Everything in Placer County history leads to gold, from its name--the Spanish term for gold-bearing gravel--to the mining camps that sprouted overnight in its rugged river canyons. Ecstatic cries of "Gold on the American River!" in 1848 launched the largest voluntary migration in the history of the world. As claims "panned out," thousands of miners swarmed like locusts between the rough-and-tumble mining camps, from the crest of the Sierra Nevada to the Sacramento Valley. Some camps disappeared along with the easy placer gold; others found new methods to extract gold deposited deep in quartz veins or underground and developed into stable towns that still stand. Sometimes washing whole hillsides into rivers, hydraulic mining was outlawed in the 1880s, but the colorful characters and tall tales of the Gold Rush live on.

Rocklin is a town built on and named for granite rock. Forty-niners headed for Placer County gold fields noticed gleaming boulders scattered among the oak and pine, but a decade passed before the first Rocklin quarry supplied granite blocks to build the state capitol in Sacramento. By 1910 there were 22 quarries chiseling stone to build, among many, the United States Mint and city hall in San Francisco, Oakland's civic auditorium, the San Joaquin, Solano, and Placer County courthouses, and Rocklin's own city hall after it incorporated in 1893. The quarries and the Central Pacific Railroad, which built a roundhouse in Rocklin in 1866, attracted a large number of Finns, who at one time made up a majority of Rocklin residents. But no matter what their point of origin, Rockliners loved sports, forming baseball teams and frequenting a racetrack where quarry owners ran horses with names like Golden State, Moko Boy, and Shamrock.

An estimated 45 million adults in the U.S. lack a credit score at time when credit invisibility can reduce one’s ability to rent a home, find employment, or secure a mortgage or loan. As a result, individuals without credit—who are disproportionately African American and Latino—often lead separate and unequal financial lives. Yet, as sociologists and public policy experts Frederick Wherry, Kristin Seefeldt, and Anthony Alvarez argue, many people who are not recognized within the financial system engage in behaviors that indicate their credit worthiness. How might institutions acknowledge these practices and help these people emerge from the financial shadows? In Credit Where It’s Due, the authors evaluate an innovative model of credit-building and advocate for a new understanding of financial citizenship, or participation in a financial system that fosters social belonging, dignity, and respect. Wherry, Seefeldt, and Alvarez tell the story of the Mission Asset Fund, a San Francisco-based organization that assists mostly low- and moderate-income people of color with building credit. The Mission Asset Fund facilitates zero-interest lending circles, which have been practiced by generations of immigrants, but have gone largely unrecognized by mainstream financial institutions. Participants decide how the circles are run and how they will use their loans, and the organization reports their clients’ lending activity to credit bureaus. As the authors show, this system not only helps clients build credit, but also allows them to manage debt with dignity, have some say in the creation of financial products, and reaffirm their sense of social membership. The authors delve into the history of racial wealth inequality in the U.S. to show that for many black and Latino households, credit invisibility is not simply a matter of individual choices or inadequate financial education. Rather, financial marginalization is the result of historical policies that enabled predatory lending, discriminatory banking and housing practices, and the rollback of regulatory protections for first-time homeowners. To rectify these inequalities, the authors propose common sense regulations to protect consumers from abuse alongside new initiatives that provide seed capital for every child, create affordable short-term loans, and ensure that financial institutions treat low- and moderate-income clients with equal respect. By situating the successes of the Mission Asset Fund in the larger history of credit and debt, Credit Where It’s Due shows how to prioritize financial citizenship for all.

Praise for Financial Statement Analysis A Practitioner's Guide Third Edition "This is an illuminating and insightful tour of financial statements, how they can be used to inform, how they can be used to mislead, and how they can be used to analyze the financial health of a company." -Professor Jay O. Light Harvard Business School "Financial Statement Analysis should be required reading for anyone who puts a dime to work in the securities markets or recommends that others do the same." -Jack L. Rivkin Executive Vice President (retired) Citigroup Investments "Fridson and Alvarez provide a valuable practical guide for understanding, interpreting, and critically assessing financial reports put out by firms. Their discussion of profits-'quality of earnings'-is particularly insightful given the recent spate of reporting problems encountered by firms. I highly recommend their book to anyone interested in getting behind the numbers as a means of predicting future profits and stock prices." -Paul Brown Chair-Department of Accounting Leonard N. Stern School of Business, NYU "Let this book assist in financial awareness and transparency and higher standards of reporting, and accountability to all stakeholders." -Patricia A. Small Treasurer Emeritus, University of California Partner, KCM Investment Advisors "This book is a polished gem covering the analysis of financial statements. It is thorough, skeptical and extremely practical in its review." -Daniel J. Fuss Vice Chairman Loomis, Sayles & Company, LP

