Donald Chew, "The Making of Modern Corporate Finance: A History of the Ideas and How They Help Build the Wealth of Nations" (Columbia Business School Publishing, 2025)

New Books in Economic and Business History · Feb 18, 2026 · 1h 10m

In The Making of Modern Corporate Finance: A History of the Ideas and How They Help Build the Wealth of Nations (Columbia Business School Publishing, 2025) Donald Chew profiles key figures in the development of modern corporate finance while emphasizing their counterintuitive lessons for shareholders, companies, and countries. He deals with such questions as: Why did the stagflation of the 1970s prove so painful and protracted? What explains the U.S. stock market’s forty-year run of 12 percent average annual returns? Why is Japan still mired in a decades-long recession? What accounts for the…