num_pages: 442
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. 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.
language: English
title: The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
publisher: Penguin Press