As Europe began to grow rich during the Middle Ages, its wealth materialized in the well-made clothes, linens, and wares of ordinary households. Such items were indicators of one’s station in life in a society accustomed to reading visible signs of rank. In a world without banking, household goods became valuable commodities that often substituted for hard currency. Pawnbrokers and resellers sprang up, helping to push these goods into circulation. Simultaneously, a harshly coercive legal system developed to ensure that debtors paid their due.

Focusing on the Mediterranean cities of Marseille and Lucca, Legal Plunder explores how the newfound wealth embodied in household goods shaped the beginnings of a modern consumer economy in late medieval Europe. The vigorous trade in goods that grew up in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries entangled households in complex relationships of credit and debt, and one of the most common activities of law courts during the period was debt recovery. Sergeants of the law were empowered to march into debtors’ homes and seize belongings equal in value to the debt owed. These officials were agents of a predatory economy, cogs in a political machinery of state-sponsored plunder.

As Daniel Smail shows, the records of medieval European law courts offer some of the most vivid descriptions of material culture in this period, providing insights into the lives of men and women on the cusp of modern capitalism. Then as now, money and value were implicated in questions of power and patterns of violence.

In the years following the Glorious Revolution, independent slave traders challenged the charter of the Royal African Company by asserting their natural rights as Britons to trade freely in enslaved Africans. In this comprehensive history of the rise and fall of the RAC, William A. Pettigrew grounds the transatlantic slave trade in politics, not economic forces, analyzing the ideological arguments of the RAC and its opponents in Parliament and in public debate. Ultimately, Pettigrew powerfully reasons that freedom became the rallying cry for those who wished to participate in the slave trade and therefore bolstered the expansion of the largest intercontinental forced migration in history.
Unlike previous histories of the RAC, Pettigrew’s study pursues the Company’s story beyond the trade’s complete deregulation in 1712 to its demise in 1752. Opening the trade led to its escalation, which provided a reliable supply of enslaved Africans to the mainland American colonies, thus playing a critical part in entrenching African slavery as the colonies’ preferred solution to the American problem of labor supply.

In this best-selling budgeting bible, you’ll get the motivation and know-how for building up a big stash of emergency cash, getting out of debt, making sure you never run out of money, and avoiding the 11 worst budget traps (that will ruin your financial plans if you let them!)

Find out the most important things that you can do to take control of your money and pay off debt. Get the tools and the knowledge you need to finally get ahead. You’ll learn a complete budget system that works for beginners and takes only 15 minutes per week to maintain.

This is a straightforward budget planning method that will completely transform your finances, and eliminate your money worries once and for all.

With Pay Off Student Debt and Generate Massive Passive Income the author then takes you on a journey far above the traditional ‘ I have to live with student debt for the next 4 to 30 years’ mentality that is being pushed on students everywhere. This book takes you to a whole new level of your student evolution, one that you didn’t know existed, one that shows you several methods to not only deal with your student debt but to eliminate it altogether. These are not any ‘mickey-mouse’ get rich quick methods, but tried and true, up to date ways you can start to generate passive income streams that will have you wondering why you never thought of it before. These are methods that are evergreen and are working extremely well bringing in monthly passive income to thousands of people all over the planet.

This little book about the Bible grew out of lectures which the author delivered on the subject to mixed audiences. There is no pretense of scholarship or of eloquent language; all that is attempted is an accurate exposition along the familiar lines of the Catholic claim historically in regard to the Bible. Bishop Grey Graham was parish priest of Holy Cross, Glasgow. Marked by a deep personal piety, he was a model pastor, who had dedicated his life to the preaching of the Gospel in season and out of season.

A new vision of the value of debt in the management of individual and family wealth

In this groundbreaking book, author Tom Anderson argues that, despite the reflex aversion most people have to debt—an aversion that is vociferously preached by most personal finance authors—wealthy individuals and families, as well as their financial advisors, have everything to gain and nothing to lose by learning to think holistically about debt.

Anderson explains why, if strategically deployed, debt can be of enormous long-term benefit in the management of individual and family wealth. More importantly, he schools you in time-tested strategies for using debt to steadily build wealth, to generate tax-efficient retirement income, to provide a reliable source of funds in times of crisis and financial setback, and more.

Takes a “strategic debt” approach to personal wealth management, emphasizing the need to appreciate the value of “indebted strengths” and for acquiring the tools needed to take advantage of those strengthsAddresses how to determine your optimal debt ratio, or your debt “sweet spot”A companion website contains a proprietary tool for calculating your own optimal debt ratio, which enables you to develop a personal wealth balance sheet

Offering a bold new vision of debt as a strategic asset in the management of individual and family wealth, The Value of Debt is an important resource for financial advisors, wealthy families, family offices, and professional investors.

