Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy

In the mid-1980s, Smith, a noted authority on developing-world debt, was a brash young economic mercenary, traveling to war-torn countries to make and lose fortunes by buying and selling high-risk securities in downtrodden economies. After a crash course in basic economics of bonds, government debt, and obscure trading instruments, he tells of his adventures in the streets of Baghdad after the fall of Saddam, in post-community Russia, in Guatemala, and Nigeria. The author is founder of a corporation which specializes in trading emerging markets' sovereign debt and evaluating creditor claims against foreign governments. Co-author Peter Zheutlin is a freelance journalist. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

ROBERT P. SMITH (New York, NY) is the founder and managing

director of Turan Corporation, which specializes in trading

emerging market sovereign debt and evaluating creditor claims

against foreign governments. He has been quoted in many

publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial

Times and International Business. PETER ZHEUTLIN (Boston, MA) is

a journalist and the author of Around the World on Two

Wheels and co-author of Life in the Balance.