100 Best Banking Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis

5.0

The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope an

Recommended by Sheryl Sandberg, Barry Ritholtz, David Heinemeier Hansson, and 5 others.

Sheryl Sandberg

COO/Facebook

Michael Lewis's ability to boil down the most complicated subjects is like a magic trick. You can't believe your own eyes. He takes on important issues - from the 2008 Wall Street crash in "The Big Short" to parenting in "Home Game" - and breaks them down to the deepest truths. His combination of an extraordinarily analytical mind and a deep understanding of human nature allows him to weave together data and events to offer a fresh and insightful narrative. Whatever the topic, the result is always compelling and even thrilling. I am in awe of him. [source]

Barry Ritholtz

Michael Lewis, to me, is the preeminent narrator of the financial crisis. He is the guy who constructs the story better than anybody else. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

A good one. [source]

2

The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance

Ron Chernow

4.8

The winner of the National Book Award and now considered a classic, The House of Morgan is the most ambitious history ever written about an American banking dynasty. Acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as "brilliantly researched and written," the book tells the rich, panoramic story of four generations of Morgans and the powerful, secretive firms they spawned. It is the definitive account of the

3

The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve

G Edward Griffin

4.7

Preview Summary

This classic expose of the Fed has become one of the best-selling books in its category of all time. Where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The money magician's secrets are unveiled. Here is a close look at their mirrors and smoke machines, the pulleys, cogs, and wheels that create the grand illusion called money. A boring subject? Just wait. You'll be hooked in five minutes.

Recommended by Marvin Liao.

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

I tend to jump from book to book and may switch if I am interested in some new topic. This is a pleasure for me (which I also do benefit work wise from too). It’s quite a random list because I have eclectic interests (or just scatterbrained most likely) on tech business, AI, general global economy, geopolitics, rising Biotech economy & history. I'm basically 15% to 50% into all these books. [source]

4

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves

Andrew Ross Sorkin

4.7

Andrew Ross Sorkin delivers the first true behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami. From inside the corner office at Lehman Brothers to secret meetings in South Korea, and the corridors of Washington, Too Big to Fail is the definitive story of the most powerful men and women in finance and politics

Recommended by Bill Gates, Max Levchin, John Lanchester, and 1 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011. [source]

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

John Lanchester

This is a minute-by-minute account of how the whole financial system nearly went over the brink in 2008, and the astonishing sense of tension and danger involved. [source]

5

Principles: Life and Work

Ray Dalio

4.7

Preview Summary

Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he’s developed, refined, and used over the past forty years to create unique results in both life and business—and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals.

In 1975, Ray Dalio founded an investment firm, Bridgewater Associates, out of his two-bedroom apa

Recommended by Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Tony Robbins, and 31 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Ray Dalio has provided me with invaluable guidance and insights that are now available to you in Principles. [source]

Mark Cuban

Entrepreneur / Shark Tank

The book I wish I had as a young entrepreneur. [source]

Tony Robbins

Life Coach

I found it to be truly extraordinary. Every page is full of so many principles of distinction and insights—and I love how Ray incorporates his history and his life in such an elegant way. [source]

6

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

Roger Lowenstein

4.7

Preview Summary

With a new Afterword addressing today’s financial crisis

A BUSINESS WEEK BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In this business classic—now with a new Afterword in which the author draws parallels to the recent financial crisis—Roger Lowenstein captures the gripping roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein expla

Recommended by Max Levchin and John Gapper.

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

John Gapper

The Fed itself did not bail out LTCM, but it was worried enough to get a bunch of big banks into the room and say, “Would you care to chip in and save this thing?” Which they obligingly did – and then liquidated it. The Fed foresaw that the failure of a single big hedge fund could send shock waves through the entire financial system. The issue of systemic risk was highlighted. [source]

7

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt

Michael Lewis

4.6

Preview Summary

Four years after his #1 bestseller The Big Short, Michael Lewis returns to Wall Street to report on a high-tech predator stalking the equity markets.

Flash Boys is about a small group of Wall Street guys who figure out that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders and that, post–financial crisis, the markets have become not more free but less, and more controlled by the big

Recommended by Alykhan Satchu.

Alykhan Satchu

@surambaya @MihrThakar @NorthmanTrader great book [source]

8

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Bryan Burrough

4.6

Preview Summary

“One of the finest, most compelling accounts of what happened to corporate America and Wall Street in the 1980’s.”
—New York Times Book Review

A #1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes

Recommended by Bill Liao, Bogdan Iordache, David Rothschild, and 2 others.

Bill Liao

The human world occurs in language so best get good at it! [source]

Bogdan Iordache

There are quite a few good business books on technology, and I'll list below some I find to be a good starting point. Personally, I like biographies a lot and I mostly read biographies of dead people, because those are the most honest ones. So because the computer age is still very young, there won't be a lot of biographies in my list. [source]

Scott Kupor

@JPHampstead @TimParksauthor Barbarians is a great book. Hope you enjoy mine! [source]

9

Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street

Michael Lewis

4.6

Preview Summary

In this shrewd and wickedly funny book, Michael Lewis describes an astonishing era and his own rake's progress through a powerful investment bank. From an unlikely beginning (art history at Princeton?) he rose in two short years from Salomon Brothers trainee to Geek (the lowest form of life on the trading floor) to Big Swinging Dick, the most dangerous beast in the jungle, a bond salesman who coul

Recommended by Audrey Russo and John Lanchester.

Audrey Russo

Question: What books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path? Answer: Anything by Peter Senge. The Hard Thing About Hard Things – Ben Horowitz Once you are Lucky, Twice you are good – Sara Lacey Revolutionary Wealth – Alvin Toffler Black Swan – Taleb Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, by Ellen Pao. Creative Class – Richard Florida Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull & Amy Wallace Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis American Government 101: From the Continental Congress to the Iowa Caucus, Everything You Need to Know About US Politics – Kathleen Spears The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Any book by Herman Hesse The Art of War by Sun Tzu. [source]

John Lanchester

It’s still a wonderfully entertaining book: An absolutely hilarious, very, very dark, vivid account of how Michael Lewis came out of Princeton and, with basically no qualifications, got a job in the bond trading department of Salomon Brothers [source]

10

The Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith

4.5

Preview Summary

In his book, Smith fervently extolled the simple yet enlightened notion that individuals are fully capable of setting and regulating prices for their own goods and services. He argued passionately in favor of free trade, yet stood up for the little guy. The Wealth of Nations provided the first--and still the most eloquent--integrated description of the workings of a market economy.

