Ebook: Smart money how high-stakes financial innovation is reshaping our world-for the better

"From Babylon to the present, the history of finance has always been one of powerful innovation. Now a new generation of financial entrepreneurs is working to revive this tradition of useful innovation, and Palmer shows why we need their ideas today more than ever. Traveling to the centers of finance across the world, Palmer introduces us to peer-to-peer lenders who are financing entrepreneurs the big banks won't bet on, creating opportunities where none existed. He explores the world of social-impact bonds, which fund programs for the impoverished and homeless, simultaneously easing the burden on national governments and producing better results. And he explores the idea of human-capital contracts, whereby investors fund the educations of cash-strapped young people in return for a percentage of their future earnings."--;Lessons badly learned. Handmaid to history -- From breakthrough to meltdown -- The most dangerous asset in the world -- A force for good. Social-impact bonds and the shrinking of the state -- Live long and prosper -- Equity and the license to dream -- Peer-to-peer lending and the flaws of finance -- The edge: reaching the marginal borrower -- Tail risk: pricing the probability of mayhem.