Bookmark:The Ascent of Money

A Controversial Account
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this book authored by:Niall Ferguson,one of the world's hundred most influential people by Time" magazine.He teaches history at Harvard University.
The Ascent of Money is Ferguson's attempt to mistify the world of finance.And he does so well by showing how finance has evolved from basic recordsof the annual harvest on clay tablets in Mesopotamia to modern day hedge funds that operate everywhere,yet exist nowhere.
Along the way ,he makes important periods to explain how the idea of wealth has evolved over time from the possession of solid pieces of silver under the Spanish empire to the ownership of relatively complex financial instruments such as equity shares,bonds and insurance.
Ferguson's this book too is likely to be controversial .In one chapter .He describes the 17th century Scottish economist John Law as little more than a genius-rogue,responsible for creating one of the earliest stockmarket bubbles,while he served the emperor of France.
There are also moments when Ferguson leaves the lay reader confused :he introduces the concept of hedge funds early in the book but does not fully explain them for another 200 pages.
A writer ,researcher,political activist,or teacher does not always have to be right to be judged important.To be sure ,Chomsky has beeen right about issues just as often as he has been wrong .
However,Chomsky can sometimes be very callous with his facts .While writing about the 9ILLEGAL AND IMMORAL) invasion of East Timor by Indonesia ,he claims the US supplied 90 per cent of arms used .However ,he does not provide any reference for this assertion .For those who wish to think critically about America and the world ,this collection of Chomsky's writrings is truly essential.