Nicholas P. Sargen Book order

The narrative explores JPMorgan's transformation into a universal bank during the 1980s and 1990s, detailing the challenges faced by leaders Lew Preston and Dennis Weatherstone amid the developing country debt crisis and shifting borrower behaviors. It highlights the firm's strategic adaptations leading up to its acquisition by Chase in 2000, while also situating JPMorgan's evolution within the broader context of U.S. banking consolidation and the influence of current management under Jamie Dimon.

In the wake of the 2016 U. S. presidential election, investors and the electorate alike are seeking clarity on a wide range of macro policy issues that will impact the economy and markets in the years ahead. The primary goal of this book is to provide an objective source for investors to learn about economic policy issues that surfaced. Topics include long-term growth, the federal budget deficit, healthcare reform, tax reform, regulatory policies affecting the financial system and environment, the nexus of monetary, exchange rate and trade policies, and globalization. The book explains how these issues have evolved, considers arguments from both sides of the political divide, and draws upon evidence from studies by experts in the respective areas. A related goal is to assess the likely impact of economic policies on financial markets. While the presidential election was close, the markets’ response was decisive: U. S. and global equity markets went on a tear as consumer and business confidence soared. This surprised many investors who believed a Trump victory would be bad for financial markets. It also caused many to question whether expectations embedded in markets were too optimistic. Sargen’s assessment is presented in the opening and concluding chapters. 

This book, which is written from a practitioner’s perspective, fills the void by providing the reader with a toolkit and guiding principles to manage money when markets are in turmoil. It features ten case studies beginning with the breakdown of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system through the current situation in which investors are assessing whether China could become the next bubble. Each chapter discusses how the respective crisis or bubble unfolded at the time, the way policymakers and markets responded, and the optimal strategy for positioning portfolios. The goal is to share these experiences and the lessons from them, so investors will be better prepared for future shocks. The opening chapter explores whether there are common patterns in movements of interest rates and exchange rates that investors can exploit. A conceptual framework is presented that helps explain why this is the case for traditional currency crises, but less so for asset bubbles. The concluding chapter ties the episodes together and considers how the nature of financial crises has evolved since the collapse of Bretton Woods. We cite factors that make it difficult for policymakers and investors to detect problems in advance of an asset bubble. The good news is investors get a second chance to outperform when markets are over-sold; however, they need to formulate a strategy to limit the damage during the sell-off phase and to capitalize on the eventual recovery.