There’s a scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian in which rebels conspire against the Roman occupation. They ask themselves “What have the Romans ever done for us“.
Upon reflection, they realize that the Romans brought them sanitation, medicine, education, irrigation, public health, roads, a freshwater system, baths, public order, and peace.
I get the same feeling when I read articles about Big Tech. Continue reading “What has Big Tech ever done for me?”
The Dutch translation of ‘Bankers are people, too’ was released last week. A guest remarked that he liked the unconventional order of the topics. The fact that I wasn’t formally trained as an economist undoubtedly helped. Because I didn’t start from a mental template of how a book on banking should look like, I had to figure out the best way to present my ideas in a coherent way.
Question for readers who did study economics at university: did your textbooks discuss central banks and macroeconomics before explaining commercial banking? What would you change to the curriculum? Let me know in the comments!
Writing a book involves a lot of deleting, shifting, and rewriting. The recent IT problems at Argenta bank reminded me of the original introduction of Bankers are people, too.
The introduction in the published version of my book is based on the old intro, plus pieces that were originally at the end of Part III. The editor convinced me to integrate them into the beginning.
So without further ado, here is the old intro: Continue reading “The original introduction of ‘Bankers are people, too’”
I frowned the first time somebody introduced me as an ‘economist’. After all, I don’t have a piece of paper that says I’m an economist. But upon reflection I realized that it was true. In effect, I had indeed become an economist. How did that happen? Continue reading “How I became an economist”
My first long blog post was published two years ago on this day. A couple of weeks earlier, I had decided to quit my job in order to write Bankers are people, too.
I want to use this anniversary to thank you for reading my work. Who could foresee then that I would make new friends because of this blog?
There is more to celebrate. The Dutch translation of Bankers are people, too will be released on April 12. Check out the invitation (pdf, in Dutch). Send me a message if you would like to attend the book launch party in Brussels!
I also have a favor to ask if you have already bought Bankers are people, too. Please consider writing a review. This will help other intelligent readers like you to find the book.
Createspace enables independent authors to publish their works and to distribute them through Amazon.
Amazon takes care of the printing, shipping, and payments. The author receives a monthly royalty payment. I used Createspace to publish Bankers are people, too.
Unfortunately, criminals have also discovered that they can use the platform for money laundering.
Brian Krebs explains how it works on his blog, KrebsonSecurity. Someone publishes a bogus book and sets an extremely high price for it, e.g. $555. They use stolen credit cards to buy the book. Amazon pays the “author” about 60% of the retail price in royalties. This money looks like a legit income. The stolen money has been laundered. Continue reading “Crooks with books: Laundering money as an “author” (part 1)”
If you haven’t already, please take a look at Bankers are people, too on Amazon before you buy the book. The Look inside! feature gives a preview of the table of contents and part of the introduction.
However, you should know that as the author, I don’t have control over what is displayed on ‘Look inside!’. Prospective readers might get the impression that Bankers are people, too is yet another book that blames the banking sector. But that’s only because the last two pages of the introduction are missing from the preview.
So here are pages 17 and 18 (I put some text in bold and added links to related blog posts): Continue reading “The crucial part missing from the preview of ‘Bankers are people, too’”
When people ask me what I used to do before I became a writer/consultant, I usually tell them that I was a risk manager. That’s also the description I use on the cover of Bankers are people, too. Continue reading “What I used to do”
Click on the blue bird (top right in the tweet below) to read the whole thread on Twitter. It also works if you don’t have a Twitter account.
This is an extremely misleading @FTAlphaville article on pension savings (based on an equally flawed @OECD report) 1/https://t.co/pzxLQwNipo
— Jan Musschoot (@JanMusschoot) February 15, 2018
I know that life insurance is important in France thanks to my research for Bankers are people, too.
From page 92:
“In France, the reserves in such insurance savings vehicles make up the largest component of household financial assets.” – Jan Musschoot in ‘Bankers are people, too’
Economists are fond of analogies to describe technical ideas.
Most of those analogies are confusing and/or useless. As I wrote in the introduction of Bankers are people, too:
Economists and journalists writing for lay audiences tend to use metaphors when explaining financial concepts. For example: ‘Cheap credit is like heroin. It’s addictive, and the economy can overdose from it.’ That may sound nice, but what does it even mean?