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July 8th, 2009
The Ascent of Money Episode 1: From Bullion to Bubbles
In the first episode of the four-hour series THE ASCENT OF MONEY, economist and historian Niall Ferguson documents the roots of money and finance in the conquest of the Americas, from the Incan empire to the Louisiana territory.
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46 comments
As Jim Rogers once quoted (I think) to a student, “If you want to do well in finance, forget economics or business, concentrate on your history instead.” I completely agree with his suggestion. For a means of anticipating the future, the past is as good a guide as any other. regards, Nigel
This is a very good presentation.
However for money to achieve full trust by all market actors, it must be free from the threat of debasement. In this regard, I disagree with Mr. Ferguson that a medium of exchange can be paper (fiat money). I have come to understand that only hard money such as gold and silver can meet the requirements of commercial trust and ultimately economic freedom itself.
Thank you PBS for making this excellent series available online. True high quality programming.
the problem with gold and silver is that people will not agree what its worth. which defeats it purpose as exchange, when folks can’t even agree how to measure it. lots of ancient times were full of fraud based on how much was really exchanged. and today gold won’t buy much. as most people will not accept as currency
[...] the first episode HERE via [...]
It’s about time people knew the basics of our economy, and this program will give them a good grounding in how money works and sometimes, doesn’t.
[...] PBS will also be posting each episode online for free. The first installment, “From Bullion to Bubbles”, is already available. I watched it this morning. It’s fascinating. Geekiness: For 20+ years [...]
This Ferguson guy is a real scatter-brain. What’s this guy’s point?! Talk about the price of tea in China! He makes absolutely no sense at all, and I suspect is lying at least half the time. Who’s funding this idiot?
an overdue education for this academic,,,,but many places where explanations and connections were too fast. i require lots of footnotes and additional …filling in of the dots
This presentation was a bunch of crap. You need to educate yourself on the facts before making statements such as the ones you made about Deregulation of Banks by Bush. The truth is had you look at the Clinton speeches 6 months before he left office you would have heard him push for deregulation so the poor could buy property. He also pushed for no regulations of Default Swaps and no regulation of Collateralized Debt Obligations(you call them derivatives). Bush tried to get congress and the senate to keep regulations in place but Clinton had already done the deal before he took office.
You just don’t produce a series that tells the truth. Had you understood that the DNC pushes to support welfare and GOP does not. So the principles you used were backwards.
I could go into issues about the English trying to do a history lesson on the US and the major misconception you have about America. Some include the 1940’s housing market. That was a reward given to the military for stopping the Germans from kicking you a…Along with the chicken move your military made when the Iranian’s captured 7 soldier’s in Iranian waters.
I don’t know if you have had any schooling but one would think that would be a requirement before tacking on the story of the money market.
John
I’ve been in the financial services industry for nearly two decades, and spend a number of years working back-end portfolio (collections). If every loan applicant, underwriter, originator and bank executive were required to view this series, there would likely be not so great a need for bill collectors.
PBS should stream everything and charge for it rather than have a stupid “Buy the DVD” commercial at the end of every show. I’d pay $50/year for that.
Mr. Ferguson makes excellent sense. Starting with the Medicis, and before the Industrial Revolution, money begets money, regardless of who’s in power.
George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
PBS is to be congratulated for supporting this, as well as Thirteen/WNET.
As a high school teacher I must say that this is a must see for my seniors. Ferguson weaves world/European history with economic building blocks in a presentation reminescent of the great James Burke series “Connections” of the late 1970s. Thank you PBS for making this available for teachers like me and students like mine.
[...] assent of money on PBS The Ascent of Money Episode 1: From Bullion to Bubbles | The Ascent of Money | PBS I watched this last night on pbs ,it was very [...]
This is different from the original release which can be seen on google videos. That version takes a much closer look at how this all relates to the U.S. and our present economic situation. The PBS version is much less accusatory. That could be due to the fact that the PBS version is underwritten by some very large companies that benefit from from usury fees.
[...] Source [...]
The ascent of Money is a great program. The only problems is that it had a buffering problem and and was continuously stopping. I paused to let it download and then it worked better, but I could not advance the tape to select a section that I wanted to play. Please let me know how to do that. Is there a transcript of the show on the web?
Absolutely horrible. I tuned in for a scholarly treatise on the evolution of money and how various financial instruments came into being, but instead got treated to the self-centered and psychotic vision of Mr. Ferguson. I do not watch CNN anymore because of the narcissistic likes such as Rick Sanchez and Cooper Anderson [sic]. Please, PBS. Do not ever again pay for rubbish such as this.
Is it only a slight exaggeration to argue that the modern financial system was invented by a bunch of crooks, e.g., the Medici and John Law?
I watched about 15min into the program and realized that I wasn’t
going to get anything informative from this show.
A much better presentation is Money As Debt, Paul Grignon’s 47-minute animated presentation. You can watch it here .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFb26u9g8
Leslie, thank you for that link. That is an ‘interest’ing perspective that makes sense and has potential. .. Now I have to watch it again, to sort out and absorb further. A big thank you, Leslie.
I think this is an excellent series. While this isn’t like exactly the series, connections, it has similarities. I like how the program shows how historical points in time can be seen in our current financial system(s).
I find some of the avove comments interesting. I do not believe the point of this series is a scholarly treatise on the evolution of money but a primer on how some aspects of modern economics developed and how this development is intertwined with history. As for the “Money as Debt” presentation, high school seniors are a bit too spohisticated for a poorly animated cartoon covering nuts and bolts. Fergueson presents a financial history that is a good set up for the students watching “Commanding Heights” which covers economic systems of the 20th century. As a teacher you can always point out the biases which are present in all educational material to some degree.