Carlos and Dena McPhereson are a couple whose love is only matched by the enormity of secrets existing between them. Those secrets are ones Dena Ramsey McPhereson never intended to share with her husband. The plan however is reworked when a visit from former acquaintances puts Dena in the unimaginable position of having to choose between protecting family and losing the man she loves. Carlos McPhereson has no intentions of letting that happen. He’d waited a lifetime for Dena. Not only had he waited- he’d observed, tracked those he felt responsible for taking her from him. He’d allowed his wife to believe he had no real clue of the events that had filled her years, until the time comes when the full truth can no longer be avoided. Now will be the moments for revelations. Revelations that will reveal the path towards the final acts in a dramatic and deadly menagerie that some will not survive.

Since first edition’s publication, the CDO market has seen tremendous growth. As of 2005, $1.1 trillion of CDOs were outstanding — making them the fastest-growing investment vehicle of the last decade. To help you keep up with this expanding market and its various instruments, Douglas Lucas, Laurie Goodman, and Frank Fabozzi have collaborated to bring you this fully revised and up-to-date new edition of Collateralized Debt Obligations. Written in a clear and accessible style, this valuable resource provides critical information regarding the evolving nature of the CDO market. You’ll find in-depth insights gleaned from years of investment and credit experience as well as the examination of a wide range of issues, including cash CDOs, loans and CLOs, structured finance CDOs and collateral review, emerging market and market value CDOs, and synthetic CDOs. Use this book as your guide and take advantage of this dynamic market and its products.

Product Features

• Collateralized Debt Obligations
• Structures
• Analysis

Conventional wisdom holds that all nations must repay debt. Regardless of the legitimacy of the regime that signs the contract, a country that fails to honor its loan obligations damages its reputation, inviting still greater problems down the road. Yet difficult dilemmas arise from this assumption. Should today’s South Africa be responsible for apartheid-era debt? Is it reasonable to tether postwar Iraq with Saddam Hussein’s excesses?

Rethinking Sovereign Debt is a probing historical analysis of how sovereign debt continuity–the rule that nations should repay loans even after a major regime change, or expect reputational consequences–became the consensus approach. Odette Lienau contends that the practice is not essential for functioning international capital markets, and demonstrates how it relies on ideas of absolutist government that have come under fire over the last century. Challenging previous accounts, Lienau incorporates a wealth of original research to argue that Soviet Russia’s repudiation of Tsarist debt and Great Britain’s 1923 arbitration with Costa Rica hint at the feasibility of selective debt cancellation. She traces the notion of debt continuity from the post-World War I era to the present, emphasizing the role of government officials, the World Bank, and private-market actors in shaping our existing framework.

Lienau calls on scholars and policymakers to recognize political choice and historical precedent in sovereign debt and reputation, in order to move beyond an impasse when a government is overthrown.

Our government debt is rising every day. Our population is shifting as more people retire and fewer are able to find work. Our social programs, including the Affordable Care Act, are only adding to our financial burden, and rising taxes are hindering economic growth. We are a nation in the red.

A powerful wake-up call to leaders, investors, and citizens, this brilliantly researched book reveals the surprising truth about our national debt–and what we can do about it.

You’ll learn: How reckless spending by Congress has created a debt trap How Obamacare will negatively affect health care costs and our economy How Social Security really works–and why it’s unsustainable in its current form How changing interest rates could spell disaster for the United States What America can learn from Europe’s economic woes What could happen if the United States defaults on its loans What our government needs to do now to save us from collapse What you can do to protect yourself and your family

Written in clear, concise language and backed with ample data and sometimes shocking facts, A Nation in the Red presents a reasoned, straightforward approach to one of the most controversial issues of our time. You’ll discover the fascinating psychological reasons that have helped create our debt trap, the staggering price of FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society, and the real cost of entitlement programs like Medicare, Social Security, and welfare. You’ll learn about the 2,200 federal programs that we’re all paying for–and the truth about Bush-era tax cuts versus Obama’s tax hikes. You’ll also discover how the five most obvious ways to reduce debt may–or may not–be the solution to our country’s problems.

And most importantly, you’ll learn how to protect your own wealth from the next financial crisis.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR A NATION IN THE RED

“A Nation in the Red is the best-researched and most understandable explanation of how the United States put itself in the untenable debt position it is in today. Murray Holland has an extraordinary comprehension of the economic, currency, legal, and business problems facing this country. He has the knowledge to understand the extent of our problems and the wisdom to advise how to get out of the government debt trap.” — Christopher Mahoney, retired Vice Chairman, Moody’s Investors Service

“A Nation in the Red is a must read to get a vivid picture of where our country is on the slippery slope to financial disaster and what must be done to reverse this fatal direction, creating a path to recovery and a promising future.” — Jeff Heller, retired President and Chief Operating Officer, Electronic Data Systems Corporation

“Murray Holland has an uncanny sense for business management, finance, and markets, both domestically and internationally. If he speaks, listen. There is nobody better than Murray Holland when it comes to prognosticating finance and business matters. His vision has consistently–in some cases unfortunately–been right.” — John Waller, Chairman, Waller Capital Corporation

“A Nation in the Red is a complete, sophisticated review of all the economic, business, and currency issues we are facing now that the United States has one of the worst debt problems in the world. Murray Holland accurately analyzes our very few options for how we can get out of the trap our government has put us in. Read it!” — Ray Washburne, Finance Chairman, Republican National Committee