Bio
Matthew Bishop
Matthew Bishop is the U.S. business editor and New York bureau chief of The Economist. His new book, The Road from Ruin: How to Renew Capitalism and Put America Back on Top, with Michael Green, was published by Crown in February 2010. Philanthrocapitalism, his previous book (also with Mr. Green) was on the global revolution under way in philanthropy. Mr. Bishop is also the author of Essential Economics, The Economist's official layperson's guide to economics. Mr. Bishop is the author of several of The Economist's special report supplements, most recently "A Bigger World," which examines the opportunities and challenges accompanying the rise of emerging economies and firms. Before joining The Economist, Mr. Bishop was on the faculty of London Business School.
Jim Cramer
Jim Cramer runs the charitable trust portfolio, Action Alerts PLUS, and writes daily market commentary for TheStreet's RealMoney premium service. He also participates in video segments on TheStreet TV and serves as host of CNBC's "Mad Money" television program. Cramer graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, where he was president of The Harvard Crimson. He worked as a journalist at the Tallahassee Democrat and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, covering everything from sports to homicide before moving to New York to help start American Lawyer magazine. After a three-year stint, Cramer entered Harvard Law School and received his J.D. in 1984. Instead of practicing law, however, he joined Goldman Sachs, where he worked in sales and trading. In 1987, he left Goldman to start his own hedge fund. While he worked at his fund, Cramer helped start Smart Money for Dow Jones and then, in 1996, he founded TheStreet. In 2000, Cramer retired from active money management to embrace media full time, including radio and television.
John Hathaway
John Hathaway, Senior Managing Director, is a Portfolio Manager and a member of the Investment Committee at Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. He is also a Director of Tocqueville Management Corp., the General Partner of Tocqueville Asset Management.
Mr. Hathaway, who has 39 years of investment experience, manages the Tocqueville Gold Fund, Tocqueville Gold Partners and separate accounts for individual and institutional clients following a gold strategy.
Prior to joining Tocqueville in 1997, Mr. Hathaway began his career in 1970 as an Equity Analyst with Spencer Trask & Co. In 1976 he joined the investment advisory firm David J. Greene and Company, where he became a Partner. In 1986 he founded and managed Hudson Capital Advisors followed by seven years with Oak Hall Advisors as the Chief Investment Officer.
Mr. Hathaway has a B.A. degree from Harvard College, an M.B.A. from the University of Virginia and is a CFA charter holder.
Thomas Kaplan
Thomas S. Kaplan is an American entrepreneur, natural resources investor, philanthropist and art collector. He is the Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Tigris Financial Group Ltd., a New York City-based investment, advisory and asset management firm with areas of focus that include the natural resources sector.
Encyclopædia Britannica Articles
- gold
Metallic chemical element, one of the transition elements, chemical symbol Au, atomic number 79. It is a dense, lustrous, yellow, malleable precious metal, so durable that it is virtually indestructible, often found uncombined in nature. Jewelry and other decorative objects have been crafted from gold for thousands of years. It has been used for coins, to back paper currencies, and as a reserve asset. Gold is widely distributed in all igneous rocks, usually pure but in low concentrations; its recovery from ores and deposits has been a major preoccupation since ancient times (see cyanide process). The world's gold supply has seen three great leaps, with Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas in 1492, with discoveries in California (see gold rush) and Australia (1850–75), and discoveries in Alaska, Yukon (see Klondike), and South Africa (1890–1915). Pure gold is too soft for prolonged handling; it is usually used in alloys with silver, copper, and other metals. In addition to being used in jewelry and as currency, gold is used in electrical contacts and circuits, as a reflective layer in space applications and on building windows, and in filling and replacing teeth. Dental alloys are about 75% gold, 10% silver. In jewelry, its purity is expressed in 24ths, or karats: 24-karat is pure, 12-karat is 50% gold, etc. Its compounds, in which it has valence 1 or 3, are used mainly in plating and other decorative processes; a soluble chloride compound has been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
- gold on britannica.com
- gold standard
Monetary system in which the standard unit of currency is a fixed quantity of gold or is freely convertible into gold at a fixed price. The gold standard was first adopted in Britain in 1821. Germany, France, and the U.S. instituted it in the 1870s, prompted by North American gold strikes that increased the supply of gold. The gold standard ended with the outbreak of World War I in 1914; it was reestablished in 1928, but because of the relative scarcity of gold, most nations adopted a gold-exchange standard, supplementing their gold reserves with currencies (U.S. dollars and British pounds) convertible into gold at a stable rate of exchange. Though the gold-exchange standard collapsed during the Great Depression, the U.S. set a minimum dollar price for gold, an action that allowed for the restoration of an international gold standard after World War II. In 1971 dwindling gold reserves and an unfavourable balance of payments led the U.S. to suspend the free convertibility of dollars into gold, and the gold standard was abandoned. See also bimetallism; exchange rate; silver standard.
- gold standard on britannica.com
© 2010 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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