Banking on Global Markets: Deutsche Bank and the United States, 1870 to the Present (Cambridge Studies in the Emergence of Global Enterprise) [Hardcover]

Christopher Kobrak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 2007

Banking on Global Markets uses the story of the U.S. business and political dealings of Germany's largest bank to illuminate important developments in the ongoing globalization of major financial institutions. Throughout its nearly 140-year-long history, Deutsche Bank served as one of Germany's principal vehicles for forging economic and other links with the rest of the world. Despite some early successes in the face of severe obstacles for Deutsche Bank, the U.S. market probably remained Deutsche Bank's highest foreign priority and its most frustrating challenge. As with many foreign investors, Deutsche Bank found its hopes of harnessing America's enticing opportunities often dashed by many regulatory and political barriers. Relying on primary-source material, Banking on Global Markets traces Deutsche Bank involvement with the United States in the context of a changing national and international regulatory and economic environment that set the stage for its strategies and activities in the United States, and, at times, even in its home country. It is the story of how international cooperation furthered and conflict hindered those endeavors, and how international banking evolved from a very personalized business between nations to one dominated by enormous transnational markets. It is a work designed for anyone interested in how cross-border flows of information and capital have affected history and how our modern form of globalization distinguishes itself from that of earlier periods. A professor of finance and writer of history, Christopher Kobrak weaves together how these financial, political, and institutional developments have helped shape the emerging new international order.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The story Christopher Kobrak tells in this useful book is...a welcome addition to the literature on banking history...the excellent treatment of the 1870-1914 period alone makes the book a fine addition to German banking history."
Richard Tilly, EH-NET

"...this well-researched study covers more than a century and a quarter of the German Deutsche Bank's history in the US. Recommended." -Choice

"...Kobrak, presents a detailed business history of the investments and dealing of Deutsche Bank, Germany's leading financial institution, in the United States." -Kirsten Wandschneider, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"...meticulously researched." -Mark S. LeClair, Eastern Economic Journal

Book Description

Banking on Global Markets uses the story of the U.S. business and political dealings of Germany's largest bank to illuminate important developments in the ongoing globalization of major financial institutions.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 504 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (November 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521863252
• ISBN-13: 978-0521863254
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,858,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars globalisation, January 6, 2008

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This review is from: Banking on Global Markets: Deutsche Bank and the United States, 1870 to the Present (Cambridge Studies in the Emergence of Global Enterprise) (Hardcover)

Globalisation is not a new thing, as Kobrak reminds us in this authoritative and readable monograph. In the 19th and 20th centuries, as the US rose to prominence, it often required external capital to develop a virgin continent. Deutsche Bank was one of the financiers, that provided this capital.

The narrative describes long ago travails. Of investments that did well and others that went totally bankrupt. In the midst of much of this was Deutsche Bank, who typically provided loans for infrastructure. Notably the railroads that would span the United States. One railroad, Northern Pacific, gets an entire chapter, delineating how it fell on hard times.

The 20th century also brought with it 2 world wars. In which the bank was on the other side for both. But now, at least during peacetime, capital often flowed from the US to Europe. Being versatile, the bank found much business here, facilitating this flow.

Granted, in places, the book makes for dry reading. But fans of history and economics should still like the story.