The History of Money
by Jack Weatherford | 
The Cash Nexus
by Niall Ferguson | 
Lords of Finance
by Liaquat Ahamed | 
Money
by Felix Martin | 
The Birth of Plenty
by William J. Bernstein |
This Time Is Different
by Carmen M. Reinhart |
The Panic of 1907
by Robert F. Bruner | 
Crashed
by Adam Tooze | 
The Battle of Bretton Woods
by Benn Steil | 
Manias, Panics, and Crashes
by Charles P. Kindleberger | 
Empire of Wealth
by John Steele Gordon |
Devil Take the Hindmost
by Edward Chancellor | 
The Alchemists
by Neil Irwin |
Currency Wars
by James Rickards |
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
by David S. Landes | 
The Creature from Jekyll Island
by G. Edward Griffin | 
The Price of Inequality
by Joseph E. Stiglitz | 
The Mystery of Capital
by Hernando De Soto | 
Reckless Endangerment
by Gretchen Morgenson | 
Griftopia
by Matt Taibbi |
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, it's the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it's the chains of labor. But in The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress. What's 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? What's 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 can't provide adequate protection against catastrophe. He delves into the origins of the subprime mortgage crisis.