Atlases are products of their time and place.
The authors of this book are drawn from European and North American perspectives, and have been influenced by topics that have heated up the financial sector in the early 2020s, including fintech and Bitcoin.
However, we have tried to overcome such biases by paying attention to the historical and geographical diversity of the phenomena covered in the book, broadening the scope of financial topics, historical periods, and geographic scope, and utilizing a variety of map projections, colors, and visualization methods.

--- From the "Preface"

While remittances are a crucial tool in international development strategies, their geographic imbalance raises several questions.
How can we address the gap between those with access to financial services, including remittances, and those without? Is development dependent on remittances sustainable? If a country promotes remittances as a form of development, how can it support households unable to migrate? And how can those who have fled their homelands be guaranteed safety and human rights abroad? Despite these numerous problems with remittances, billions of people around the world still rely on remittance income for their livelihoods.

--- From "Chapter 2: Money for Moving"

But the performance of the U.S. stock market has left advocates of geographical diversification baffled.
Since 2009, the U.S. stock market has outperformed other markets to the point where the benefits of diversification have been overshadowed.
The US economy, capital markets, and the power of the dollar had a major impact here.
Another reason why the absolute benefits of geographical diversification are diminishing day by day is the integration of global capital markets.
As can be seen in the graph below from the left, the correlation coefficient of the stock market has increased significantly, especially among developed markets.
In the end, Mark Twain's advice wasn't wrong.
--- From "Chapter 3: If There Is Only One Free Lunch in the Financial World"

Selling shares to some investors at a price lower than the final market price during an initial public offering (IPO) may seem illegal at first glance, but it is a common practice.
This practice, known as "underpricing of IPO shares," aims to increase demand for the stock and attract public attention by raising the stock price on the first day of listing.
Royal Mail's IPO was underwritten by an investment bank underwriting team led by Goldman Sachs and UBS, who determined who would be given priority to buy shares and who would not. The IPO underwriting services market is dominated by a small number of companies, and this tendency is particularly pronounced in developing countries with smaller markets (see graph below). Therefore, large issuers like Royal Mail lack the reliance of many banks.

--- From "Chapter 4: Institutions that Dominate the Market"

While Bitcoin has made significant strides, including lower transaction costs, increased blockchain security, and increased adoption, the Bitcoin blockchain consumes an equivalent amount of energy to the entire country, such as Belgium or Chile.
This is because Bitcoin's proof-of-work algorithm, used to verify transactions, consumes a significant amount of energy.
A single Bitcoin transaction uses approximately 707.6 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is equivalent to the electricity used by a typical American household for 24 days.

--- From "Chapter 4: Bitcoin, the Electricity-Eating Hippopotamus"

Many financial companies measured and managed financial risks and established reserves based on VaR, but they collapsed helplessly in the face of the crisis.
Thus, after the 2008 financial crisis, regulators began using a new metric called Expected Shortfall (ES) instead of VaR. ES is a metric that measures the expected loss when losses exceed VaR.
However, extreme events have the problem that it is difficult to calculate ES because the data itself is insufficient.
Ultimately, no matter what data, models, or technologies we use to manage financial risk, it is impossible to completely eliminate uncertainty.
Moreover, as the scale and complexity of international finance grows by the day, financial crises will likely have greater impacts on more regions in the future.
--- From "Chapter 7 Warning Signs"

As the impact of financial sanctions has grown due to globalization and financialization, the use of financial sanctions as a weapon has also increased explosively.
In an era of globalization, where economies are closely intertwined, excluding certain countries from major financial networks poses new challenges and enormous costs.
But at the same time, it is true that as finance becomes more technological and digitalized, it has become easier to implement, monitor, and evaluate financial sanctions.

--- From "Chapter 8: Finance as a Weapon"

A company's carbon footprint is a good starting point for decision-making, but it alone isn't enough to make sound decisions.
A company's carbon budget (the amount of carbon emissions it is allowed to emit to achieve the Paris Agreement goals) should vary depending on the region and sector it operates in.
For example, an Asian cement manufacturer might emit far more carbon per unit of revenue than a European media company, but the world can't run on media companies alone.

--- From "Chapter 8 Burning Portfolio"