Leo melamed milton friedman biography
Leo Melamed
Leo Melamed is globally recognized as the founder of financial futures. In , as chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group), he revolutionized markets with the creation of the International Monetary Market (IMM)&#;the first futures exchange for financial instruments and the launch of currency futures. In the years that followed, Melamed led the CME in the introduction of a diverse number of financial instruments including Treasury Bills in , Eurodollars in , and stock index futures in In , Melamed revolutionized futures trading again with the founding of Globex® the world’s first futures electronic trading system.
Mr. Melamed, a Holocaust survivor, found safety in the U.S. during World War II. The story of his escape as a child from Bialystok, Poland, as he and his parents miraculously outwitted the Nazis and the KGB, was an odyssey that took two years, spanned three continents, six languages, the Trans-Siberian railroad, and Japan&#;courtesy of a life-saving transit visa from Japanese Counsel General to Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara&#;happily ending in the United States in
Twenty years after their inception, Nobel Laureate in Economics, Merton Miller, named Financial Futures as “the most significant innovation of the past two decades.” At the close of the last century, Leo Melamed was named by the former editor of the Chicago Tribune “among the ten most important Chicagoans in business of the 20 Century.” Mr. Melamed&#;s prize winning memoirs, &#;Escape to the Futures,&#; (Wiley, ), as well as his continuation memoirs, “For Crying Out Loud,” (Wiley, ), have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Portuguese. He is also the author of “Leo Melamed on the Markets,” (Wiley, ), and “The Tenth Planet,” a science fiction novel (Bonus Books, ). He was editor of an anthology, “The Merits of Flexible Exchange Rates,” (George Mason University Press, ). Many of his essays and lectures can be found "If It's Good Enough for Milton" By Leo Melamed The Milton Friedman Commemoration Although I did not know it at the time, my first introduction to Milton Friedman occurred in when I was but seven years old. We were on the first leg of our escape from the Nazis at the outset of World War II and arrived from Bialystok, the city of my birth, to Vilna—that’s Vilnius, for those who don’t know the Yiddish name of this venerable Lithuanian city. My father, who was first and foremost a mathematics teacher, sat me down to provide my first lesson in economics. The circumstances made the moment historic and memorable. Years later, I had the privilege of relating this story to Milton and Rose. In one hand my father held up a Polish zloty, in the other a Lithuanian lit. “Do you know what these are?” he asked? “Money,” I answered, proud to show off my deep understanding of such matters. “Yes,” he agreed. “And do you know how much each of them is worth?” I shrugged my shoulders, having exhausted my expertise in high finance. My father then carefully explained that the value of those two units of currency could only be determined by what they can buy in the marketplace. What followed was my first exposure to the logic of Milton Friedman. I learned that while the official rate of exchange between the zloty and the lit was one for one, in fact it would take two zlotys to buy a loaf of bread but only one lit. “The government’s official rate doesn’t mean a thing,” my father admonished. It was the start of our two-year odyssey, as my parents with me at their side, miraculously outwitted the Gestapo and KGB in a danger filled escapade that spanned three continents, six languages, Japan, and happily concluded in the United States. The lessons in Milton Friedman&r This is the memoir of Leo Melamed, who fled the Nazis in Lithuania on the Trans-Siberian Railway at the age of eight and rose to become one of the most powerful financial consultants in the United States. As a law student in he answered an ad for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane thinking it was a law firm. Soon though, he became fascinated by commodities trading and by age 37 he was chairman of the Mercantile Exchange. With Reuters, he created Globex, a computer-based trading system to buy and sell futures around the world and currently assists such high profile clients as Hillary Rodham Clinton. As Mr. Melamed writes, "(I've) come a long way." Melamed's autobiography is the quintessential American success story. At the outbreak of World War II, Melamed and his family fled Poland, arriving penniless in Chicago. With his drive, intelligence, and hard work, Melamed soon made his way first as a lawyer and then as a futures trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Almost single-handedly, he transformed this minor "butter and eggs" commodity market into what is now a world-leading futures market in monetary exchange. Along the way, he accumulated many honors, one of which he is justly proud?a presidential appointment to the Council of the United States Holocaust Museum. Melamed describes all this in great detail, with more emphasis on self-esteem than introspection; his writing is rather flat and discursive. Suitable for academic libraries with collections on finance and money.?Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., CUNY Some of the history and economic analysis can be confusingly doctrinaire, and his hero worship of right-wing academic economists can be cloying. -- New York Times, Martin Mayer A powerful figure in the futures industry and one of its founders Melamed is undeniably one of the most colorful and intriguing personalities of our time. This long-awaited autobiography weave .
University of Chicago
Rockefeller Chapel
January 29,
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