Reddit Reddit reviews The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition

We found 28 Reddit comments about The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Business & Money
Books
Economics
Economic Conditions
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition
Penguin Books
Check price on Amazon

28 Reddit comments about The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition:

u/Meatsim1 · 463 pointsr/todayilearned

Fun Fact: The stereotypical Jewish association with money and wealth goes back to Medieval Europe, especially Italy because under old church law Christians were not allowed to charge interest to each other on loans.

This meant that for shipping expeditions, which would have to raise large amounts of capital to fund and outfit a trade expedition, could really only borrow from Jewish lenders. The Jewish lenders could charge interest and therefore be in a better position to accept risk that these voyages may not return with a profit (or even at all). This was true for other large ventures that required the raising of large sums of money but would not see a profit for some time as well.

Combine with this a general and long historical antisemitism in Europe, which drove Jews out of other professions, and you've got a recipe for creating a class of fairly wealthy Jewish money lenders which exist in a fairly segregated community.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/lessons/you-can-take-that-to-the-bank/lesson-activities/?p=46

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ascent-Money-Financial-History/dp/0143116177

u/stupid_asshole · 11 pointsr/Economics

>I think connecting usury to Judaism is incorrect, and offensive.

It's still the historical foundation of modern banking systems. One which gave Europe a decisive economic advantage leading to the Western dominated world we live in.

All Abrahamic faiths (Jews, Christians and Muslims) have prohibitions against usury. In Judaism's case, it only banned charging fellow Jews interest. A fact exploited by various Gentile city states looking to finance their mercenary driven proxy wars. This loophole provided an incentive to lessen Christian oppression while integrating/exploiting Jews into the Catholic dominated society.

Check out Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money if you're interested in going further forward or back.

Unrelated to this thread but to the OP, don't forget that the Bible craps on currency exchange too.

u/markth_wi · 10 pointsr/booksuggestions

I can think of a few

u/malcolm_money · 3 pointsr/stocks

Niall Ferguson’s [The Ascent of Money](The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143116177/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_sDJ8AbYN50VVN)

u/[deleted] · 3 pointsr/argentina

The ascent of Money, de Niall Ferguson. Sino podés ver la serie del mismo nombre en YouTube, pero no es lo mismo.

Cuenta la historia económica del mundo y como fueron apareciendo los distintos instrumentos financieros hasta la crisis del 2008.

u/zeptochain · 2 pointsr/ethereum

If not already read, this book is a decent situationer:

https://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Money-Financial-History-World/dp/0143116177

u/Nuli · 2 pointsr/books

Not specifically about modern economics but I found The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World very enjoyable.

u/devinejoh · 2 pointsr/politics

That book? nothing but scaremongering. returning to the gold standard? what a crock of shit. Tell me, what is the difference between gold and fiat currency? can you eat gold? can you live in it? can you burn it? Anything useful? no, you can't. Fiat currency works fine as long as their is a perceived value, much like the gold standard, but with the ability to print more to match growth, and to control inflation.

boom and busts existed long before the creation of the federal reserve, hell, the idea of a federal reserve system isn't purely american, the The Bank of England pre-dates the american one by several hundred years, so idea isn't new and it has been tested out before hand, with great success. Probably something about the Rothschilds in their, wouldn't be surprised if it their was a mention of them. Do you have any idea what the Fed does by any chance? You know what they do?

  1. they release US t-bills, sovereign debt, in an attempt to balance the BOP (balance of payments)

  2. they set inflationary goals that they try to meet.

  3. they provide economic data.

  4. they provide short term lending to banks, as a way of injecting cash in to the economy ( i stress the term loan, they arn't giving away the cash)

  5. they attempt to catch bubbles and collapsing banks before they get out of hand.


    please, read these, they are wonderful reads and provide the bases to understanding economics and public financing.

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Wealth-Nations-Adam-Smith/dp/161382081X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335219858&sr=1-1

    http://www.amazon.com/General-Theory-Employment-Interest-Money/dp/1467934925/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335219936&sr=1-1

    http://www.amazon.com/The-Ascent-Money-Financial-History/dp/0143116177/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335220011&sr=1-1
u/officemonkey · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

The Ascent of Money is one of those interesting history/non-fiction books.

