Written by a former practitioner, this book fills a clear gap in the current literature for a practice-focused text that brings together the organizational structure, economics and governance of the finance industry – investment banking, wholesale banking and asset management - with the functions it performs such as mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, private equity, hedge funds, high frequency trading and the structuring of cash and synthetic ETFs and CDOs. It integrates the credit and capital markets by considering securitization as a "conversion" process between the two markets and money market mutual funds as a capital market alternative to bank deposits offered in the credit market. It analyzes the societal value of the industry as well as market and regulatory failure leading to crisis and hence the need for more appropriate governance structures and disciplining and control mechanisms for both banks and sovereign groupings such as the eurozone