Recommended by Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and 10 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

Obama, unsurprisingly, appears to be more drawn to stories sympathetic to the working classes than is McCain. Obama cites John Steinbeck’s “In Dubious Battle,” about a labor dispute; Robert Caro’s “Power Broker,” about Robert Moses; and Studs Terkel’s “Working.” But he also includes Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” and “Theory of Moral Sentiments” on his list. [source]

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Adam Smith FTW obv. [source]

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist, Author & Science Communicator

Which books should be read by every single intelligent person on planet? … The Wealth of Nations (Smith) to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. [source]

11

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

4.5

Preview Summary

A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was.

The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from t

Recommended by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and 18 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Jeff Bezos

Founder/Amazon

From the book "The Everything Store: and the Age of Amazon" “The scholar argues that people are wired to see patterns in chaos while remaining blind to unpredictable events, with massive consequences. Experimentation and empiricism trumps the easy and obvious narrative,” Stone writes. [source]

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

And throw in “The Black Swan” and “Fooled by Randomness”. “Fragile” means if you hit something might break. “Resilient” means if you hit something, it will stay the same. On my podcast Nassim discusses “Antifragility” – building a system, even on that works for you on a personal level, where you if you harm your self in some way it becomes stronger. That podcast changed my life He discusses Antifragility throughout history, up to our current economic situation, and even in our personal situations. [source]

12

Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

Tom Wright, Bradley Hope

4.5

Preview Summary

An epic true-tale of hubris and greed from two Pulitzer-finalist Wall Street Journal reporters, Billion Dollar Whale reveals how a young social climber pulled off one of the biggest financial heists in history--right under the nose of the global financial industry--exposing the shocking secret nexus of elite wealth, banking, Hollywood, and politics.

The dust had yet to settle on the global financi

Recommended by Bill Gates, Alexis Ohanian, Morgan Housel, and 2 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

As Bad Blood is to biotech, Billion Dollar Whale is to international finance... a wonderful read... Thrilling. [source]

Alexis Ohanian

Co-founder/Reddit

An incredible story.... If you need some billionaires to despise--look no further than these charlatans. [source]

Morgan Housel

This book on the 1MDB scandal was great, hard to put down. Low sophistication + huge brazenness is a powerful fraud combo. https://t.co/nYpIJffcb5 [source]

13

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

4.5

Preview Summary

Fooled by Randomness is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are The Black Swan, Antifragile, and The Bed of Procrustes.

Now in a striking new hardcover edition, Fooled by Randomness is the word-of-mouth se

Recommended by Malcolm Gladwell, Ev Williams, James Altucher, and 6 others.

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

And throw in “The Black Swan” and “Fooled by Randomness”. “Fragile” means if you hit something might break. “Resilient” means if you hit something, it will stay the same. On my podcast Nassim discusses “Antifragility” – building a system, even on that works for you on a personal level, where you if you harm your self in some way it becomes stronger. That podcast changed my life He discusses Antifragility throughout history, up to our current economic situation, and even in our personal situations. [source]

Anant Jain

The five-book series, "Incerto", by Nassim Nicholas Taleb has had a profound impact on how I think about the world. There’s some overlap across the books — but you'll likely find the repetition helpful in retaining the content better. [source]

Art De Vany

I used this book is a class I taught on the economics of uncertainty. [source]

14

Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty

Muhammad Yunus

4.4

Muhammad Yunus is that rare thing: a bona fide visionary. His dream is the total eradication of poverty from the world. In 1983, against the advice of banking and government officials, Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poorest of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Grameen Bank, based on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege of a fortunate few, now

Recommended by Vinod Khosla, Vinod Khosla, and Roger Thurow.

Roger Thurow

I chose this book for the power of the story that he tells – the founding of Grameen Bank and the success that it has had. [source]

15

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Niall Ferguson

4.4

Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it’s the sinews of war. To revolutionarie

Recommended by Max Levchin, Muhtar Kent, and 1 others.

Max Levchin

Co-founder/PayPal, CEO/Affirm, Investor

Max Levchin recommended this book as an answer to "What business books would you advise young entrepreneurs read?" [source]

Muhtar Kent

Former CEO/Coca-Cola

CEO considers it a great read. [source]

16

Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World

Liaquat Ahamed

4.4

Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize

"A magisterial work...You can't help thinking about the economic crisis we're living through now." --The New York Times Book Review

It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number

Recommended by Barry Ritholtz and David J Lynch.

Barry Ritholtz

It covers a 50-year period from before World War I and leading up to World War II. Even if you’re not interested in finance, it’s a great read. [source]

David J Lynch

Lords of Finance gives you that alternative history, particularly through the inter-war years from the end of World War I into the Great Depression. [source]

17

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking

Saifedean Ammous

4.4

Preview Summary

Bitcoin is the newest technology for money—find out how it fits in the future.
Bitcoin is the digital age's novel, decentralized, and automated solution to the problem of money: accessible worldwide, controlled by nobody. Can this young upstart money challenge the global monetary order? Economist Saifedean Ammous traces the history of the technologies of money to seashells, limestones, cattle, salt

Recommended by Max Keiser Tweet Poet. and Preston Pysh.

Max Keiser Tweet Poet.

@saifedean Everything worked out great because @saifedean’s book, “The Bitcoin Standard” took my knowledge of money, and therefore #Bitcoin, to new highs. This is what friendship is all about. [source]

Preston Pysh

@saifedean @pierre_rochard @OmniFinn Just finished your book and it was exceptional. Great job! [source]

18

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice

Bill Browder

4.4

A real-life political thriller about an American financier in the Wild East of Russia, the murder of his principled young tax attorney, and his dangerous mission to expose the Kremlin's corruption.