I think it might be overkill, but if you're going to the library for it, you might as well pick it up.

u/JustinDeMaris · 2 pointsr/AdviceAnimals

The Dutch East India company (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company#Formation_.281602.29) was chartered for 21 years. It ended up extending past that by a lot, but that was the idea. The business arrangement had an end time at which point stakeholders could get their investment back.

There's an amazing book about this kind of history and evolution of money called The Ascent of Money if you want to learn more https://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Money-Financial-History-World/dp/0143116177

u/FreeThinkingMan · 2 pointsr/askhillarysupporters

> You mentioned our GDP. 2/3 of our GDP comes from consumer spending.

Consumer spending and the output of the economy is impacted by how much people have to pay for gas, heat, oil, etc ENORMOUSLY(think about how much the average citizen spends on gas throughout a year and then think about them spending that on other things). Like I said you are uneducated in subject matters that are essential to comment on these matters and you are going to go on as if you aren't. All while arguing a position no analyst in the world would(hyperbole).

https://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Money-Financial-History-World/dp/0143116177/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466453148&sr=8-1&keywords=Ascent+of+money

https://www.amazon.com/Prize-Epic-Quest-Money-Power/dp/1439110123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466453203&sr=8-1&keywords=The+prize

Read these two books and you will have a clearer picture of this macro picture I was referring to and you will understand how absurd your position is. The ascent of money was made into a pbs documentary, albeit a 4 hour one. It doesn't do the book justice though.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/

The Prize was a Pulitzer Prize, non fiction book that will educate you on oil and why the middle east is important.

https://careers.state.gov/work/foreign-service/suggested-reading
Click on the suggested reading list on that page.

To get the whole macro picture I was referring to, read these books. You may want to start with their recommended International Relations textbook. These are books the State Department recommends you read if you are going to negotiate and do diplomacy on behalf of United States government(pretty hardcore stuff).


Best of luck with your studies/investigations and enjoy the rabbit hole, it really is an eye opener into another world that is not really discussed in the media.

u/MarcoVincenzo · 1 pointr/Libertarian

I recently read his book The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World and the man definitely knows what he's talking about.

u/Draehl · 1 pointr/Metal

I like non-fiction that doesn't get too technical. I figure I'm reading to be generally informed on a topic and for entertainment- not studying for a course. So when an author manages to get to the meat of the matter while telling an interesting story I'm rather happy as I was with this one:

The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson

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.

u/WorldLeader · 1 pointr/Bitcoin

Not sarcastic! If you are interested in international finance, this book is super readable and goes through a lot of the history behind why we have currency, insurance, bonds, options, and all sorts of fun financial instruments. The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143116177/

Really like where your head is at - always pays to be skeptical as an entrepreneur. I'm bearish on bitcoin but I like to hang out here to see if there are any interesting projects or opportunities in the crypto space.

u/Awarenesss · 1 pointr/investing

Hello all,

I am a college student interested in learning more about the financial markets and how they operate through either textbooks or regular books. I think having a very basic investing knowledge would be helpful, then moving onto the markets in and of themselves.

I specifically want to gain a greater understanding of how they interact with one another (U.S. markets with Chinese markets), how they became to be so developed and deep, and how everyday occurrences come to affect the market.

I have the following on my list to read:

  • The Intelligent Investor.

  • Boglehead's Guide to Investing.

  • The Ascent of Money.

    Does anyone have other suggestions that are of an appropriate level? I am not worried by dullness.

    Thank you!
u/piyochama · 1 pointr/PoliticalDiscussion

Just to fill out the list by throwing in some right / conservative ones:

  1. Black Swan
  2. Freakonomics

    And as an absolute must, you should read this:
  3. Ascent of Money: this one is very, very conservative and gives you a good perspective on how financiers really view history.

