A HISTORY OF FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY FROM CORPORATIONS TO CROWDFUNDING

This review article offers a discussion of A History of Financial Technology from Corporations to Crowdfunding and explores the contribution the book makes to the understanding of innovative developments in the financial markets, their impact on corporate finance, and the role financial regulation has in corresponding with such developments. It starts by exploring the first era of United States corporate finance that began with the ratifications of the Constitution in the 1790s and ended with the Great Depression in the 1930s. It then explains the trends that can be identified in the second relevant era in the United States, which started around the time the Securities Act of 1933 was enacted and ended with the Dot-Com bubble. Finally, it continues by exploring the third relevant era, which we are currently living in; the era commenced with the financial crisis of the early 2000s and was further intensified with the Great Recession of 2007–2008 and is characterised by the emergence of non-traditional finance, such as crypto-currency in general and Bitcoin in particular in 2008. It concludes by arguing that currently few people understand how new cutting-edge technologies impact investing, the true nature of finance today, and where it is trending.