Bill Browder's journey started on the South Side of Chicago and moved through Stanford Business School to the dog-eat-dog world of hedge fund investing in the 1990s. It continued in Moscow, where Browder

Recommended by Eric Ries, Anand Sanwal, Ben Saunders, and 8 others.

Eric Ries

Founder/Long-Term Stock Exchange

This reads like a thriller, but is an urgent and important story about the dangers of Putin’s Russia and the events leading to the Magnitsky Act. [source]

Anand Sanwal

@geoffreysbatt @patrick_oshag 2/ Reminded a bit of the story of @Billbrowder as told in the remarkable book Red Notice which chronicles his investments in Russia very early before everyone saw the opportunity [source]

Ben Saunders

Just finished @Billbrowder's extraordinary book Red Notice. Inspiring, alarming, unsettling and illuminating in equal measure. I thought I knew a few things about ambition and endeavour in challenging environments, but this is something else. Highly recommended. https://t.co/m4wxR4qesa [source]

19

Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson

4.3

In the near future, Americans excel at only two things: writing software and delivering pizza in less than 30 minutes.

Franchises line the Los Angeles freeway as far as the eye can see: Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates, Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, Uncle Enzo's CosaNostra Pizza, Incorporated. The only relief from the sea of logos is within the well-guarded borders of the autonomous city-states that la

Recommended by Larry Page, Reid Hoffman, Sergey Brin, and 9 others.

Sergey Brin

Co-Founder/Google

Brin said he is a big sci-fi fan, and Stephenson's acclaimed 1992 novel "Snow Crash" is one of his favorites. The book "was really 10 years ahead of its time," Brin said. "It kind of anticipated what's going to happen, and I find that really interesting." [source]

Adam Savage

It's a tough call because I prefer other books of this author. But this book is so important within the history of science fiction. [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

My list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make sense of life and Science fiction to picture what the future could be like (not always utopian). [source]

Cover unavailable

20

Making Money (Discworld, #36; Moist Von Lipwig, #2)

Terry Pratchett

4.3

It's an offer you can't refuse.

Who would not to wish to be the man in charge of Ankh-Morpork's Royal Mint and the bank next door?

It's a job for life. But, as former con-man Moist von Lipwig is learning, the life is not necessarily for long.

The Chief Cashier is almost certainly a vampire. There's something nameless in the cellar (and the cellar itself is pretty nameless), it turns out that the Roya

Cover unavailable

21

The Mystery of Banking

Murray N. Rothbard

4.3

Talk about great timing. Rothbard's extraordinary book unravels the mystery of banking: what is legitimate enterprise and what is a government-backed shell game that can't last. His explanation is clear enough for anyone to follow and yet precise and rigorous enough to be the best, textbook for college classes on the topic. This is because its expositional clarity--in its hitosry and theory--is es

22

The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap

Mehrsa Baradaran

4.3

"A deep accounting of how America got to a point where a median white family has 13 times more wealth than the median black family."
--The Atlantic

"Extraordinary... Baradaran focuses on a part of the American story that's often ignored: the way African Americans were locked out of the financial engines that create wealth in America."
--Ezra Klein

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863,

23

Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Updated and Expanded)

David Graeber

4.3

Before there was money, there was debt

Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems—to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it.

Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He

Recommended by Seth Godin, David Heinemeier Hansson, and Will Davies.

Seth Godin

Author, Marketer, Entrepreneur

I recommend it in audio because David is sometimes repetitive and a little elliptical, but in audio it's all okay because you can just listen to it again. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

After a few false starts, I finally got going with this, and what a treat. It shoots down the common myth that prior to money, everyone just bartered shit. I give you a pig, you give me five pies and a hat. Evidence shows that just wasn’t at all how things went. Most societies were structured either rather communistic (take what you need, give what you can) or with a loose debt-ledger system (or a combination of both). But where things get really interesting is how the emergence of market economies (and money) changed the relationship with human life and dignity. Especially as a consequence of slavery, which put a very explicit price on that which previously was priceless. All sorts of fascinating historical links to women wearing veils (to distinguish them from women who could be bought), how debt peonage really took off once slavery came profitable (so debtors could be sold, or their children sold, if they failed to repay), and how other morality got intertwined with debt. It’s truly eye-opening, and the lines trace disturbingly well from millennia. [source]

Will Davies

What’s stunning about the book is how it brings an anthropological perspective to bear on such an expansive history and geography, bringing the story right up to the present day, at the precise moment when debt has become a hugely political, mobilizing and destabilizing issue. Its central argument is simple and easy to grasp, and has been seized by activists and critics of the financial sector. [source]

Cover unavailable

24

The House of Rothschild, Vol 1: Money's Prophets, 1798-1848

Niall Ferguson

4.3

In his rich and nuanced portrait of the remarkable, elusive Rothschild family, Oxford scholar and bestselling author Niall Ferguson uncovers the secrets behind the family's phenomenal economic success. He reveals for the first time the details of the family's vast political network, which gave it access to and influence over many of the greatest statesmen of the age. And he tells a family saga, tr

25

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

Ron Chernow

4.3

John D. Rockefeller, Sr.--history's first billionaire and the patriarch of America's most famous dynasty--is an icon whose true nature has eluded three generations of historians. Now Ron Chernow, the National Book Award-winning biographer of the Morgan and Warburg banking families, gives us a history of the mogul "etched with uncommon objectivity and literary grace . . . as detailed, balanced, and

Recommended by Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger, Ryan Holiday, and 5 others.

Ryan Holiday

Author

A biography has to be really good to make read you all 800 pages. To me, this was one of those books. Since reading it earlier this year, I’ve since found out it is the favorite book of a lot of people I respect. I think something about the quality of the writing and the empathic understanding of the writer that the main lessons you would take away from someone like Rockefeller would not be business, but life lessons. In fact, when I went back through and took notes on this book, I filled out more cards for Stoicism than I did for Strategy, Business or Money. I found Rockefeller to be strangely stoic, incredibly resilient and, despite his reputation as a robber baron, humble and compassionate. Most people get WORSE as they get successful, many more get worse as they age. Rockefeller did neither of these things, he grew more open-minded the older he became, more generous, more pious, more dedicated to making a difference. Does that excuse the “awful” things that he did? Well, the things he did really weren’t that awful so yes. (By that I mean I’d certainly choose him over the robber barons of this age like Zuckerberg or Murdoch.) [source]

Adam Townsend

@Sociopathlete Great book [source]

Anas Alhajji

@Morg2006 Yep, I already have it. great book. [source]

26

End the Fed

Ron Paul

4.2

In the post-meltdown world, it is irresponsible, ineffective, and ultimately useless to have a serious economic debate without considering and challenging the role of the Federal Reserve.

