The Origin of Junk Bonds

Drexel was making its fortune in junk bonds, and that stung. We were supposed to be Wall Street’s bond traders. We were in danger of losing that distinction, however, for our managers had failed to see how important junk bonds would become. They thought junk was a passing fad. That was easily their single most … Read more

Getting US house mortgages to Wall Street

Wall Street brings together borrowers of money with lenders. Until the spring of 1978, when Salomon Brothers formed Wall Street’s first mortgage security department, the term borrower referred to large corporations and to federal, state, and local governments. It did not include homeowners. A Salomon Brothers partner named Robert Dall thought this strange. The fastest-growing … Read more

Negative Nationalism

We don’t want to fight But, by Jingo, if we do, We’ve got the ships, We’ve got the men, We’ve got the money, too – “MACDERMOTT’S WAR SONG” SUNG AT THE LONDON PAVILION 1878 Negative nationalism reached a hillock of intellectual clarity in 1878 during yet another one of those Russian-Turkish crises that London tried … Read more

Royalties and Loyalties

If the creation of the WTO in 1995 was the last clear victory for Globalization, the specific point of farthest advance was probably the inclusion of intellectual property inside the trade regime. No sooner was TRIPS in place than the backlash began.The most dependable of pro—Globalization economists were horrified. Why should coupon clipping be treated … Read more

The fall of Economics

Since 1950 world trade has multiplied — depending on whose numbers you use — between twelve- and twenty-two-fold. Worldwide foreign direct investment has grown fifteen-fold since 1970. For foreign directinvestment to developing countries, the multiple is twenty. The daily turnover in foreign exchange markets was $15 billion in 1973. Now it is over $1.5 trillion. … Read more

Executing Innovation

So why is innovation execution so hard? Simply put, organizations are not built for it. Quite to the contrary, they are built for ongoing operations. They are built to be Performance Engines. A well-run Performance Engine is the master of many challenges. It excels at serving today’s customers and fighting today’s rivals. It is terrific … Read more