Includes index.

Contents: Financial claims, interest, and markets : Overview : claims, markets and institutions -- Interest rates and term structure -- Financial claims -- Valuation of financial claims -- Futures and options -- Financial markets -- Financial intermediaries : Their role in the financial system: The Theory of intermediation and the function of intermediaries -- U.S. financial intermediary history -- The Objectives of an efficient payment system -- Commercial banks -- Thrift instituitions -- The Thrift debacle -- Life insurance companies and pension funds -- Other financial instituitions -- Government's role in the financial sector : Federal government credit activities -- Financial institutions regulation, insurance and regulators -- Appendix A: The Financial instituitions reform, recovery, and enforcement Act of 1989: A Case study in regulatory retribution -- Appendix B: Major provisions of the federal deposit insurance corporation improvement Act of 1991 -- Structural changes and the performance of financial intermediaries -- Managing financial intermediaries: Basic financial management for intermadiaries -- Financial innovation: Theory and practice -- Distribution channels for financial products -- Measuring interest rate risk -- Managing interest rate risk -- Managing credit risk -- Problem loans and investments -- Performance analysis for financial instituitions -- Asset management and pricing -- Liability management and pricing -- Foreign exchange, exchange rates and managing currency risk -- Financial tables.