Money makes the world go round? - Rated 
Niall Ferguson is firmly in the camp of 'Money makes the world go round' rather then 'Money is the root of all evil'.
He dismisses the whole of human prehistory in a couple of pages, citing the example of a small band of Amazonian Indians who emerged from the jungle a few years ago and decided that they would rather live in a cash society where they were beggars, than a cashless society where they were free to hunt and gather.
But what about tribes like the Pirahas who live in a cashless, hunter-gatherer society and have resisted all attempts at conversion and modernisation for the last 300 years and are described by anthropologists as 'the happiest people on Earth'? Mr. Ferguson should stick to subjects like economics at which he excels, rather than anthropology of which he clearly knows very little.
The remainder of human history, right up to the end of the middle ages, is given similar short shrift and Mr. Ferguson's story really only begins with the Italian renaissance merchants. Rather than 'The Ascent of Money' a more appropriate title for this book would be 'A Modern Economic History' but this would not have been nearly so catchy a title nor sold nearly so many books!
Having said that, Mr. Ferguson's 'Modern Economic History' is extremely well written and informative and greatly helps our understanding of how we got from renaissance merchants to modern investment banks and hedge funds, but I was disappointed that the development of money itself was not explored in more detail.
The Ascent of Money - Rated 
As an investement banker myself, I found this book superb and thought provoking. Realising that history does indeed repeat itself and today's economic crisis resembles disasters in centuaries past. I ended up buying a second one as a gift, even before finished reading it. Niall Furguson has illustrated a sound understanding of a broad range of financial topics and relayed this back to the average reader in perfect layman's language. This man has a future in writing text books or the 'how to' guides. Highly Recommended
Ascent of money - Rated
Insightful any intelligent view of a subject I rather took for granted. Development and evolution of market mechanisms made this a book well worth reading. Good history and also some academic introduction to the theory of credit and related market mechanisms. Written in a lively and fascinating way, excellent read
Good, but rushed - Rated
The book gives a good overview of the main themes in the progress of modern finance, from the establishement od banks, to bonds, to stock, to insurance and modern risk management. But many of the terms Ferguson uses are not explained (which is really the reason I read the book in the first place). I also got the impression this was quickly written and edited - the book starts of with no footnotes but by the end there is an * on most pages - and many of them uninteresting (which is annoying if, like me, you cant pass a footnote without reading it!) , there are also little things like brackets which begin but dont end that make me think it was rushed out. I have since watched the tv version of the book and found it much more enjoyable; all the main issued discussed in the book are covered, and all of the terms explained. Whilst I enjoyed the book, If I had the choice over again, id buy the DVD
Interesting for the interested - Rated
I enjoyed reading the book, it's very well researched and well written. I was attracted in by "Empire" and had an existing interest in the topic.
There's little I could pull out as a nugget to highlight why you should buy the book. Although written in a style that will not tax the brain, it is a bit of a specialist text and be most attractive to anyone already interested in economics or economic history.
On the other hand, if you fancied reading about something that hadn't previously caught your imagination, you might enjoy the ride.
A harsher view might be that the intended audience isn't clear, if you are studying the subject, it's unlikely that the book contains any aha moments, if you are not interested you are unlikely to be reading this review.
|
