Alchemists of Loss: How modern finance and government intervention crashed the financial system

Foreword.

Part One: Past Successes and Disasters.

1 Introduction.

2 Pre-Modern Finance.

3 Lessons from Past Financial Crises.

Part Two: The Modern Financial Theory Engine.

4 Theoretical Foundations of Modern Finance.

5 Modern Financial Theory’s Hideous Flaws.

6 Risk Management: Daft Theory, Dodgy Practice.

Part Three: Interactions with the Real World.

7 The Real World Becomes Modern Finance-friendly.

8 Modern Finance Captures Wall Street.

9 And Wall Street Metamorphoses.

10 Derivatives and Other Disasters.

Part Four: Policy Accommodates Modern Finance.

11 Loose Money.

12 Government Meddling in the Financial System.

Part Five: Götterdämmerung.

13 Bubble, Burst, and Panic.

14 The Slope Down Which We're Heading.

Part Six: Charting a New Way Forward.

15 The Math of Proper Risk Management.

16 Back to the Future – A New Vision of Finance.

17 A Blueprint for Reform.

18 Lessons to Take Away.

Bibliography.

Index.