false 2714607 10 <B>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</B>.<BR><BR> 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, it’s the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it’s the chains of labor. But in <I>The Ascent of Money</I>, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress. What’s more, he reveals financial history as the essential backstory behind all history.<BR><BR> Through Ferguson’s 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 world’s 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.<BR><BR> 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? What’s the difference between a stock and a bond? Why buy insurance or real estate? And what exactly does a hedge fund do?<BR><BR> This is history for the present. Ferguson travels to post-Katrina New Orleans to ask why the free market can’t provide adequate protection against catastrophe. He delves into the origins of the subprime mortgage crisis.<BR><BR> Perhaps most important, <I>The Ascent of Money</I> documents how a new financial revolution is propelling the world’s biggest countries, India and China, from poverty to wealth in the space of a single generation—an economic transformation unprecedented in human history.<BR><BR> Yet the central lesson of the financial history is that sooner or later every bubble bursts—sooner or later the bearish sellers outnumber the bullish buyers, sooner or later greed flips into fear. And that’s why, whether you’re scraping by or rolling in it, there’s never been a better time to understand the ascent of money. 2740153 book 13 11 2008 The Ascent of Money : A Financial History of the World total:483|5:79|4:196|3:161|2:41|1:6| 483 1750 1289 166 4 3 false false Wed Dec 03 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 06:54:01 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 03 06:08:12 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 3 false false Mon Jan 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 30 17:46:36 -0800 2008 Tue Jun 02 15:13:18 -0700 2009
Another book from the vaguely centrist right, you know them, those economists and Greek translators and philosophers from the University of Chicago who assisted Pinochet in his fascist coup, won Nobel Prizes, misconstrued Plato to fit their world-view (I'm looking at you,...more...]]> 0 2 false false Sat Oct 18 23:49:35 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 18 23:57:28 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Thu Mar 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 15:07:55 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 15:31:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Tue Jan 13 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 20:25:04 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 20:07:44 -0800 2009
In one example he mentions an isolated tribe that comes into contact with modern man and who are thrille...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Dec 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 08:29:22 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 01 16:12:06 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jun 09 11:04:15 -0700 2009 Fri Dec 12 08:50:05 -0800 2008 Tue Jun 09 11:04:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jan 09 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 08:49:06 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 08:52:03 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Feb 05 10:03:47 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 10:03:47 -0800 2009 Niall Ferguson makes a strong, compelling case for the development of money and banking as a catalyst for the advancement of civilization. Yet while some critics praised his clear, comprehensible writing, punctuated with anecdotes and historical details, others were nonplussed by his explanations an...

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Niall Ferguson focuses his history of the world on its finances. He succeeds in explaining the origins, evolu...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 08 19:51:41 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 19:51:41 -0800 2009
The author explains the banking system in chapters, starting with...more...]]> 3 3 false false Thu Sep 17 16:01:30 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 16:19:25 -0700 2009 The Drunkard's Walk How Randomness Rules Our Lives and said something like you generally get a better understanding of a subject if you can see the historical path that has been followed in building the subject in the first place. ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 01 08:35:45 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 08:39:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jul 30 00:51:06 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 00:57:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jul 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 07:37:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 07:37:30 -0700 2009
One of Ferguson’...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 09:09:29 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 09:21:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Apr 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 03:17:28 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 03:17:44 -0700 2009
Niall Ferguson offers a comprehensive collection of anecdotes and observations about the development of finance. He begins with a brief discussion of pre-money societies. Then, he carries you through the birth of banking in Renaissance Italy, the 18t...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 09:00:12 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 09:05:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 13:33:12 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 12:03:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 11:19:38 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 09:51:55 -0700 2009 1
As a historical overview, it touches on the earliest forms of exch...more...]]>