How Alchemists Invented Modern Finance

[Dave Monroe]

On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 9:02 AM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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

http://www.niallferguson.com/site/FERG/Templates/General.aspx?pageid=194&cc=GB

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/tag/niall-ferguson/