Money for Nothing Money for Nothing

Money for Nothing

The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich

    • 4.5 • 11 Ratings
    • $12.99
    • $12.99

Publisher Description

The sweeping story of the world’s first financial crisis: “an astounding episode from the early days of financial markets that to this day continues to intrigue and perplex historians . . . narrative history at its best, lively and fresh with new insights” (Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lords of Finance)

A Financial Times Economics Book of the Year ● Longlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
 
In the heart of the Scientific Revolution, when new theories promised to explain the affairs of the universe, Britain was broke, facing a mountain of debt accumulated in war after war it could not afford. But that same Scientific Revolution—the kind of thinking that helped Isaac Newton solve the mysteries of the cosmos—would soon lead clever, if not always scrupulous, men to try to figure a way out of Britain’s financial troubles. 
 
Enter the upstart leaders of the South Sea Company. In 1719, they laid out a grand plan to swap citizens’ shares of the nation’s debt for company stock, removing the burden from the state and making South Sea’s directors a fortune in the process. Everybody would win. The king’s ministers took the bait—and everybody did win. Far too much, far too fast. The following crash came suddenly in a rush of scandal, jail, suicide, and ruin. But thanks to Britain’s leader, Robert Walpole, the kingdom found its way through to emerge with the first truly modern, reliable, and stable financial exchange.

Thomas Levenson’s Money for Nothing tells the unbelievable story of the South Sea Bubble with all the exuberance, folly, and the catastrophe of an event whose impact can still be felt today.

GENRE
Business & Personal Finance
RELEASED
2020
August 18
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
480
Pages
PUBLISHER
Random House Publishing Group
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
25.7
MB

More Books Like This

The South Sea Bubble The South Sea Bubble
2017
Extraordinary Popular Delusions Extraordinary Popular Delusions
2012
The Wizards of Wall Street The Wizards of Wall Street
2018
One Nation Under Debt: Hamilton, Jefferson, and the History of What We Owe One Nation Under Debt: Hamilton, Jefferson, and the History of What We Owe
2008
The Money Plot The Money Plot
2020
Sublime Finance Super Pack Sublime Finance Super Pack
2016

More Books by Thomas Levenson

The Hunt for Vulcan The Hunt for Vulcan
2015
Newton and the Counterfeiter Newton and the Counterfeiter
2010
Einstein in Berlin Einstein in Berlin
2017
Newton y el falsificador Newton y el falsificador
2011

Customers Also Bought

The Biology Book The Biology Book
2015
Money Changes Everything Money Changes Everything
2017
America's Bank America's Bank
2015
The Russian Civil War, 1918–1921 The Russian Civil War, 1918–1921
2020
The Debatable Land: The Lost World Between Scotland and England The Debatable Land: The Lost World Between Scotland and England
2018
Alexander Hamilton and the Battle of Yorktown, October 1781 Alexander Hamilton and the Battle of Yorktown, October 1781
2022