Banking on Global Markets

Banking on Global Markets uses the story of the US business and political dealings of Germany's largest bank to illuminate 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 links with the rest of the world, and the US market probably remained Deutsche Bank's highest foreign priority and its most frustrating challenge. Banking on Global Markets traces Deutsche Bank's involvement with the United States in the context of a changing national and international regulatory and economic environment. It is the story of how international cooperation furthered and conflict hindered those endeavours, and how international banking evolved from a very personalized business between nations to one dominated by enormous transnational markets. Christopher Kobrak weaves together how these financial, political, and institutional developments have helped shape the emerging new international order.

"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

Christopher Kobrak holds a BA degree in philosophy from Rutgers University and MA, MBA, and PhD degrees from Columbia University in history, finance/accounting, and business history. He is a CPA and has spent ten years working in numerous business positions for Sterling Drug, Inc. He teaches corporate finance and business history at ESCP-EAP, concentrating on international finance, financial theory, history of capital markets, and corporate governance. His publications include: National Cultures and International Competition: The Experience of Schering AG, 1851-1950 (Cambridge University Press), European Business, Dictatorship and Political Risk, 1920-1945, edited with Per Hansen, and articles and reviews in many business history journals. He has taught at Columbia University, Warsaw University, and Toulouse University, from which he received his Habilitation in Management. He is currently working on communications about the economic contribution of family businesses, corporate governance, and foreign direct investment in the service sector.