“Every Crisis Begins with a Shock”

Last year, on the 100th anniversary of their book’s subject, Robert F. Bruner and Sean D. Carr published The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market’s Perfect Storm (John Wiley & Sons). A year later, as we weather a far greater financial storm, the book’s lessons are more relevant than ever. From their analysis of one of the worst banking panics in U.S. history, … [ Read more ]

Systemic Banking Crises: A New Database

This paper presents a new database on the timing of systemic banking crises and policy responses to resolve them. The database covers the universe of systemic banking crises for the period 1970-2007, with detailed data on crisis containment and resolution policies for 42 crisis episodes, and also includes data on the timing of currency crises and sovereign debt crises. The database extends and builds on … [ Read more ]

Ida Tarbell and the Breaking of Standard Oil

Ida Tarbell’s reporting into Standard Oil led not only to the break-up of a large oil monopoly. It also precipitated a shift in US attitudes to competition and big business.

Globalization 3.0

At some point in the past few years, that overworked phrase “the post-Cold War world” fell out of fashion, even though it has not really been replaced. It was neither a satisfactory nor a popular way of describing the strange and somewhat anomalous time after the Gorbachev reforms and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union changed the geopolitical furniture. Some preferred to describe the … [ Read more ]

The Matchmaker of the Modern Economy

In the wake of World War II, Georges Doriot helped found the world’s first public venture capital firm, American Research and Development. Doriot (1899—1987) was also a professor at Harvard Business School for 40 years. This book excerpt from Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital (HBS Press) describes how ARD first came to “marry” investors and innovators.

James Burnham: The Owner-Manager Struggle

An important American thinker in the early part of the twentieth century, James Burnham saw owners and managers in a perpetual struggle for power. In important respects, his ideas still resonate.

Private Banks as Corporate Shareholders: Lessons from History

In the U.S. in 1906, the prominent private bank Kuhn Loeb – prompted by the scandal of the Armstrong Investigation – withdrew from the boards of all non-bank corporations. This historical announcement changed the course of corporate governance, and ultimately prevented private banks from being activist shareholders in the United States. In the paper “The Value of Private Banks in Corporate Governance: Evidence From the … [ Read more ]

The Diamond of Sustainable Growth

A study of history yields important clues about what helps economies enjoy sustained economic growth.

The Triumph of 1914

A new book argues that the origins of American financial dominance can be traced to a bold decision to close the New York Stock Exchange for more than four months.

The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce

“Any study of the history of Silicon Valley should start with a magazine article by perhaps the greatest literary journalist of our time, Tom Wolfe. In this 1983 Esquire piece, Wolfe offers a highly engaging profile of the charismatic founder of Intel and tells the story of the founding of the computer chip business. It’s a terrific tale: A group of young geniuses, many still … [ Read more ]

Enlightened Industrialist: Walther Rathenau

Celebrated by Peter Drucker as a key influence, Walther Rathenau deserves to be remembered as a major figure in pre-War Germany.

History of Finance

n 2004, The American Finance Association Board approved a project to record aspects of the History of Finance. Stephen Buser was appointed Historian with the mission to produce video interviews with important contributors to financial economic knowledge. Links to streaming videos of edited versions of interviews with Harry Markowitz, William Sharpe, Paul Samuelson and Robert Merton are posted below. Transcripts of the full texts of … [ Read more ]

Strategic Thinking and Strategy Analysis in Business – A Survey on the Major Lines

This article attempts to trace the development and summarise the current state of strategic thinking and “strategy theory” in business.

Editor’s Note: dont’ let the introductory text and use of word “survey” fool you – this article is a great short history of the development of the various major approaches to strategy analysis.

Cartels and Competition: Neither Markets nor Hierarchies

This article provides an overview on the rise and fall of cartels since the late 19th century when the modern cartel movement properly arrived with the rise of big business based on scale and scope. The general narrative about cartels may not be a story of rise and fall, but rise, boom, collapse, revitalization, gradual decline, and then criminalization. Yet, until the 1980s, the global … [ Read more ]

History lesson: The Unsung Master of Management

An original thinker and a pioneer of the theory of harmonisation, Polish born Karol Adamiecki deserves to regain his place as one of Europe’s foremost management gurus.

History lesson: The Change Master

He turned a family-run gunpowder factory into a giant corporation, and rebuilt a faltering General Motors. Pierre du Pont proves that even the most moribund company can be rescued with the right management skills.

History lesson: The Real Machiavelli

For the past five centuries, the political genius of Niccoló Machiavelli has been overshadowed by his reputation as a cold supporter of corrupt ruling. Only recently have his true beliefs come to light.

Reclaiming Drucker

The world’s most famous management writer may have spent most of his working life in the US, but he owes many of his ideas to his European origins.

EBF history lesson: Where scientific management went awry

Taylorism laid the foundations for science-based management more than 100 years ago. But early implementations led to worker resistance and distortions that have never quite gone away.

EBF History Lesson: Democracy, community and chocolate

The management philosophy of the Cadburys and the Rowntrees, 19th century commercial rivals, resulted in happy and well-paid workers and strong, profitable and creative companies.