A WORLD OF CHANCE: Betting on Religion, Games, Wall Street
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Date: 04-14-2008
Start Time:
6:00pm
End Time: 7:30pm
Speaker: Reuven Brenner, McGill University
Location: 412 Schapiro CEPSR, Davis Auditorium
ABSTRACT
The book shows how some societies created more chances
for their members, and as a result, prospered.The book looks at events through the prism of risk-taking, of games of
chance, of futures and of financial markets, and shows how religion, politics,
law and finance interacted to bring about the situation we find ourselves
today.It turns out that gamblers and
risk-takers – furious attacks against them from many quarters notwithstanding
-brought to life businesses and institutions that “corrected the future faster”
and allowed the rest of society to have more options.It also turns out that games of chance have
been unique financial instruments, serving at times as sources of capital, and
at other times as the only means to “make it” when all else failed.
with G.A. Brenner and Aaron Brown, forthcoming Cambridge
UP, 2008
BIO
During the last twenty years, Reuven Brenner has been working with companies such as Bank of America, Knowledge Universe, EEN (Education Entertainment Network), Bell Canada, BCI, Repap Enterprises on strategic and financial problems, as well as with investors, money asset managers and investment banks in Canada, the US, and Mexico. He has been also involved in the private equity markets as partner in Match Strategic Partners, identifying emerging opportunities for acquisition and investment for their own accounts and those of institutional investors. Brenner also served on various boards, and holds the Repap Chair at McGill’s Faculty of Management.
He is the author of eight books and numerous articles, examining what makes companies and countries leapfrog others – or fall behind. Number eight, titled A World of Chance (with Gabrielle Brenner and Aaron Brown) is due by Cambridge UP in 2008. He has been a contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, National Post (Canada), Financial Times, Strait Times (Singapore), Asia Times, Dow Jones and Le Figaro (Paris).The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, London Times, Boston Globe, New York Times, Asia Times, Smart Money reviewed his works, and Forbes’ columnists put two of his books in their all time recommended list.
There have also been TV and radio programs in Canada and the US covering his work. Brenner has given speeches around the world, and debated, among others, Paul Volcker, Mike Milken, Jack Kemp, Pedro Aspe and Gil Diaz (Mexico’s previous and present Finance Ministers), Yaakov Neeman (Israel’s previous Finance Minister), and in Quebec, Henri-Paul Rousseau, Steve Jarislowsky, among others. In 1995, Quebec’s government asked him to be member of a commission, whose mandate was to examine all aspects of Quebec’s possible separation. He was also asked to testify before US Congressional Commissions and Canada’s Senate’s Banking and Finance Committee.
Forbes Global dedicated the cover story, titled “Leapfrogging,” to Brenner’s endeavors in the August 8, 1998 issue. Other honors included the Killam Award (1992); the 1995 “Masters and Mavericks of Modern Economics,” dedicating a chapter to his works; and the Royal Society electing him as “Fellow”(1999).
Brenner was born in Rumania and immigrated to Israel in 1962.He served in the Israeli army between 1966-69, during the Six-Day War, and again during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.It was a Fulbright fellowship that enabled him to come to the US in 1977 for three years, combined with an invitation from the University of Chicago. The grant and invitation were a consequence of Brenner’s work (with Shaul Bronfeld) in designing securities (indexed bonds) in Israel, work for which the Hebrew University awarded him a Ph.D.He lives in Canada since 1980.
He is fluent in English, French, Hebrew, Hungarian and understands Rumanian.