Foreign Bonds: An Autopsy

Foreign Bonds: An Autopsy
By Max Winkler

1999/12 - Beard Books
1893122433 - Paperback - Reprint - 313 pp.
US$34.95

Through analysis and comparison with other countries whose contractual obligations are in default, Max Winkler describes the transformation of the United States from a debtor nation to the world's most powerful creditor.

Publisher Comments

Category: Banking & Finance

Of Interest:

The Work of the Bond House

The Principles of Bond Investment

Railroads: Finance & Organizations

Foreign Bondholders and American State Debts

State Insolvency and Foreign Bondholders: General Principles

State Insolvency and Foreign Bondholders: Selected Case Histories of Governmental Foreign Bond Defaults and Debt Readjustments

Presenting a compendium of governmental defaults through the ages, this unique book attempts to shed light on the reasons for the collapse of the credit of nations and the effects of suspension of payments on their economic and financial structure. The springboard for Max Winkler's book is the awesome fact that at the end of 1933, 22.3 billion dollars of contractual obligations of governments, states, and municipalities were in default. Moreover, he presents a potentially dry subject matter of great importance in an unusually interesting and witty manner.

No book review available

Max Winkler immigrated to the U.S. from Romania in 1910, became a professor of languages but was turned down for a teaching position because he was Jewish. Undaunted, Max found a job teaching economics at City College. In 1929, he started the brokerage firm Bermard, Winkler & Co. on the 11th floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He then authored three books on bonds and later wrote a New York Times-syndicated column on bonds and investing.

	Foreword	ix
	Introduction	xi
I.	The United States, Bankers to the World	1
	The Re-discovery of America
	The Golden Age
	United States Loans to Friend and Foe
	The Two-fold Function of the Dollar, Destroying and Rebuilding
	The Conversion of the American Investor
	America Discovers the World
	The Business of Thinking for Others
	America, the Chosen Land
	Center of Finance Moves to Banks of Hudson
	The Rise and Fall of the New Era
II.	Default and Repudiation	8
	Definitions of Terms
	Attitude towards Defaulters
	A Blunderer from Pennsylvania
	The Growth of the Debt Burden
	Productive vs. Non-productive Loans, as Illustrated by France and Germany
	The Government, a Preferred Risk
	Guarding against Defaults
	Government vs. Private Credit
III.	Historical Review	21
	Frequency of Default
	Types of Default
	Default in Ancient Times
	Default in the Early Part of the Christian Era
	Default in the Middle Ages
	Modern Defaults
	Chronic Defaults by Latin American Borrowers
	Russia's Debt Repudiation
IV.	Causes of Default	47
	Drastic Political Changes
	Exorbitant and Unjust Rates
	Unwise Investments
	Maldistribution of Gold
	Tariff and Other Restrictions
	Decline in Commodity Prices
	Excessive Borrowing
V.	Causes of Default (Continued)	58
	The Misleading Prospectus
	Playing with Matches and Explosives
	Bribing a President's Son
	Risking Money in Minas
	The A. B. C. of War Debts
VI.	Experience of Creditor Nations	134
	Great Britain
	France
	United States
VII.	Protective Measures	146
	Financial Control
	Egypt
	Greece
	Central Europe
	Baltic States
	Latin America
	Drago Doctrine Discarded
	Intervention
VIII.	Protective Measures (Continued)	153
	British Protective Organization
	The French Association
	The German Association
	The Swiss Bankers Association
	The Belgian Protective Association
	The Netherlands Association
	Protection for American Investors in Foreign Bonds
	Lack of International Cooperation between the Associations
IX.	Summary	179
1.	Tables of Defaults of Foreign Nations and States	182
2.	Tables of Defaults of Individual States of the United States	203
	Index	287

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