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The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.09
EAN: 9781594201929
Edition: 1
ISBN: 1594201927
Label: Penguin Press
Manufacturer: Penguin Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: November 13, 2008
Publisher: Penguin Press
Studio: Penguin Press
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance.
Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, its the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, its the chains of labor. But in The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress. Whats more, he reveals financial history as the essential backstory behind all history.
Through Fergusons expert lens familiar historical landmarks appear in a new and sharper financial focus. Suddenly, the civilization of the Renaissance looks very different: a boom in the market for art and architecture made possible when Italian bankers adopted Arabic mathematics. The rise of the Dutch republic is reinterpreted as the triumph of the worlds first modern bond market over insolvent Habsburg absolutism. And the origins of the French Revolution are traced back to a stock market bubble caused by a convicted Scot murderer.
With the clarity and verve for which he is known, Ferguson elucidates key financial institutions and concepts by showing where they came from. What is money? What do banks do? Whats the difference between a stock and a bond? Why buy insurance or real estate? And what exactly does a hedge fund do?
This is history for the present. Ferguson travels to post-Katrina New Orleans to ask why the free market cant provide adequate protection against catastrophe. He delves into the origins of the subprime mortgage crisis.
Perhaps most important, The Ascent of Money documents how a new financial revolution is propelling the worlds biggest countries, India and China, from poverty to wealth in the space of a single generationan economic transformation unprecedented in human history.
Yet the central lesson of the financial history is that sooner or later every bubble burstssooner or later the bearish sellers outnumber the bullish buyers, sooner or later greed flips into fear. And thats why, whether youre scraping by or rolling in it, theres never been a better time to understand the ascent of money.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This is an excellent primer on the history of the financial mechanics that have been handed down to us today. I think it should be used (in conjunction with the video program, and a structured course to get over the bumps noted by others, although I had no issues following along) as the basis of Economics 101 in high schools, or even grade schools.
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I read this book for a book club (ie, I didn't choose it). I expected it to be dry and difficult. Just the opposite, I could hardly put it down. Ferguson's writing is clear and concise. His knowledge of financial history is encyclopedic and dotted with interesting anecdotes. The book is organized well. My only criticism is that, in the later chapters as he gets into derivatives, I had trouble following the financial nuances, but then, so did Wall Street in 2007!
I learned a lot and ... Read More
Rating:  -
I certainly hope that Niall Ferguson, a professor of financial history at Oxford and Harvard, wrote his book "The Ascent of Money" in a flash of fury because it reads and feels like an unedited first draft. The writing is clumsy, silly, and at times offensive and insulting. Consider this sort of lame stupid writing more suited for a pornographic film than for a study of Western financial history: "So how did 'Mr. Bond' become so much more powerful than the Mr Bond created by Ian Fleming? Why, indeed, ... Read More
Rating: -
This was given as a gift to someone who loves history and the financial world! Great read!!!
Rating: -
Mr. Ferguson has undertaken to tackle some pretty weighty subjects and yet made them thoroughly interesting and easy to understand. He is a joy to read as his writing is clear, precise and informative - all at same time. I recommend him to one and all!
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World Books
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