Most people think of the Fed as an indispensable institution without which the country's economy could not properly function. But in END THE FED, Ron Paul draws on American history, economics, and fascinating stor

27

The Wolf of Wall Street (The Wolf of Wall Street, #1)

Jordan Belfort

4.2

Preview Summary

By day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night he spent it as fast as he could, on drugs, sex, and international globe-trotting. From the binge that sank a 170-foot motor yacht and ran up a $700,000 hotel tab, to the wife and kids waiting at home, and the fast-talking, hard-partying young stockbrokers who called him king and did his bidding, here, in his own inimitable words, is the story

Cover unavailable

28

13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown

Simon Johnson, James Kwak

4.2

Even after the ruinous financial crisis of 2008, America is still beset by the depredations of an oligarchy that is now bigger, more profitable, and more resistant to regulation than ever. Anchored by six megabanks—Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley—which together control assets amounting, astonishingly, to more than 60 percent of the country

Recommended by Daron Acemoglu and Francis Fukuyama.

Francis Fukuyama

Obviously that’s way overstated, but it is remarkable that here we are in 2012, the fourth year after the crisis. We still don’t have an adequate regulatory system in place to prevent a crisis like this from happening, and the recent collapse of MF Global indicates that in many respects Wall Street hasn’t learned lessons either, in terms of the kinds of risks they’re willing to take. [source]

29

Den of Thieves

James B. Stewart

4.2

A #1 bestseller from coast to coast, Den of Thieves tells the full story of the insider-trading scandal that nearly destroyed Wall Street, the men who pulled it off, and the chase that finally brought them to justice.

Pulitzer Prize–winner James B. Stewart shows for the first time how four of the eighties’ biggest names on Wall Street—Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine —c

Recommended by Doug Rossinow.

Doug Rossinow

Den of Thieves is a very vivid portrait of people who broke what rules there were in the process of transforming American finance and the American economy and making a lot of money by doing so. [source]

30

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator: The Classic Novel Based on the Life of Legendary Stock Market Speculator Jesse Livermore

Edwin Lefevre

4.2

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is the unforgettable story of the life of Jesse Livermore, one of Wall Street's greatest ever stock speculators.

Loosely fictionalised in 1923 in collaboration with journalist Edwin Lefevre, this is the story of the highs and the lows, the strategies and the street smarts, the epic wins (and sometimes epic losses) that has inspired generations of investors and trad

Recommended by Alykhan Satchu, Bill Liao, Joshua M. Brown, and 3 others.

Alykhan Satchu

My all time favorite Book https://t.co/UxwPMlAcXU [source]

Bill Liao

The human world occurs in language so best get good at it! [source]

Joshua M. Brown

Each new generation of traders gets inspired by this book but I have come to love it as more of a cautionary tale. and FYI, this is the better book for that context: https://t.co/116lNciXCF https://t.co/mEYn2ZAqPI [source]

31

America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve

Roger Lowenstein

4.2

A tour de force of historical reportage, America’s Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America’s modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed is the bedrock of the financial landscape, yet the fight to create it was so protracted and divisive that it seems a small miracle that it was ever established.

For nearly a century,

Cover unavailable

32

The Dead Key

D. M. Pulle

4.2

2014 Winner — Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — Grand Prize and Mystery & Thriller Fiction Winner

It’s 1998, and for years the old First Bank of Cleveland has sat abandoned, perfectly preserved, its secrets only speculated on by the outside world.

Twenty years before, amid strange staff disappearances and allegations of fraud, panicked investors sold Cleveland’s largest bank in the middle of the n

33

1929: The Inside Story of the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History

Andrew Ross Sorkin

4.2

34

Breaking Into Banking: Cracking the Code on Launching a Successful Career in Commercial Banking

Andy Keusal

4.1

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35

The Expats (Kate Moore, #1)

Chris Pavone

4.1

Kate Moore is a working mother, struggling to make ends meet, to raise children, to keep a spark in her marriage . . . and to maintain an increasingly unbearable life-defining secret. So when her husband is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg, she jumps at the chance to leave behind her double-life, to start anew.

She begins to reinvent herself as an expat, finding her way in a language she doesn

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36

Banking the Billionaire (Billionaire Bad Boys, #2)

Max Monroe

4.1

A secret duo of romance authors team up under the pseudonym Max Monroe to bring you more from their sexy, laugh-out-loud new series. Can you ever get enough Billionaire Bad Boys? Uninhibited. Sarcastic. Confident. Beautiful. With a thriving photography career that allows her to travel all over the world and capture the hottest of men behind her camera lens, Cassie Phillips is the woman who can't b

37

Think and Grow Rich Deluxe Edition: The Complete Classic Text (Think and Grow Rich Series)

Napoleon Hill

4.1

38

Becoming Your Own Banker: Unlock the Infinite Banking Concept

R. Nelson Nash

4.1

Discover How Financial Experts Have Robbed Your Power and Lied To YOU!

If you are reading these words you should be angry. Very, very angry! So-called financial experts have kept certain principles from you for years.

Secrets. Important secrets that, had you known them, would have made your life much simpler and much more profitable.

Becoming Your Own Banker reveals secrets kept from you all these y

39

The American Nightmare: How Inflation, Debt, and Banks Hijacked the American Dream

John (Coach JV) Vasquez

4.1

What if everything you’ve been taught about money, success, and security is about to change... forever?We are living through one of the greatest financial transformations in human history. The systems that once created stable jobs, banks, and traditional retirement plans are rapidly evolving, and most people are completely unprepared.This book is your wake-up call.Inside, you’ll discover how to br

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40

Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit

Charles W. Calomiris

4.1

Why stable banking systems are so rare

Why are banking systems unstable in so many countries--but not in others? The United States has had twelve systemic banking crises since 1840, while Canada has had none. The banking systems of Mexico and Brazil have not only been crisis prone but have provided miniscule amounts of credit to business enterprises and households.

