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Financial leadership must not be confused with financial wealth, warns Jeremy Taylor in this compelling work--the most recent in his Quorum Books series. He sets up guideposts from history to point the way out of our current financial crisis and develops the concept of financial stewardship to show why private gain must be countered with public responsibility. In the course of U.S. history six leaders emerged to set the country on a balanced course--Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Carter Glass, and Franklin Roosevelt. By exercising leadership, they were able to achieve the primary goal of finance--balancing private and public interests. Based on their successes and on an analysis of recent history, Taylor recommends specific actions for rebuilding a financial system with a sense of public responsibility.
Taylor chronicles how the great financial leaders in U.S. history succeeded in moving the country forward by serving as intermediaries between contradictory economic forces. He then discusses the series of financial failures that began in the 1970s--lack of monetary discipline, disturbances in commercial financial institutions, and budgetary irresponsibility. He concludes by proposing specific measure based on a sense of public responsibility. These include replacing multiple oversight boards with designated agencies and replacing laissez-faire policies with enforcement of prudent management policies in the private sector.
List of contents
Introduction
The CrossroadsTremors in Finance
Unlocking Leadership
Tales of Leadership PastEntrepreneurialism Unbound, 1790-1860: Alexander Hamilton, Nicholas Biddle, Andrew Jackson
Abraham Lincoln and the Revival of Financial Responsibility
Financial Inequality Under Finance Capitalism: Civil War to World War I
A Framework for Finance, 1907-1913: Carter Glass and the Federal Reserve
Finance in Four Dimensions: 1920 and After
The Present TimesThe Modern Federal Reserve and the Money Maze
Cry Havoc: Banks and Markets After 1980
Country Leadership: Pride and Prejudice in the Pacific Basin
The Keeping of FinanceFinance and Stewardship
Refinancing America
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
Jeremy F. Taylor, Marilyn Taylor
