How Alchemists Invented Modern Finance

[alice wellintown]

How scholars use hyperbole, reductionisms, and revisionisms to get us
to read their books. The book may be excellent for all I know, but the
stupid claim, that alchemy invented modern fincance, makes me laugh.

Modern Finance, as any first year business major at any of our better
B-schools knows, is indebted to the extraordianry popular delusions
and madness of crowds, and, Charles Mackay spends nearly 200 pages in
his extraordinay book, once required reading in finance degree
programs, explaining how alchemy influenced the development of modern
finance. "Invented" is simply too strong.


On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-08/how-alchemists-invented-modern-finance-echoes.html