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The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

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Author: Niall Ferguson
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$29.95~~
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Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

13 reviews
Sales Rank: 42

Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.6

ISBN: 1594201927
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.09
EAN: 9781594201929
ASIN: 1594201927

Publication Date: November 13, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Also Available In:

•	Kindle Edition - The Ascent of Money
•	Audio CD - The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
•	Audio CD - The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
•	Audio CD - The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

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Editorial Reviews:

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.

Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

well written December 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

well written book, good for ordinary readers with limited economics. A lot of short stories that's interesting to read.

1 out of 5 stars

This is not the fix for the Attack upon America November 25, 2008
4 out of 63 found this review helpful

Mr. Ferguson has a set pattern in his writings of lots of magician tricks to make the audience believe the show is real by telling them Jeopardy question facts before moving on to not pointing the real finger of Truth at anything.
If you want to read a skewed version of not the entire subject, then read Mr. Ferguson's books. One should note that just not anyone can get published in the literary industry unless you have the blessing of the very people you are exposing. In noting that, this book could be more looked at as "A Robber Barons' Guide to the Galaxy in how we snookered the world" with Niall Ferguson as the guy running the spotlight who keeps flicking that light onto other areas.

The current financial crisis is an attack on the United States proper which was engineered out of the central banks of Europe. If one bothers notice, France was the banking house which set off the same shock waves in housing and derivatives collapse. There are no coincidences in this as it is all staged just as Warren Buffett was bragging about over 30 billion in profits which came out of people loosing money in their 401K's until he was exposed and then the headlines were planted, "Poor Warren his stocks are falling too".
Amazing how over 100 billion in a company, a billion for each of his children in a trust which can not be taxed and being a billionaire makes one poor when you have the president elect's political ear with all the other financial titans who are profiting off of all of this.

Mr. Ferguson's credentials mean nothing as he is no Victor Davis Hanson at Hoover. Mr. Ferguson is the Dinesh D'Souza of fellows in writing a great deal in things he explores from other people's work.
No one is pointing out in this the devaluation, the constriction of the economy, the way money is being flushed out of the Stock Market so the financial houses can sweep it up or leave savings accounts with devalued dollars nor are they pointing out all of this just did not happen.
Iceland was the control to see the effects and is imploding. England will be the next implosion with America the final implosion leaving the central Europeans in financial control while looking to Chinese and Indian slave labor or military fodder backed by Russian oil and arms.

The great minds have noted a Eurasian world war is coming and what is happening in this attack upon the United States happened during Lincoln's era, happened during the 30's and again in the 70's. What is brewing now is a shift from this economic warfare for global superpower to a world war in which Eurasia implodes.
Mr. Ferguson not taking the entire picture into account in how this is a direct attack upon Anglo American finance, assisted by many traitors to their own nations highlights his book is either inept or the only reason his book was manufactured just in time to herd the masses into thinking it is all just a typical event is but propaganda from the very people behind this financial manipulation.

I would not purchase this book. I would instead invest the money into something sound that the financial titans can not get their hands on.

There is an even older lesson that is free in economics:

Stay out of debt. Invest in things which can not blow away and always make certain you have your own home paid for.

Follow that advice in what is coming or read someone like Mr. Celente published online who has been predicting quite accurately the economic problems and you will be farther ahead than knowing what Mr. Ferguson is selling.

May God keep us in the times ahead. Amen

5 out of 5 stars

Knowledge is Power! November 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

"Those who don't learn from History are doomed to repeat it!" - George Santayana

The current financial crisis has got almost everyone re-evaluating their financial situations. I am no different.

Knowledge is power and with all the shenanigans on Wall Street today it is critical for financial survival to become as knowledgeable as possible about money and finances. This is accomplished by reading top notch information that can help you make wise decisions about your financial future.

Fortunately we live in a time when quality "just in time" information is available. Ferguson's book fits into this category. It is a crucial piece of the knowledge needed to understand the history of money and what others have done in the past when they were faced with financial Armageddon.

Although history doesn't repeat itself exactly, it does provide important clues to today's economic meltdown and how the survive...and maybe prosper in the future.

As Ferguson states in the Introduction: "The more integrated the world's financial markets become, the greater the opportunities for financially knowledgeable people wherever they live -and the bigger the risk of downward mobility for the finically illiterate."

He goes on to say: "The rewards for `getting it' have never been so immense. And the penalties for financial ignorance have never been so stiff."

There are many excellent historical examples in the book that provide key elements to the mindset of the best financial experts who have ever lived. How others in history (such as the Rothschild family) made their fortunes...and mistakes, teaches how proper planning and execution can be applied successfully to make money. It also teaches how chance and fate work their way into the equation.

Ferguson's book is a key element in learning about money. He occasionally delves off topic and can lose the reader if not cautious; however this is a small price to pay for the knowledge contained between the pages of this book.

Financial Shock: A 360 Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion, and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis

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5 out of 5 stars

Only the educated are free November 25, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Only the educated are free -- Epictetus

I think if your interested in how the world has worked, does work, and will work, you would benefit from reading this book. Ferguson has taken advantage some of his excellent previous work (e.g., The House of Rothschild, The Cash Nexus, Colossus, Empire) and created a well written account of the history of "money" - in all of its forms, from ancient times to May 2008 (hardback version).

I particularly like his dividing up of the subject in logical chapters: Chapter one is all about "cash"; Chapter two is "bonds"; Chapter three is "stocks"; Chapter four is "insurance"; Chapter five is "property"; Chapter six is about "currency" and (globalization and deglobalization). The last chapter is more about human and societal nature. The last chapter is insightful and informative, as is all his chapters.

So obviously I recommend the book, but since I doubt I can contact Dr. Ferguson personally, I will take this forum to quibble about some fine points that he does not realize he is unaware of. Namely his good and insightful analogy between biological evolution (Darwinian) and human societies. Yes, they are related. Actually, there is more here than meets the eye. Ferguson acknowledges that societal evolution is similar but not the same as Darwinian eucaryotic evolution. His comparison is pretty good. But there is Lynn Margulis' work at the procaryotic world (e.g., Mergers & Acquistions in societal terms) that one can use to understand a broader view of biological evolution, which has relevance to the standard neo-Darwinian dogma of Dawkins and Gould AND societal evolution at the corporate level (and the web) that Dr. Ferguson outlines so well in his book.

Otherwise it is a great read.

4 out of 5 stars

The Root of Most Evil November 24, 2008
0 out of 10 found this review helpful

This book is informative. This wealth of historical information is in fact the most worthy aspect of the book. I also feel that the book's central theme is accurate and timely: Money, banks and innovative financial instruments produce value by improving the efficiency of financial intermediation.

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