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The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World |  | Author: Niall Ferguson
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
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Rating:  160 reviews
Sales Rank: 841
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1ST
Pages: 448
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 9861735844
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.09
EAN: 9780143116172
ASIN: 0143116177
Publication Date: October 27, 2009
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Product Description
A richly original look at the origins of money and how it makes the world go 'round
Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of our financial system, from its genesis in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. What's more, Ferguson reveals financial history as the essential backstory behind all history, arguing that the evolution of credit and debt was as important as any technological innovation in the rise of civilization. As Ferguson traces the crisis from ancient Egypt's Memphis to today's Chongqing, he offers bold and compelling new insights into the rise- and fall-of not just money but Western power as well.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 160
Good background July 30, 2010
In spritus
This book offers an opportunity to understanding what is really going on in today's global financial crisis.
An elegant summary of the most important aspect of money and monetary instruments.
After reading this book you will find yourself greatly enriched in the areas of contemporary economic understanding.
The book is blissfully free of formulas or self righteous agenda.
You will find yourself listening to the new on TV or reading the financial papers and increasingly shaking your head - it is amazing what a little understanding will do to make most news and opinions redundant.
A "must have" for those who want to survive the coming financial crisis part 2.
 Anticipation and dissapointment July 6, 2010
Matt Allen
Never have I so looked forward to a book, only to be thoroughly disappointed. I was looking forward to a life's work on the true history of money, and by extension, the development of trade, civilizations, nation states, etc. Yes, I was expecting a lot. What you get is a scattered bunch of individual anecdotes mixed with several "I told you so's" from which I learned little. In the end, I felt the true purpose of the book was only to pad the author's bank account. He would have been more honest if he had written a trashy romance novel. Hopefully, someone will see the value of what the title of the book suggests and take up the challenge of writing a true history on the subject.
For a History, not that great. June 28, 2010
Juan-Pablo Caceres
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I expected this book to give a good insight (as opposed to a comprehensive history due to its length) on how the monetary and financial systems developed throughout history. It is instead a series of historical anecdotes thematically combined on each chapter. Some of them are really informative (the ascent of the Rothschilds), others are downright superficial and inaccurate. The political and economic doctrines of the author are obvious in the reading of the book, as pointed out by other reviews. There are some instances that, however, exhibit lazy research and/or bias. The description of the economic policies during Pinochet's dictatorship and Friedman's Chicago Boys are one example. Any historian knows by now that the "miracle" was not such, and the long term economic prosperity in Chile really started by the less rigid doctrines of the Minister of Finance Hernán Büchi in the mid/late 1980' and by the democratic governments post-dictatorship. The rigid doctrinal policies of the Chicago Boys only generated one of the worst Chilean economic crisis in 1982.
This book is and easy read and has some interesting facts and stories, but lacks the depth and insight of a good historical book.
 Muy bueno June 28, 2010
samuel
Aunque el autor no sea economista y por eso esta atrapado en la mentir monetarista es un muy buen repaso por la historia del dinero.
A One Stop Blockbuster History of Our Age June 3, 2010
John Thomas (San Francisco, CA)
I have just finished reading the best financial book ever, and I have read most of them. It is The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Harvard professor Niall Ferguson. It gives you a great explanation of how the broad sweep of history delivered us to the doorstep of today's crisis. Ferguson starts with an ancient accounting system written on clay tablets in Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago, and then takes us through the economic dominance of Greece and Rome. We learn about a medieval Italian diplomat named Fibonacci, who imported advanced mathematical concepts from the Middle East, which we still trade around today. He plots the rice of the great banking dynasties, such as the Medicis and the Rothschilds (Jacob was my neighbor in London). It is also a pot boiling narrative of the great financial scandals, starting with the Mississippi bubble which wrecked France, the South Sea bubble where Sir Isaac Newton lost his shirt, to the Ponzi schemes of the 20th century. The story tells us how the financial center of the world has migrated from Babylon to Cairo, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, London, and eventually ending up in a hedge fund dominated New York. Ferguson is particularly astute in explaining in layman's terms the borrowing binge and the exotic, super leveraged instruments the lead to the current crash. The author finishes with an explanation of how American overconsumption is financed by Chinese saving, and why this can't last. If you are looking for a single tome which ties it all together, this is it.[...]
Showing reviews 1-5 of 160
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