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Money for Nothing
- The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
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Publisher's summary
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.
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Critic reviews
“Superb, fascinating, and totally timely, Money for Nothing is a gripping history of the South Sea Bubble by a scholar who makes complicated and subtle matters not just accessible but fun - the story of a world crisis with a flashy cast of grifters, scientists, politicians, and charlatans that Levenson makes utterly relevant to the 2008 financial crisis and 2020 pandemic.... Essential reading." (Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem and The Romanovs)
“Levenson is a brilliant synthesizer with a grand view of history. Here is the birth of modern finance amid catastrophe and fraud - a gripping story of scientists and swindlers, all too pertinent to our modern world.” (James Gleick, author of Time Travel: A History)
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The first major history of the Crash in over a decade, Rainbow's End tells the story of the stock market collapse in a colorful, swift-moving narrative that blends a vivid portrait of the 1920s with an intensely gripping account of Wall Street's greatest catastrophe. The book offers a vibrant picture of a world full of plungers, powerful bankers, corporate titans, millionaire brokers, and buoyantly optimistic stock market bulls.
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Plenty of fine detail, especially of the 1920s
- By Philo on 04-18-13
By: Maury Klein
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The Four Pillars of Investing
- Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
- By: William J. Bernstein
- Narrated by: Scott Pollak
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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William Bernstein's commonsense approach to portfolio construction has served investors well during the past turbulent decade - and it's what made The Four Pillars of Investing an instant classic when it was first published nearly a decade ago. This down-to-earth book lays out in easy-to-understand prose the four essential topics that every investor must master: the relationship of risk and reward, the history of the market, the psychology of the investor and the market, and the folly of taking financial advice from investment salespeople.
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out of date
- By ubuntu_bear on 10-03-24
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More Money Than God
- Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite
- By: Sebastian Mallaby
- Narrated by: Alan Nebelthau
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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The Paul Volker Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, Washington Post journalist Sebastian Mallaby has garnered New York Times Editor’s Choice and Notable Book honors for his enthralling nonfiction. Bolstered by Mallaby’s unprecedented access to the industry, More Money Than God tells the inside story of hedge funds, from their origins in the 1960s and 1970s to their role in the financial crisis of 2007–2009.
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Valiant effort but lacking analytic horsepower...
- By ND on 01-10-11
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Bagehot
- The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian
- By: James Grant
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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During the upheavals of 2007-9, the chairman of the Federal Reserve had the name of a Victorian icon on the tip of his tongue: Walter Bagehot. Banker, man of letters, inventor of the Treasury bill, and author of Lombard Street, the still-canonical guide to stopping a run on the banks, Bagehot prescribed the doctrines that - decades later - inspired the radical responses to the world's worst financial crises.
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I wanted to like it
- By FoxMan on 08-30-19
By: James Grant
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Lords of Finance
- The Bankers Who Broke the World
- By: Liaquat Ahamed
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades.
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interesting insight into interwar period!
- By Toru on 11-27-09
By: Liaquat Ahamed
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A History of the United States in Five Crashes
- Stock Market Meltdowns That Defined a Nation
- By: Scott Nations
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In this absorbing, smart, and accessible blend of economic and cultural history in the vein of the works of Michael Lewis and Andrew Ross Sorkin, a financial executive and CNBC contributor examines the five most significant stock market crashes in the United States over the past century, revealing how they have defined the nation today.
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A solid telling of crucial history
- By Philo on 06-17-17
By: Scott Nations
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Borrowed Time
- Two Centuries of Booms, Busts, and Bailouts at Citi
- By: James Freeman, Vern McKinley
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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To save the economy and keep Citi afloat in 2008, the government provided huge infusions of cash through multiple bailouts that frustrated and angered the American public. But, as Wall Street Journal writer James Freeman and financial expert Vern McKinley reveal, the 2008 crisis was just one of many disasters Citi has experienced since its founding more than 200 years ago. In Borrowed Time they reveal Citi’s disturbing history of instability and government support. It’s a story that neither Citi nor Washington wants told.
