Paul Emil Erdman was a Canadian-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

economist and banker who became known for writing novels based on monetary trends and

international finance International finance (also referred to as international monetary economics or international macroeconomics) is the branch of financial economics broadly concerned with monetary and macroeconomic interrelations between two or more countries. Inter ...

Early life

Erdman was born in

Stratford, Ontario Stratford is a city on the Avon River within Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a 2016 population of 31,465 in a land area of . Stratford is the seat of Perth County, which was settled by English, Irish, Scottish and German im ...

, Canada, on 19 May 1932 to American parents. He graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

School of Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It is considered to be one of the world's leading international affairs schools, granting degrees at bot ...

. He received his PhD from the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. In 1958 he worked as a financial analyst for the

European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to regulate the coal and steel industries. It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, signed by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembo ...

. Between 1959 and 1961, he worked as an economist at the

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

Banking career

Erdman returned to Switzerland where, in 1965, he founded and was the president of the Salik Bank. In 1969,

First Interstate Bancorp First Interstate Bancorp was a bank holding company based in the United States that was taken over in 1996 by Wells Fargo. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it was the nation's eighth largest banking company. The name (along with the company logo) h ...

bought a majority stake and renamed it the United California Bank in Basel. The bank collapsed after taking large losses speculating in the cocoa market. Erdman and other board members were accused of fraud and mismanagement. Erdman spent 10 months in solitary confinement without being charged before being released on a $133,000

bail bond Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries ...

in 1971. Erdman skipped out on the bail and flew to England, later returning to the United States. Several officers of the bank were convicted and served prison terms. Erdman was convicted and given a sentence of nine years ''

in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in absen ...

''.

Writing fiction (and non-fiction)

During his time in prison, Erdman occupied his time by writing fiction including the first 60 pages of his novel, '' The Billion Dollar Sure Thing''.Obituary: Paul Erdman - Economist and banker turned inventor of the 'fi-fi' thriller ''The Guardian'' June 8, 2007
/ref> It received a 1974

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

from the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

for Best First Novel and was published in the UK as ''The Billion Dollar Killing''. His second novel, ''The Silver Bears'' (1974) was turned into a 1978 movie of nearly the same name, starring

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...

. His best-selling novels are credited with the invention of the "financial thriller" genre. Additionally, the information in ''The Swiss Account'' is credited with providing a basis for helping track down the assets of Jewish victims of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

.Obituary: Paul Erdman - Banker, economist and writer who found fame by inventing a literary genre the financial thriller ''The Times'' April 30, 2007
/ref> Erdman also regularly wrote financial columns for

MarketWatch MarketWatch is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. Along with ''The Wall Street Journal'' and ''Barron's'', it is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp. Histor ...

. He was a leading expert in the international economics field and published non-fictional works, such as ''Tug of War'', which set out his views on

exchange rate In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...

s and the international financial system.

Personal life

Erdman was married to Helly Boeglin and they had two daughters. After the collapse of the Swiss bank, they moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and later

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

. Erdman died from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

at his ranch in

Healdsburg, California Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 11,254. Owing to its three most important wine-producing regions (the Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valley ...

on April 23, 2007.

Selected works

*''The Billion Dollar Sure Thing'' (1973) *''The Silver Bears'' (1974) *''The Crash Of '79'' (1976) *''The Last Days Of America'' (1981) *''The Panic Of '89'' (1986) *''The Palace'' (1987) *''What's Next?'' (1988) *''The Swiss Account'' (1992) *''Zero Coupon'' (1993) *''The Set-up'' (1997)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erdman, Paul 1932 births 2007 deaths American business writers American economics writers American mystery writers 20th-century American novelists Edgar Award winners Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni University of Basel alumni American businesspeople convicted of crimes American male novelists People from Stratford, Ontario People from Healdsburg, California 20th-century American male writers Novelists from California 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers