The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition

Despitw his neo-liberal ideals, he developed a periodization that Marxists could be happy to use. He argues that late twentieth century monetary functions and institutions are an improved evolution from pre-modern modes of exchange institutions. The ways that currency, debt and investments work in the current world economy are, in Ferguson's view, the apex of financial efficiency. His analysis is rooted deeply in a classical economic framework, and often brief and unsatisfactory.

A very readable introduction to the "dismal science" of economics. The book is full of fascinating anecdotes explaining how innovations in the use of money influenced social or political history. It ends with an explicit and extended analogy between the "ascent of money" and evolutionary processes which leaves open the question of whether money is prosthetic enhancement or a cancer....

Found myself amazed at how little I knew of the real workings of money and impresses at how well organized the material was presented. Gracefully ushering you from the first instance of a financial instrument through its evolutions to the current day I was left with a new and broader grasp on the reality of our financial world. Fantastic read.