The first in a series on lessons of the global financial crisis.

The financial crisis showed up the defects of monetary models. These in turn reflected a flawed idea of money. That is why central banks failed to anticipate the crisis and could not deal with it effectively when it arrived. That is the message of The Money Trap.

There has been much discussion about China’s GDP surpassing the US. Less attention has been paid to forecasts that India will become not only the most populous nation in the world by 2025, but that by 2050 the size of the Indian economy will also surpass the United States.

Global surveys covering second-quarter 2017 FinTech investments are coming in, and the results bode well for the development of the FinTech ecosystem.

The IMF’s message in its latest global economic forecasts (World Economic Outlook, 7/24/2017) is broadly unchanged from its April version.  The global economic recovery is gaining momentum and broadening in 2017, after a two-year slowdown. Global output is expected to grow by respectively 3.5% and 3.6% this year and next.  However, the IMF states that the projected composition of growth will be slightly different, with slower-than-anticipated growth in the United States compensated by faster growth in the eurozone, Canada, Japan and emerging markets.

"When you think of FinTech, do you think of it more as a product or a service?" It was a question asked by a member of the audience at the Incubate Illinois FinTech panel sponsored Wednesday by the Chicago law firm Freeborn & Peters. It occurred to me that I take it for granted professionals in finance and technology understand what FinTech means.

We have been following FinTech for a while now, but recently stories about blockchain and cryptocurrencies have been appearing everywhere. ICO's, or Initial Coin Offerings are beginning to look like a gold rush. Beyond the hype, driven by exponential returns for the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum, what are the constraints on further growth?

If you’ve been following recent news headlines, you may have noticed an uptick in the number of articles discussing blockchain technology, and more specifically, the emergence of a new venture funding model based on that technology: the token sale. But first, a brief explanation of blockchains.

Here is my recent presentation to the International Conference of Commercial Bank Economists (ICCBE) in Paris this week.