The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of The World by Niall Ferguson

[Grassy Knoll]

From video details- "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.

http://www.niallferguson.com

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 The Ascent of Money, 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.

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.

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?

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.

Perhaps most important, The Ascent of Money 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.

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."

[bemore]

Four hours bro..........

[DLJ]

(22-09-2012 12:38 PM)bemore Wrote:  Four hours bro..........

Well y'know what they...

Time is money!

[Vosur]

(22-09-2012 12:38 PM)bemore Wrote:  Four hours bro..........

This. Is it worth spending so much time on it?

[bemore]

I imagine it is worth watching otherwise Grassy wouldnt have posted it.

Its gonna have to wait till tuesday when I buy some green otherwise I wont have the patience.... but it shall get watched (by me at least)

[Chas]

(22-09-2012 12:38 PM)bemore Wrote:  Four hours bro..........

It's really, really good. Worth the investment.

[bemore]

(22-09-2012 02:22 PM)Chas Wrote:  

(22-09-2012 12:38 PM)bemore Wrote:  Four hours bro..........

It's really, really good. Worth the investment.

Not sure if being serious or a play on words

[earmuffs]

Crap, why do you post shit I now really wanna see when I've gone over the boradband bandwidth limit and now have to wait till the 28th...

fml.

[Vosur]

(22-09-2012 06:39 PM)earmuffs Wrote:  Crap, why do you post shit I now really wanna see when I've gone over the boradband bandwidth limit and now have to wait till the 28th...

fml.

Bandwidth limit? Can you eat that?

[Chas]

(22-09-2012 06:18 PM)bemore Wrote:  

(22-09-2012 02:22 PM)Chas Wrote:  It's really, really good. Worth the investment.

Not sure if being serious or a play on words

Both.

I'm very deep.