Analyzing the political and bankin

41

A History of Money and Banking in the United States (Large Print Edition): The Colonial Era to World War II

Murray N. Rothbard

4.1

In what is sure to become the standard account, Rothbard traces inflations, banking panics, and money meltdowns from the Colonial Period through the mid-20th century to show how government's systematic war on sound money is the hidden force behind nearly all major economic calamities in American history.

Never has the story of money and banking been told with such rhetorical power and theoretical

42

Naked Money: What It Is and Why It Matters

Charles Wheelan

4.1

Consider the $20 bill.

It has no more value, as a simple slip of paper, than Monopoly money. Yet even children recognize that tearing one into small pieces is an act of inconceivable stupidity. What makes a $20 bill actually worth twenty dollars? In the third volume of his best-selling Naked series, Charles Wheelan uses this seemingly simple question to open the door to the surprisingly colorful wo

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43

A Dangerous Fortune

Ken Follett

4.1

In 1866, tragedy strikes at the exclusive Windfield School. A young student drowns in a mysterious accident involving a small circle of boys. The drowning and its aftermath initiates a spiraling circle of treachery that will span three decades and entwine many loves... From the exclusive men's club and brothels that cater to every dark desire of London's upper classes to the dazzling ballrooms and

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44

A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

Lawrence G. McDonald, Patrick Robinson

4.1

One of the biggest questions of the financial crisis has not been answered until now. What happened at Lehman Brothers and why was it allowed to fail, with aftershocks that rocked the global economy? In this news-making, often astonishing book, a former Lehman Brothers Vice President gives us the straight answers—right from the belly of the beast.

In A Colossal Failure of Common Sense, Larry McDona

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45

The Richest Man In Babylon - Original Edition

George S Clason

4.1

46

The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy

Christopher Leonard

4.1

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47

The Bankers' New Clothes: Whats Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It

Anat Admati, Martin Hellwig

4.1

What is wrong with today's banking system? The past few years have shown that risks in banking can impose significant costs on the economy. Many claim, however, that a safer banking system would require sacrificing lending and economic growth. The Bankers' New Clothes examines this claim and the narratives used by bankers, politicians, and regulators to rationalize the lack of reform, exposing the

48

Crash of the Titans: Greed, Hubris, the Fall of Merrill Lynch, and the Near-Collapse of Bank of America

Greg Farrell

4.1

The intimate, fly-on-the wall tale of the decline and fall of an America icon

With one notable exception, the firms that make up what we know as Wall Street have always been part of an inbred, insular culture that most people only vaguely understand. The exception was Merrill Lynch, a firm that revolutionized the stock market by bringing Wall Street to Main Street, setting up offices in far-flung c

49

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

Edward E Baptist

4.1

Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution—the nation’s original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America’s later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy.

As historian Edward Baptist reveals in The Half Has Never Been Told, the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolut

Recommended by Cory Ondrejka.

Cory Ondrejka

VP of Engineering/Facebook

It's a heart-wrenching but eye-opening look at the safe ways America looks back at slavery and its impact on modern capitalism. During an election cycle focused on populism and anger, this is a book every American should read. [source]

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50

Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle

John Rolfe, Peter Troob

4.1

Animal House meets Liar's Poker in this hysterically funny, often unbelievable, and absolutely, positively true account of life at DLJ, one of the hottest investment banks on Wall Street.

51

Broken Money: Why Our Financial System Is Failing Us and How We Can Make It Better

Lyn Alden

4.1

52

The Spider Network: The Wild Story of a Math Genius, a Gang of Backstabbing Bankers, and One of the Greatest Scams in Financial History

David Enrich

4.1

The Wall Street Journal's award-winning business reporter unveils the bizarre and sinister story of how a math genius named Tom Hayes, a handful of outrageous confederates, and a deeply corrupt banking system ignited one of the greatest financial scandals in history. The paperback edition includes a new chapter discussing further fallout from the scandal.

In 2006, an oddball group of bankers, trade

Recommended by Marc Andreessen.

Marc Andreessen

Co-Founder/Andreessen Horowitz

"Billions"-esque saga of global financial market manipulation, at mind-boggling scale and hiding in plain sight, by a small cabal of bankers in London. [source]

53

More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite

Sebastian Mallaby

4.1

Based on author Sebastian Mallaby's unprecedented access to the industry, including three hundred hours of interviews, More Money Than God tells the inside story of hedge funds, from their origins in the 1960s and 1970s to their role in the financial crisis of 2007-2009.

Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge fund moguls have become the It Boys of twenty-first century capitalism. Ken

Recommended by Deepak Shenoy.

Deepak Shenoy

@gauravsabnis @abhijitkadle @mohitsatyanand @tanayingale I fourth that recommendation. That is a brilliant book. [source]

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54

A Guide Book of United States Paper Money, 6th Edition

Arthur Friedberg and Ira Friedburg

4.1

The updated sixth edition of A Guide Book of United States Paper Money includes an engaging history of the paper currency of the United States. Every federal note"€"from the ultra rare Demand Notes of 1861 to the lunch money in our wallets today"€"is described and cataloged in detail. Fascinating narrative captures the romance and history of American paper money, and also explores recent developme

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55

Discussion Materials: Tales of a Rookie Wall Street Investment Banker

Bill Keenan

4.1

A newly-minted MBA recounts his first years as a Wall Street investment banker—unredacted.

“Why aren’t you using LTM EBITDA for credit metrics?” asked the managing director who sat across from me, his widow’s peak clearly visible as he inspected the sheet in front of him. His spacious office looked out onto New York Harbor.