    Also, you'd understand these books more if you had a good foundation in economics and finance.
u/darthrevan · 1 pointr/Economics

I first read about him in Niall Ferguson's book The Ascent of Money, which was also a TV series. I think you can watch the episode on John Law online.

u/IrenaeusGSaintonge · 1 pointr/bookexchange

I have two books here that I'm willing to part with, which you may or may not find interesting. Broadly speaking you might call them political, but more specifically they're both on the subject of politics and finance. Public economics, we might call it.

The Ascent of Money- Niall Ferguson

The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It- Scott Patterson

Let me know if these interest you.

u/GlorifiedPlumber · 1 pointr/ChemicalEngineering

I don't know of any that compare, but, the Napoleon's Buttons is SUPPOSED to be good.

http://www.amazon.com/Napoleons-Buttons-Molecules-Changed-History/dp/1585423319/

Other books, engineering related, that I liked are:

Norm Lieberman's Process Troubleshooting books, the guy cracks me up!

Working Guide to Process Equipment (3rd edition probably cheaper): http://www.amazon.com/Working-Guide-Process-Equipment-Fourth/dp/0071828060/

Process Equipment Malfunctions (not as good as the other one, some overlap, but still worthwhile, and covers more breadth for individual issues): http://www.amazon.com/Process-Equipment-Malfunctions-Techniques-Identify/dp/0071770208/

The Prize (mentioned above): http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1439110123/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/188-3799228-4803548

The Quest (Follow on to The Prize): http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Energy-Security-Remaking-Modern/dp/0143121944/

Oil 101: http://www.amazon.com/Oil-101-Morgan-Downey/dp/0982039204/

The Mythical Man Month (Not engineering directly as it pertains to software, but, projects and project management are huge in engineering, though this book is timeless): http://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959/

Piping Systems Manual (You can NEVER know enough about pipe!): http://www.amazon.com/Piping-Systems-Manual-Brian-Silowash/dp/0071592768/

Pumps and Pumping Operations (OMG it is $4, hardcover, go buy now! This book is great... did you know OSU didn't teach their Chem E's about pumps? I was flabbergasted, gave this to our intern and he became not a scrub by learning about pumps!): http://www.amazon.com/Pumping-Operations-Prentice-Pollution-Equipment/dp/0137393199/

Any good engineer needs to understand MONEY too:

The Ascent of Money: http://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Money-Financial-History-World/dp/0143116177/

It's Nial Fergesuon, who has had his own series of dramas and dumb stuff. The Ascent of Money has a SLIGHT libertarian tinge... but it wasn't bad enough that I didn't enjoy it. I consider it a history book, and he attempts to write it like one.

Have fun!

u/rtoyboy · 1 pointr/explainlikeimfive

Aligns almost exactly with Niall Ferguson's history The Ascent of Money base on book of the same title.

Worthwhile read, not quite ELI5 but pretty darn close.

u/RobertGreenIngersoll · 1 pointr/JordanPeterson

>Regarding science, the flourishing of scientific development didn't start with the Enlightenment, but it exploded afterwards. Chinese science and technology was vastly better than Europe for about 400 years, but the Industrial Revolution still happened in Europe.

He isn't contesting that modern science and technology is mainly a European thing, what he is contesting is the idea that it happened as the result of Enlightenment thought.

Europe was already a world power before the first Enlightenment thinkers ever put pen to paper, and it had achieved this status through technological means.

When it comes to science, interest in performing scientific measurements with specialized instruments (such as astrolabes) was widespread in niche circles, and so was interest in Greco-Roman thought, before the Renaissance.

>Modern economics allowed science to be used by the average person, not just the elites. That was only able to flourish after the idea of individual property and innovation spread.

Modern economics (as in: capital markets, global trade) can be traced to the colonial companies (East Indian, etc), and to various Italian city-state ventures who traded on the Mediterranean, which happened before the Enlightenment. Niall Ferguson documents this in The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.

>The fact that a woman can leave an abusive marriage and raise children on her own is pretty damn great, too.

That kind of implies that the "old view" would be ok with abusive marriages, but that really isn't the case. It is true that women are vulnerable to abuse by their husbands, but the kind of tight communities of the past where women also had the support of their extended family (many brothers, etc.) were a buffer.

