just risk assessors. They were nation builders and market makers. Deeply and imaginatively researched, Underwriters of the United States uses marine insurers to reveal a startlingly original story of risk, money, and power in the founding era.

“A digital age Edith Wharton . . . hilarious, exhilarating, and so, so clever.” –Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians **A Huffington Post, New York Post and Metro Summer Reading Pick** The Underwriting is a tantalizing glimpse into the boardrooms and bedrooms of six young hopefuls behind a Silicon Valley IPO that will launch them into the exclusive world of the über-wealthy—if it doesn’t destroy them first. Each of them is looking for success, but they may have to nail more than the deal to get to the top. Wall Street hotshot and playboy Todd Kent is not surprised when Hook’s eccentric founder taps him to lead the deal of the decade: taking the multibillion-dollar dating app public. Hook has been helping Todd score with women since its inception and now it’s poised to make his career. Given just two months to pull it off, Todd assembles his investment banking team—brainy Neha, party-boy Beau, and, a surprise choice, old college flame Tara Taylor. Tara runs six miles every morning, never eats after nine p.m., is the first to arrive and last to leave the office, but is starting to wonder why she bothers. When Todd asks her to help with Hook’s IPO, she sees her opportunity to break through the glass ceiling and justify six boyfriendless years of sacrifices for her career. She quickly realizes the dating app has more in store for her than a bigger bonus. The stars are finally aligning for Nick Winthrop. Rejected from SAE rush at Stanford by Todd Kent, Nick is now a Harvard Business School graduate and Hook’s CFO, with a chip on his shoulder even bigger than his ego. Now that Hook is going public and $80 million is about to come his way, the life Nick knows he deserves is finally at his fingertips. But when a young woman dies, it threatens to throw the deal—and the lives of those involved—into a thrilling tailspin. The Underwriting is an insightful and prescient glimpse into the inner workings of two generation-defining worlds and might be the most accurate depiction yet of the tech generation and the power it holds to shape the future.

Underwriting Services and the New Issues Market integrates practice, theory and evidence from the global underwriting industry to present a comprehensive description and analysis of underwriting practices. After covering the regulation and mechanics of the underwriting process, it considers economic topics such as underwriting costs and compensation, the pricing of new issues, the stock price and operating performance of issuing firms, the evaluation of new issue decisions, and an analysis of the many choices issuers face in structuring new issues. Unlike other books, it systematically develops a critical perspective about underwriting practices, both in the U.S. and international markets, and with a level of detail unavailable elsewhere and an approach that reveals how financial institutions deliver underwriting services. Underwriting Services and the New Issues Market delivers an innovative and long overdue look at security issuance. Foreword by Frank Fabozzi Covers underwriting contracts and arrangements on pricing and costs Focuses on the financial consequences of the issuance decision for the firm Describes and evaluates decisions regarding the features and structure of new security offerings.

In this sweeping history of United States policy toward Latin America, Lars Schoultz shows that the United States has always perceived Latin America as a fundamentally inferior neighbor, unable to manage its affairs and stubbornly underdeveloped. This perception of inferiority was apparent from the beginning. John Quincy Adams, who first established diplomatic relations with Latin America, believed that Hispanics were "lazy, dirty, nasty...a parcel of hogs." In the early nineteenth century, ex-President John Adams declared that any effort to implant democracy in Latin America was "as absurd as similar plans would be to establish democracies among the birds, beasts, and fishes." Drawing on extraordinarily rich archival sources, Schoultz, one of the country's foremost Latin America scholars, shows how these core beliefs have not changed for two centuries. We have combined self-interest with a "civilizing mission"--a self-abnegating effort by a superior people to help a substandard civilization overcome its defects. William Howard Taft felt the way to accomplish this task was "to knock their heads together until they should maintain peace," while in 1959 CIA Director Allen Dulles warned that "the new Cuban officials had to be treated more or less like children." Schoultz shows that the policies pursued reflected these deeply held convictions. While political correctness censors the expression of such sentiments today, the actions of the United States continue to assume the political and cultural inferiority of Latin America. Schoultz demonstrates that not until the United States perceives its southern neighbors as equals can it anticipate a constructive hemispheric alliance.

Presents a history of America's formative years, detailing the Revolutionary War, the contributions of the founding fathers, and the transformation of thirteen British colonies into a new nation.