“Bust,” said the vice president, a younger, douchier version of Widow’s Pea

56

The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker 1849-1999

Niall Ferguson

4.1

A major work of economic, social and political history, Niall Ferguson's The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker 1849-1999 is the second volume of the acclaimed, landmark history of the legendary Rothschild banking dynasty. Niall Ferguson's House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets 1798-1848 was hailed as a 'great biography' by Time magazine and named one of the best books of 1998 by Business Week

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57

Modern Banking

Heffernan

4.1

Modern Banking focuses on the theory and practice of banking, and its prospects in the new millennium. The book is written for courses in banking and finance at Masters/MBA level, or undergraduate degrees specialising in this area. Bank practitioners wishing to deepen and broaden their understanding of banking issues may also be attracted to this book. While they often have exceptional and detai

58

The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It

Scott Patterson

4.1

“Beware of geeks bearing formulas.”
--Warren Buffett

In March of 2006, the world’s richest men sipped champagne in an opulent New York hotel. They were preparing to compete in a poker tournament with million-dollar stakes, but those numbers meant nothing to them. They were accustomed to risking billions.

At the card table that night was Peter Muller, an eccentric, whip-smart whiz kid who’d studied

Recommended by Barry Ritholtz and Ryan Graves.

Barry Ritholtz

The Quants explains how maths, combined with a lot of leverage and a bit of modelling error led to a lot of disasters. It’s about the mathematicians and, literally, rocket scientists who came up with a series of concepts as to how to use mathematics to try to game the market. The fun thing about mathematics is that you can identify these really small, really tiny edges that you wouldn’t find otherwise. But if you have a 0.015% edge, you can’t really make a lot of money unless you really ramp up the leverage, so most of these guys traded with a lot of leverage. But the laws of mathematics are all the same – no matter which firm you’re at – so you ended up with lots of people doing, if not identical trades, certainly very similar trades. Then you have a series of wobbles. [source]

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59

The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire

Neil Irwin

4.1

When the first fissures became visible to the naked eye in August 2007, suddenly the most powerful men in the world were three men who were never elected to public office. They were the leaders of the world’s three most important central banks: Ben Bernanke of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Mervyn King of the Bank of England, and Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank. Over the next five year

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60

Digital Bank: Strategies to launch or become a digital bank

Chris Skinne

4.1

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61

The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family

Ron Chernow

4.1

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

62

Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World

William D. Cohan

4.1

From the bestselling, prize-winning author of THE LAST TYCOONS and HOUSE OF CARDS, a revelatory history of Goldman Sachs, the most dominant, feared, and controversial investment bank in the world

For much of its storied 142-year history, Goldman Sachs has projected an image of being better than its competitors--smarter, more collegial, more ethical, and far more profitable. The firm--buttressed by

63

Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises

Charles P. Kindleberger

4.1

The best known and most highly regarded book on financial crises

Financial crises and speculative excess can be traced back to the very beginning of trade and commerce. Since its introduction in 1978, this book has charted and followed this volatile world of financial markets. Charles Kindleberger's brilliant, panoramic history revealed how financial crises follow a nature-like rhythm: they peak a

Recommended by Charles Morris, Larry Summers, and Marc Faber.

Charles Morris

Kindleberger’s great virtue is that he was both a respected economist and a student of human nature, and he knew that human nature could never be bottled up in an economic model. His book is a terrific narrative of a series of bubbles, going back to pre-industrial days – the Dutch tulip craze, the South Sea bubble, and so forth.. [source]

Larry Summers

Kindleberger’s message is that complacency can be a self-denying prophecy. [source]

Marc Faber

He describes very well how these manias occur and what the symptoms are of manias in terms of excessive speculation, overleverage, borrowing, fraud, embezzlement, high trading volumes, and so forth. [source]

64

House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

William D. Cohan

4.1

On March 5, 2008, at 10:15 A.M., a hedge fund manager in Florida wrote a post on his investing advice Web site that included a startling statement about Bear Stearns & Co., the nation’s fifth-largest investment bank: “In my book, they are insolvent.”

This seemed a bold and risky statement. Bear Stearns was about to announce profits of $115 million for the first quarter of 2008, had $17.3 billion in

65

All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis

Bethany McLean, Joe Nocera

4.1

"Hell is empty, and
all the devils are here."
-Shakespeare, The Tempest

As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers?

According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most accl

Recommended by John Gapper.

John Gapper

It comes from The Tempest: “Hell is empty / And all the devils are here”. [source]

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66

The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism Is the World Economy's Only Hope

John A. Allison, Alan Sklar

4.0

John A. Allison is the longest-serving CEO of a top-25 financial institution, having served as Chairman of BB&T for twenty years. He currently serves as President and CEO of the Cato Institute and as a distinguished professor at the Wake Forest University Schools of Business. He is also one of the lead spokespersons for banking and policy reform today, appearing at universities and business groups

67

Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

Adam Tooze

4.0

"An intelligent explanation of the mechanisms that produced the crisis and the response to it...One of the great strengths of Tooze's book is to demonstrate the deeply intertwined nature of the European and American financial systems." --The New York Times Book Review

From a prizewinning economic historian, an eye-opening reinterpretation of the 2008 economic crisis (and its ten-year afterm

Recommended by Duncan Weldon.

Duncan Weldon

I’ve read Crashed and it’s fantastic (review out next month). This is really useful framing. The financial crisis might seem like an unusual “next book” after Adam’s history of 1916-1931 (The Deluge)- but capital flows sit at the heart of both of them. https://t.co/obS3fTxMPX [source]

68

The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co.

William D. Cohan

4.0

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69

Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age

Ellen Brown

4.0

Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs

70

Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country

William Greider

4.0

William Greider’s groundbreaking bestseller reveals how the mighty and mysterious Federal Reserve operates—and manipulates and the world’s economy.

This ground-breaking best-seller reveals for the first time how the mighty and mysterious Federal Reserve operates—and how it manipulated and transformed both the American economy and the world's during the last eight crucial years. Based on extensive i

Recommended by Chris Hayes, David J Lynch, and Marc Caputo.

