Investing For Middle America: John Elliot Tappan And The Origins Of American Express Financial Advisors. By Kenneth Lipartito and Carol Heher Peters. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Pp. x, 268. $27.95.
本书讲述了明尼阿波利斯律师约翰·塔潘如何创立投资者辛迪加，推出面向中产阶级的小额储蓄产品，最终成长为美国运通财务顾问的故事。
In this enjoyable work, Kenneth Lipartito and Carol Peters share with us the story of John Elliot Tappan, a Minneapolis lawyer who brought financial innovation to the American heartland. In an era before mutual funds, money market accounts, and in many locations safe diversified savings banks, Tappan saw the need for a safe, small denomination, financial instrument for middle-class savers. The result was Investors Syndicate and its “face-value” certificate, a combination of zero-coupon bond and term life insurance that savers of modest means could purchase in small installments. By providing the small investor with a safe means of saving a small amount each month, Investors Syndicate (latter IDS and American Express Financial Advisors) would grow into one of the nations financial behemoths. Along the way, Tappan and his company would overcome financial panic, depression, war, epidemic, and corrupt postal inspectors (the federal regulators of the day).