Chinese title: 货币崛起 - How Finance Affects World History

English title: The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Author: Niall Ferguson (UK)

Publication Year: 2009-6

ISBN: 9787508615073

Notes:

Money is in fact a matter of trust, even a kind of faith: trust is embodied in the issuance of money, and in individuals using it or institutions honoring and transferring checks. Money is not metal but a registered trust.

Through sustained inflation, a government can covertly confiscate a considerable portion of its citizens’ wealth.

A rise in the inflation rate erodes the purchasing power of invested capital and of the interest owed on it. This explains why bond prices tend to slide at even the faintest hint of inflation in the market.

The author is a historian, and he traces the rise of money, bonds, stocks, and insurance one by one. Because of its enormous capacity and low risk, the bond market has often served as a source of war financing, and it has also pushed financial innovation forward. The drivers of American economic growth are consumption and real estate, and the book also analyzes the evolution of the subprime crisis, which is mentioned as well in another book I have read, The Nature of Finance. The bonds section left a deep impression on me; there will be a more detailed account of it in the reading notes for the book I am currently reading, The Troubled Wall Street.

Extended:
The author of this book has written the bestsellers Paper and Iron, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, and The War of the World. He has also written and produced four highly successful television documentaries: Empire, The American Colossus, The War of the World, and The Ascent of Money.