Chris Hayes

Bill was an incredible journalist, reporter, writer, listener and mentor. He was always so so kind to me, and a role model. His book on the Fed is still, I think, the best one ever written https://t.co/SgaBOdbtmR https://t.co/Ib8Mywkxa9 [source]

David J Lynch

I read this when it came out in the mid-80s and it’s always stuck with me. I’m a big fan of Halberstam’s writing anyway. You love him or hate him, what with his constant digression and everything else. The Reckoning is an account of the problems in the American auto industry and is the story of how America goes from dominating the auto industry and really being synonymous with it to losing a step to the Japanese. There are a lot of things I like about the book, but the nub of it is that he bases it in the wider context of American decline and the loss of American supremacy in the post-war period and the rise of the Japanese challenge. That was what everybody was worried about in the 1980s, that we were losing step to Japan and Japan was going to become the world economic power. That all seems sort of laughable now, but this book came out four years before the Japanese went into a long period of stagnation. [source]

Marc Caputo

Greider’s “Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country” is a must read. I never thought a book about the fed could be a page-turner, but he did it https://t.co/PDmGvJDEkd [source]

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71

The ABCs of Investment Banking (Very Young Professionals)

Amit Saraf, Varun Bhartia, et al.

4.0

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72

The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan

Sebastian Mallaby

4.0

The definitive biography of the most important economic statesman of our time

Sebastian Mallaby's magisterial biography of Alan Greenspan, the product of over five years of research based on untrammeled access to his subject and his closest professional and personal intimates, brings into vivid focus the mysterious point where the government and the economy meet. To understand Greenspan's story is

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73

How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy

Mehrsa Baradaran

4.0

The United States has two separate banking systems today one serving the well-to-do and another exploiting everyone else." How the Other Half Banks "contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit. Mehrsa Baradaran examines how a significant portion of the population, deserted by banks, is forced to wander through a Wild West o

Recommended by Joanna Peñabickley.

Joanna Peñabickley

If you are looking for a great book this weekend I highly recommend: How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy | https://t.co/Qv3MdHRcds | #InclusionEveryDayChallenge [source]

74

Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History

Matt Taibbi

4.0

A brilliantly illuminating and darkly comic tale of the ongoing financial and political crisis in America

The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn’t past but prologue. The grifter class—made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding—has been growing in power, and the crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they’ve hijacked America

Recommended by Barry Ritholtz.

Barry Ritholtz

Matt Taibbi is the poet laureate of vitriol. There is no one better to capture the gestalt of the country’s angst, fury, and anger, and how upset people are that, essentially, these banks blew themselves up, and then managed to twist Congress’s arm to give them billions of dollars, much of which, by the way, has not been repaid. Every time I see some idiot say all the TARP Troubled Asset Relief Program and bailouts have been repaid, it’s nonsense. Even if you count all the Citigroup stock, all the Bank of America stock and the GM stock – none of which you can really sell because you’ll crush the stock price – we’re not back to break-even. We still have massive liabilities thanks to the huge losses at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the losses at AIG. [source]

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75

Proof of Money: The Big Idea Behind Bitcoin: What You Don’t Know about Why You Need It

Terence Michael and 100 Percent Terry Cloth

4.0

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76

The Lost Bank: The Story of Washington Mutual-The Biggest Bank Failure in American History

Kirsten Grind

4.0

Based on reporting for which the author was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Gerald Loeb Award, this book traces the rise and spectacular fall of Washington Mutual.

During the most dizzying days of the financial crisis, Washington Mutual, a bank with hundreds of billions of dollars in its coffers, suffered a crippling bank run. The story of its final, brutal collapse in the autumn of

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77

Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Blockchain Assets

Chris Burniske, Jack Tatar

4.0

The innovative investor's guide to an entirely new asset class--from two experts on the cutting edge

One of the fastest growing investment opportunities in the world today, blockchain assets such as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are changing the way investors think, use, and grow their money. This clear, concise, and accessible guide from two industry experts is the first book of its kind to e

Recommended by Marvin Liao and 1 others.

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

I tend to jump from book to book and may switch if I am interested in some new topic. This is a pleasure for me (which I also do benefit work wise from too). It’s quite a random list because I have eclectic interests (or just scatterbrained most likely) on tech business, AI, general global economy, geopolitics, rising Biotech economy & history. I'm basically 15% to 50% into all these books. [source]

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78

The Little Book of Robo Investing: How to Make Money While You Sleep (Little Books. Big Profits)

Elizabeth MacBride

4.0

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79

Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay

John Lanchester

4.0

We are, to use a technical economic term, screwed. The cowboy capitalists had a party with everyone's money and now we're all paying for it. What went wrong? And will we learn our lesson - or just carry on as before, like celebrating surviving a heart attack with a packet of Rothmans?

If you want to know, but are the sort of person who finds it hard to tell the difference between a CDO a CDS an MBS

Recommended by Dorothy Rowe.

Dorothy Rowe

Yes, but capitalism is a relatively recent event in that way. None of this was true in the middle ages. In John Lanchester’s book Whoops!, which is my next choice, he points out that during the Cold War communism and capitalism were balanced – so capitalist America did nice things to show that they were nicer than these horrible communists. And at the time a lot of people had put their hopes in communism. I know that my dad had. Out in Australia he was told and believed that all the wrongs that he and his family had suffered would be put right and it would be a fairer world – he couldn’t believe it when the news of the Stalin trials came out. That really was terrible for him. And Lanchester says that then, after the Cold War, the Americans didn’t have that balancing effect of competition with communism. And then with a whoosh capitalism took off and along came Milton Friedman economist and champion of free markets with minimal intervention. [source]

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80

The Truth About Money (Financial Knowledge Book 1)

Timsimon Kimani

4.0

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81

Bank 3.0 - Why Banking is No Longer Somewhere You Go, But Something You Do

Brett King, Stanislav Koncevich, et al

4.0

The first edition of BANK 2.0 took the financial services world by storm and became synonymous with disruptive customer behaviour, technology shift and new banking models. In BANK 3.0, Brett King looks at the latest trends that are redefining financial services and payments. From the global scramble for dominance of the mobile wallet, the expectations created by tablet computing, the operationaliz

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82

The Moneychangers

Arthur Hailey

4.0

The "New York Times" Number One bestseller from 1976 is back in this great new package. As the day begins at First Mercantile American Bank, so do the high-stake risks, the public scandals, and the private affairs. It is the inside world where secret million-dollar deals are made, manipulated, and sweetened with sex by the men and women who play to win.

