|
|
The Ascent Of Money
|
 |
| List Price |
: |
CDN$ 33.00 |
| Our Price |
: |
CDN$ 20.79 |
| You Save |
: |
CDN$ 12.21 (37%) |
| |
|
|
| 4 Used |
: | from CDN$ 29.58 |
| 14 New |
: | from CDN$ 20.79 |
| |
|
|
| Availability |
: |
Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
|
 |
|
|
| Custom Reviews: | |
|
| History Speaks for Itself | |
|  | As Ferguson points out so clearly in his latest book, "Ascent of Money", money and its propagation have become the chief driving forces of modern history. Like it or not, society's love affair with money has driven it to devise all kinds of ingenious means for expanding its power to produce more. This study looks at a number of fascinating scenarios where the Medicis, the Rothschilds, the Bank of England, the Paris stock exchange, the insurance industry and Wall Street have all done their bit to raise the historical significance of hard cash to a stratospheric level where it is no longer just a tangible piece of paper but is now a universal abstraction called credit. At the heart of the matter is the individual and corporate need to generate economic growth by creating monetary opportunity. Money only circulates effectively in society if people can trust its value as a medium of exchange for goods and services. If production falters, as it is presently, money can quickly devalue. Ferguson goes well beyond looking at the conventional realms of money as a basic specie to analyzing the inflated world of credit instruments such as bonds, debentures, bills of exchange, stocks, swaps, derivatives, mortgages, and credit cards. While money has expanded to include a variety of uses which have encouraged western civilization to modernize in leaps and bounds, it has come with a terrible price: failure to know when to exercise restraint and moderation in the rush to get rich quickly. It is this excessive behaviour in war, peace, and prosperity that compels many to take incredible risks with their own money and that borrowed from traditional sources like banks. Off-setting every optimistic prospect of making money is the ever-present fear that it could be just as easily lost. We have now reached a point in history where the expected and projected big growth of the past decades is slowly being replaced by a long-term forecast of lower and even negative growth due to our inability to keep ahead of the investment curve. The traditional power and lure of money may no longer be able to sustain our personal and collective drive to make and keep wealth. Ferguson is one of those big picture historians who fills his writing with lots of interesting stories to make his point. Very informative read!
| | Money Makes the World Go Round | |
| | The latest book by Harvard professor and popular commentator Niall Ferguson is a historical look at the rise of finance. Ever wonder how the stock market came to be? Exactly how and why did the evolution of credit lead to the rise of civilizations? Could all the world's conflicts be explained by economics? These are the historical questions Ferguson poses and attempts to answer in "The Ascent of Money."
Ferguson's primary purpose for the book is by using economic history to help explain the complexities of modern financial institutions. Why, might you ask is this important? Because the average person knows little to nothing about such simple financial facts such as the interest rate charged by their credit card. Never before, in this globalized, highly coupled world that we live in today, has financial knowledge and a fundamental understanding of financial institutions been more important than it is today. Everyone is affected by world markets, interest rates, and inflation one way or another.
Some reviewers have critiqued the book for its lack of historical breadth, and to some extent I would agree. However, the book is already 350+ pages, and more historical examples would dilute Ferguson's arguments. As ambitious as it is to try to explain such a complicated subject, Ferguson is mostly on the mark. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to know more about the history of finance.
| |
|
|
Home
View Cart
Bookmark This Page
Contact Us
