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Title details for Money For Nothing by Thomas Levenson - Available

Money For Nothing

The South Sea Bubble and the Invention of Modern Capitalism

by Thomas Levenson
ebook
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1 of 1 copy available
A Financial Times Economics Book of the Year
A brilliant narrative of early capitalism's most famous scandal, a speculative frenzy that nearly bankrupted the British state during the hot summer of 1720 – and paradoxically led to the birth of modern finance.
The South Sea Company was formed to trade with Asian and Latin American countries. But it had almost no ships and did precious little trade. Instead it got into financial fraud on a massive scale, taking over the government's debt and promising to pay the state out of the money received from the shares it sold.
And how they sold. In the summer of 1720 the share price rocketed and everyone was making money. Until the carousel stopped, and thousands lost their shirts. Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope and others lost heavily.
Thomas Levenson's superb account of the South Sea Bubble is not just the story of a huge scam, but is also the story of the birth of modern financial capitalism: the idea that you can invest in future prosperity and that governments can borrow money to make things happen, like funding the rise of British naval and mercantile power. These dreamers and fraudsters may have bankrupted Britain, but they made the world rich.
Praise for Money For Nothing:
'A scholar who makes complicated and subtle matters not just accessible but fun. Utterly relevant to the 2008 financial crisis and 2020 pandemic' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE
'Thoroughly researched and vibrantly written, Money For Nothing captures those heady, heartbreaking times, which still hold lessons for today' DAVID KAISER
'A gripping story of scientists and swindlers, all too pertinent to our modern world' JAMES GLEICK
'It's easy to look back and think of the South Sea bubblers, like the tulip-mad Dutch of the 1630s, as financially naive – until you remember how many people jumped in on various other more recent crazes (from Beanie Babies to Pets.com and Bitcoin). This is not a new tale, but Levenson tells it with a light touch' SPECTATOR

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 3, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781784973933

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781784973933
      • File size: 32910 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 22, 2020
      Wall Street owes its origins to a previous pandemic, according to this colorful and well-informed history of the ideas behind modern finance. Science journalist Levenson (The Hunt for Vulcan) notes that when Trinity College shut its doors in 1665 due to the ravages of bubonic plague, Isaac Newton self-isolated at his family home in Woolsthorpe, England, where he laid the foundations for his theories of physics and calculus (“the mathematics of change”). Levenson links those innovations and other scientific revolution advances to the South Sea Bubble of 1711–1720, the world’s first and “archetypal” stock market crash, when shares of the South Sea joint stock company rose from 100 to 1,000 British pounds within a year, then plummeted. He also chronicles the development of actuarial mathematics by mathematician and astronomer Edmond Halley (who predicted the return of Halley’s Comet), documents the selling of public debt to raise money for the Nine Years’ War against France, and notes that safeguards enacted in the aftermath of the 2008 stock market crash have already been rolled back. Levenson has a keen eye for obscure yet revealing anecdotes, and sketches historical figures with verve. This erudite and entertaining history offers a fresh take on high finance.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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