83

The Fiat Standard: Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization

Saifedean Ammous

4.0

84

Central Banking 101

Joseph J Wang

4.0

Central banking is magic. With a few words, the Fed can lift the stock market out of desperation and catapult it towards euphoric highs. With a few keystrokes, the Fed can conjure up trillions of dollars and fund virtually unlimited Federal spending. And with a few poor decisions, the Fed can plunge the entire world into a recession. The Federal Reserve is one of the most powerful institutions in

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85

Homewreckers

Aaron Glantz

4.0

In the spirit of Evicted, Bait and Switch, and The Big Short, a shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America’s housing crisis and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class—among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle.

Two years before the housing market collapsed in 2008, Donald Trump looked forward to a crash: “I s

Recommended by David Sirota and Richard W. Painter.

David Sirota

Another must-read book out today is this one from @Aaron_Glantz — it’s about how our government allowed private equity vultures to profit off the pain, suffering and misery of the housing crisis. https://t.co/ekG7U8SNFu [source]

Richard W. Painter

@Aaron_Glantz @democracynow Great book! But what a racket! [source]

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86

Principles And Practices Of Banking

IIBF

4.0

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87

The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy

Mervyn King

4.0

Something is wrong with our banking system. We all sense that, but Mervyn King knows it firsthand; his ten years at the helm of the Bank of England, including at the height of the financial crisis, revealed profound truths about the mechanisms of our capitalist society. In The End of Alchemy he offers us an essential work about the history and future of money and banking, the keys to modern financ

Recommended by Alan Greenspan.

Alan Greenspan

Former Chairman/Federal Reserve of the United States

Mervyn King asks, ‘Why has almost every industrialized country found it difficult to overcome the stagnation that followed the financial crisis in 2007–2008, and why did money and banking, the alchemists of a market economy, turn into its Achilles heel?’ He addresses these questions, and much more. For those endeavoring to understand the greatest financial crisis of our time and the future of finance, this highly provocative book is a must-read. [source]

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88

eSCAPE: The 4 Stages of Becoming A Successful Entrepreneur

Anik Singal and Daymond John

4.0

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89

Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

4.0

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, reeling from a wave of urban uprisings, politicians finally worked to end the practice of redlining. Reasoning that the turbulence could be calmed by turning Black city-dwellers into homeowners, they passed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, and set about establishing policies to induce mortgage lenders and the real estate industry to treat Black home

Recommended by Jeanjacques Taylor and Naomi Klein.

Jeanjacques Taylor

my sister @KeeangaYamahtta doing the damn thing again. Her first book was remarkable, and it looks like her new book is gonna have the same impact!!! https://t.co/7vAtRpbLRd [source]

Naomi Klein

An incredible list! So much congrats to all, especially to my pal @KeeangaYamahtta whose book is so brilliant and urgent right now. https://t.co/YcTozoP7h3 [source]

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90

Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises

Timothy F. Geithner

4.0

From the former Treasury Secretary, the definitive account of the unprecedented effort to save the U.S. economy from collapse in the wake of the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression

On January 26, 2009, during the depth of the financial crisis and having just completed five years as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy F. Geithner was sworn in by President

Recommended by Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and John Ashcroft.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

The central irony of Stress Test is that a guy who was accused of being a lousy communicator as U.S. Treasury Secretary has penned a book that is such a good read. Geithner paints a compelling human portrait of what it was like to be fighting a global financial meltdown while at the same time fighting critics inside and outside the Administration as well as his own severe guilt over his near-total absence from his family. The politics of fighting financial crises will always be ugly. But it helps if the public knows a little more about the subject—what’s at stake, what the options are, what has worked in similar situations—so that the loud talkers resonate a bit less and the knowledgeable ones a bit more. If Stress Test continues to attract lay readers, it could make at least a modest difference the next time around. [source]

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

Buffett says that the former secretary of the U.S. Treasury's book about the financial crisis is a must-read for any manager. [source]

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91

Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase

Duff McDonald

4.0

It was a shattering death bed confession by a heartbroken mother. But would it solve the oldest cold case murder case in American jurisprudence?

In January 1994, Eileen Tessier told Jack McCullough's half-sister Janet Tessier that he, her son, kidnapped 7-year-old Maria Ridulph from their neighborhood in Sycamore, Illinois and killed her in December 1957. It was a case that tore the child’s family

92

Tower of Basel: The Inside Story of the Central Bankers' Secret Bank

Adam LeBor

4.0

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93

Commercial Bank Management

Peter S. Rose

4.0

Banking is an essential industry, and one with many regulations as well as frequent, important changes. This work is designed to help students understand the field of banking from the perspective of both a bank customer as well as a bank manager. It provides a description of the banking industry.

94

A History of the Federal Reserve: Book 1, 1951–1969

Allan H. Meltzer

4.0

95

The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains: An Introduction to Cryptocurrencies and the Technology that Powers Them

Antony Lewis

4.0

This fictional book is a series of easy to read vignettes that illustrate modern uses of Bitcoin cryptocurrency. The characters and situations accurately portray who really uses Bitcoin around the world and for what purposes. These stories expose how criminals exploit cryptocurrency and also how Bitcoin has improved the lives of many people in the modern world.

P. Carl Mullan is a digital currency

Recommended by Kevin Werbach.

Kevin Werbach

This is the best book I’ve found that doesn’t shrink from talking about the technology and getting into some of the detail, but does it in a very clear and structured way, so that someone without any kind of background can understand it. [source]

Cover unavailable

96

Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World

Nicole Casperson

4.0

Cover unavailable

97

Future Money: Fintech, AI and Web3

Ronit Ghose

4.0

98

The Upside of Compliance: Empowering Financial Institutions to Thrive

Stephanie Lyon and Michael Berman

4.0

Cover unavailable

99

Why Aren't They Shouting?: How Computers Ate Banking

Kevin Rodgers

4.0

We're all familiar with the screaming headlines: greedy bankers destroyed banking. But is it really as simple as that? Kevin Rodgers has his doubts, and in this fascinating inside account of the financial world over the past three decades, he explains why. Taking us from the days when traders still shouted their deals down the phone to the silent modern world of computer trading, he shows how, far

Cover unavailable

100

Monetary Economics and Policy: A Foundation for Modern Currency Systems

Pierpaolo Benigno

4.0