And while the effort of single mothers is to be praised, as they do truly heroic work, it still remains the case that single-parent households are not the preferred way to raise children.

>there was no system of nobility or inherited titles.

That is true, but as the case of the British shows, that wasn't an impediment to them eventually developing a stable, fair and balanced political system. The British had had already gone through several steps in reducing the assymetry between the various ranks in the hierarchy. Elsewhere in Europe, the Habsburg regime was progressing towards decentralization, with more power accumulating into the hands of the merchants and artisans, simply as a result of their increased economic strength. By contrast, the economic activity of the nobility was land ownership, which didn't scale.

So my point here is that the good effects attributed to the political innovations which came with Enlightenment were also possible in regimes which were more conservative.

I see the Enlightenment as an expression of political trends that were already "in the air". Some of these trends introduced good changes, while some things turned out to not need changing.

u/thepowerofbold · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

The Ascent of Money is a great primer on the evolution of our financial system. It's a fairly easy read and explains concepts like financial bubbles and the rise of insurance. Highly recommend.

u/exatorp · 1 pointr/books

Niall Ferguson - Ascent of Money

Gave me a deep realisation of how much money rather than will moves the world.

u/PutAForkInHim · 1 pointr/personalfinance

If he's up for it, you might want to have him read, The Ascent of Money, by Nial Fergeson. It does a good job of rooting finance and credit in world history, which makes it seem less new-fangled and untrustworthy.

u/LWRellim · 0 pointsr/Economics

>Would anybody who knows more than me be kind enough to summarise why fractional-reserve won't cause the end of the world?

The world itself won't end, because the Earth doesn't care about the shenanigans of "fractional reserve banking" just like it doesn't care about some street huckster tricking people out of money with a "shell-game" or "3-Card Monty". The sun will still rise and set, the waves will still crash and, the tides will still rise and fall, and the seasons will still change and then return again.

---

Now if you meant TEOTWAWKI (The end of the world as we know it) -- then, yes fractional reserve banking will inevitably "implode" and the "world" as experienced by human beings in civilized countries will dramatically change (possibly for the better, probably for the worse).

A couple of REALLY good works to read in this regard are: This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly and The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.

And if you're up for a series of videos of WHY growth cannot continued unabated (and why the anomaly of the past one hundred years have seemed to been "exception") I would highly recommend you spend the time watching Physic's Professor Al Bartlett's FREE presentation on Arithmetic, Population and Energy. His presentation doesn't deal with "banking" per se, but rather what the meaning/consequence of say "5% annual growth" actually means in the real world (which reflects back upon a banking system that is built on the assumption that such growth is sustainable... forever. Hint: it most certainly is not). The presentation is entirely "free" from what anyone would call "tin-foil conspiracy" and deals with fundamentals of exponential growth of systems versus fixed resources. Again I highly recommend spend the time to you watch it.

---

BTW, as to the "evil bankers" -- certainly there are fraudulent individuals and con-men, always have been, always will be -- but the massive con operations are always a collusion of government interests and those in positions of government power with the "capabilities" that such con-men can provide for them. A good resource on understanding how this phenomenon has worked in the past is William K. Black's book on the S&L crisis from the 1980's: The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry.

---

Finally, if you then want a presentation that "combines" all of the above and applies (from one man's view) to the current situation, and the likely consequences he predicts for the coming decades, then Chris Martenson's Crash Course (also free online) may be of interest to you.

---

But remember... the sun will still rise ...and set, trees will still grow ...and die, the world itself will continue. (The question mark is around humanity and what will happen to our civilization. Best to be prepared for the worst.)

u/didacnog · 0 pointsr/AskSocialScience

On the other end of the spectrum from what /u/srilankan_in_london recommended (and I also recommend Freakonomics), a less versatile but more specific book that gives an interesting look at the history of financial economics is Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money. It won't go deep into economic theory like some of the other recommended reads here will, but it is an interesting overview and history of financial markets and monetary economics.