Reproducción del original

Memorias de un vigilante

En "Cuentos de Fray Mocho", José S. Alvarez ofrece una recopilación de relatos que reflejan la vida y costumbres de la sociedad argentina del siglo XIX. Con un estilo narrativo ágil y coloquial, el autor logra plasmar las características de la literatura gauchesca, en la que se entrelazan la realidad social y las tradiciones locales. Este libro no solo presenta una serie de cuentos que entretienen, sino que también invita a la reflexión sobre la identidad cultural y el entorno social de la época, utilizando un lenguaje rico en matices y profundo en sus descripciones. José S. Alvarez, conocido por su seudónimo Fray Mocho, fue un influyente escritor y periodista argentino que se destacó por su aguda observación de la vida cotidiana y las costumbres de su país. Nacido en el contexto de un país en transición, sus experiencias personales y su compromiso con la realidad social le llevaron a desarrollar una escritura comprometida, que resuena con la identidad nacional. Fray Mocho fue no solo un cronista de su tiempo, sino también un defensor de las tradiciones argentinas y de la diversidad cultural de las regiones del país. Recomiendo encarecidamente "Cuentos de Fray Mocho" a todos aquellos interesados en la literatura argentina y en las narrativas que exploran la condición humana a través de historias del pasado. Este libro es una ventana a una época y un contexto que, aunque lejanos, siguen resonando en la Argentina contemporánea. Sus temas universales y su estilo cautivador lo convierten en una lectura esencial que enriquecerá no solo a los amantes de la literatura, sino también a los que buscan comprender mejor la cultura argentina.

Fray Mocho (Gualeguaychú, 26 de agosto de 1858 - Buenos Aires, 23 de agosto de 1903) es el seudónimo de José Seferino Álvarez, escritor y periodista argentino famoso por sus retratos costumbristas y de época, frecuentemente escritos en clave humorística. Nació en Gualeguaychú, provincia de Entre Ríos Argentina el 26 de agosto de 1858, hijo de padres criollos. Estudió en el prestigioso Colegio Nacional de Concepción del Uruguay, pueblo donde se inició como periodista.4 Hizo un primer viaje a la ciudad de Buenos Aires en 1876 y luego se afincó en tal ciudad hacia 1879 cuando tenía 21 años. Era conocido por sus amigos como "Mocho," y más tarde se agregó al seudónimo el título de "Fray" (un fraile, en la Iglesia católica). Escribió en numerosos periódicos: El Nacional, La Pampa, La Patria Argentina, La Razón; en revistas: Fray Gerundio (de corta vida), El Ateneo, La Colmena Artística, Caras y Caretas. Escribió ensayos acerca de la vida en Buenos Aires de la última parte del siglo XIX: Esmeraldas, Cuentos mundanos, La vida de los ladrones célebres de Buenos Aires y sus maneras de robar, Memorias de un vigilante. En 1898, publica el libro En el mar Austral, muy interesante novela documental en la cual relata, merced a numerosos datos obtenidos por marineros y exploradores argentinos, la vida y los paisajes de la región fueguina a fines del siglo XIX. (wikipedia.org)

No abrigo la esperanza de que mis recuerdos lleguen a constituir un libro interesante; los he escrito en mis ratos de ocio y no tengo pretensiones de filósofo, ni de literato. No obstante, creo que nadie que me lea perderá su tiempo, pues, por lo menos, se distraerá con casos y cosas que quizás habrá mirado sin ver y que yo en el curso de mi vida me vi obligado a observar en razón de mi temperamento o de mis necesidades.