In this episodic and highly personal presentation the busy visuals are so distracting it is hard to concentrate on the points made by the narrator.
I really do not think it is a good practice to speak too much foriegn languange in this program. The pronunciation itself does not offer additional information other than the impression that the host is trying to show himself.
I found the show to be pretty good. Being PBS it is of course too Keynesian and not enough Austrian in the economics. At the point where he says they set up a central bank to protect people for “dodgy” coins caused me to roll my eyes. There should never be any central banks. No one should be able to print money out of thin air. That fuels the booms and the busts. I would recommend Thomas E Woods book, “Meltdown” http://www.thomasewoods.com
I cannot stream the video – it says “The selected item is not currently available”. Perhaps PBS should just use youtube – it would be more reliable. Or better yet use bittorrent.
Umm, i have a question. I like this video, and i want to download it so i can show it to other people, young people that in the future may become entrepreneurs like me, and Become MultiMillionaires
[...] Series: Ascent of Money The Ascent of Money Episode 1: From Bullion to Bubbles | The Ascent of Money | PBS 4 part series, only 3 have been posted up so far, each an hour long. A look at money in history. [...]
I cannot stream the video either, it just tells me, as above, “The selected item is not currently available.” Is this one of those sites that blocks Canadian viewers? And, if it is, why doesn’t it say rather than “not currently available,” “not available in your location,” as other networks do? It’s frustrating, we get all of these major networks in Canada, watch them and their advertising, then they say we can go to the internet and watch them, but are blocked. When will these networks realize Canada is basically the same market as the United States, not some utterly disconnected foreign market. Probably about 90% of the things that are advertised in America and on American networks are the same products and services available to us, but there’s still some sort of issue with adding Canadians to your online viewership statistics?
Never in my life have I seen such a high quality “documentary” on any topic in general and on finance in particular. Incredible job guys, maybe there is hope for television after all.
[...] You can watch the entire 4 part series on the official PBS web site here. [...]
Great program!!! I am hearing impaired and wish the PBS online streaming videos supported closed captions. Useless to me otherwise. I would think captions would be useful for the non-hearing impaired also in many viewing situations.
[...] You can watch the entire 4 part series on the official PBS web site here. [...]
“The selected item is not currently available” is what I’ve been getting too.
I guess any further pledges or donations will not be currently available either ……
[...] The Ascent of Money: From Bullion to Bubbles (a 4-part series) Access them HERE [...]
This Series is well worth repeating. Please provide sufficient notice and lead time so that all our friends can be alerted
Episode 1 covered the birth of the bank, credit, bonds, and the stock market in the ascent of money. A brilliant historical analysis, with great verve, dynamism, and clear thinking. His insight that trust is the key to the development of money is central to the presentation. (The credit card and other even more modern forms like microcredits and beyond are further developments in trust.) I look forward to viewing the other three episodes.
Episode 1 would be really excellent as an historical introduction to money for middle school grades — unfortunately, I am wary of using it because Ferguson uses the word “damn” in his narration. A relatively small thing, but, unfortunately, one I have to avoid as an educator that needs to be conscious of my parents’ sensitivity levels — what a shame!
[...] Actually, this documentary is extremely interesting, and shows how financial businesses and markets were formed. When you get some time, I would highly recommend watching “The Ascent of Money” on the PBS website. [...]
uhmmm this is confusing make smaller words and shorter sentences!!!
I just watched episode 1 and really enjoyed it. It´s almost too much info for such a short period for those of us that don´t know the history and not enough info to satisfy those who know more. So, I understand the criticisms and will, as always, do further research on my own. That said, I believe this program is great. He has to make it entertaining and educational for a wide audience within a strict time frame. I would have to take his classes at Harvard to get it all. I wish we didn´t have to make the comments political and just use the information and supplement it on our own. Thanks to PBS.
[...] That said, Lloyds Banking Group of London is issuing one of the newest products on the market as of this quarter. Financial Times of London reported a headline on November 5 reading, “Stability concerns over CoCo bonds,” and a second article scrolling, “UK experiment raises prospect of new asset class.” Rent losses have been mounting for banks since the U.S. sub-prime housing collapse in 2006, imploding exotic debt contracts arranged by interconnected counterparties dispersed around the world over. Many have written on the subject. For an overview, read about the evolution of the once-popularized bundled mortgage-backed securities market here. Also available is a more general history provided by Niall Ferguson, British financial economic historian, here. [...]
Has anyone noticed — the Production Editor, the Coordinating Editor, the Executives in Charge, among others — that this episode of The Ascent of Money, “From Bullion to Bubbles,” contains voice-over visual cues and edits all the way through? The voice is male and American, not Ferguson’s voice, and they tell us what Ferguson is doing or seeing every minute or two. “In an archives, Ferguson flips through pages of a yellowed ledger.” Sure enough, we see Ferguson flipping through the pages of a yellowed ledger. “Ferguson gazes at city buildings.” There we see Ferguson gazing.
“In an archives, Ferguson studies a book.” There’s Ferguson, there’s the book. “Ferguson strolls along a Parisian street.” Cue Ferguson and the Parisian street. This intrusive American voice telling me what I was seeing on the screen disrupted the flow of Ferguson’s narrative, and, for me at least, ruined the entire episode.
©2009 WNET.org. All rights reserved.
Funding for THE ASCENT OF MONEY is provided by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, T.Rowe Price, The Smith Richardson Foundation, James and Merryl Tisch, and PBS. Additional funding for educational materials is provided by the Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation, Inc.
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06/29/2009 :: 07:31:51 PM
Donald Barnes Says:
Excellent presentation.
It seems that financial history is an important part of history that was missing from my West Civilization course in college.
I recommend reading the book, as well, in order to fix these ideas in your mind.