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Biased
- By CF on 08-09-19
By: James Freeman, and others
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The Forgotten Depression
- 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself
- By: James Grant
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1920-1921, Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding met a deep economic slump by seeming to ignore it, implementing policies that most 21st-century economists would call backward. Confronted with plunging prices, wages, and employment, the government balanced the budget and, through the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates. No "stimulus" was administered, and a powerful, job-filled recovery was under way by late 1921. Yet by 1929, the economy spiraled downward as the Hoover administration adopted the policies that Wilson and Harding had declined to put in place.
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Best thinking-sharpener I know of
- By Philo on 03-11-20
By: James Grant
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Tap Dancing to Work
- Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966–2012: A Fortune Magazine Book
- By: Carol J. Loomis
- Narrated by: Susan Boyce, Barry Press
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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When Carol Loomis first mentioned a little-known Omaha hedge-fund manager in a 1966 Fortune article, she didn’t dream that Warren Buffett would one day be considered the world’s greatest investor - nor that she and Buffett would become close personal friends. Now Loomis has collected and updated the best Buffett articles Fortune published between 1966 and 2012, including thirteen cover stories and a dozen pieces authored by Buffett himself. Loomis has provided commentary about each major article that supplies context and her own informed point of view.
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A collection of finance articles - not a biography
- By Gerardo A Dada on 08-23-13
By: Carol J. Loomis
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When Genius Failed
- The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
- By: Roger Lowenstein
- Narrated by: Roger Lowenstein
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Abridged
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Roger Lowenstein, the bestselling author of Buffett, captures Long-Term's roller-coaster ride in gripping detail. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein crafts a story that reads like a first-rate thriller from beginning to end. He explains not just how the fund made and lost its money, but what it was about the personalities of Long-Term's partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the late-nineties culture of Wall Street that made it all possible.
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When Genius Failed
- By Sean on 12-17-08
By: Roger Lowenstein
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The Little Book of Big Profits from Small Stocks + Website
- Why You'll Never Buy a Stock Over $10 Again (Little Books. Big Profits)
- By: Hilary Kramer
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 3 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The key to building wealth the low-priced stock wayLow-priced gems, or what author Hilary Kramer calls "breakout stocks" come in all kinds of shapes and sizes but they all have three things in common: (1) they are mostly under $10; (2) they are undervalued; and (3) they have specific catalysts in the near future that put them on the threshold of breaking out to much higher prices. In The Little Book of Big Profits from Small Stocks, small stock expert Hilary Kramer looks for stocks with fifty to two hundred percent upside potential!
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Insightful, specific and resourceful!!!
- By Nico on 05-23-12
By: Hilary Kramer
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The Company
- A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea [Modern Library Chronicles]
- By: John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Company, the largely unknown history of the joint-stock company is presented by the editors of Economist. One of history's greatest catalysts, the joint-stock company has dramatically changed the way human beings live, work, and conduct business. With companies now affecting the world on a global scale, it is more pressing than ever before to understand this driving force.
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unique history with a unique perspective
- By D. Littman on 10-31-05
By: John Micklethwait, and others
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What listeners say about Money for Nothing
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Philo
- 11-22-20
Interesting finance-science-history crossover
I think this book succeeds in what the author set out to do. Isaac Newton is a fine pick as a principal character, and he was sio brilliant and his life so eventful it would, I would think, make storytelling relatvely easy. This is good popular history, rich in well-chosen anecdotes moving the story along. I will always buy popular financial history straightaway, if it has any seemingly distinctive angle at all. I still await a deeply technical audiobook about the Bank of England (not to mention the contemporaries in Amsterdam and Paris), but I realize the market is probably microscopic.
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1 person found this helpful
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- John Marino
- 04-01-21
Struggled to finish.
Liked the objective of the book but felt the middle chapters were much to long with to many market details. More ties throught the book to the 2010 collapse would have interested me more.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Martin
- 10-23-21
Should be Required reading in business schools
Very well told. Important to know. UnderstAnding the history of certain key financial ideas in the financial markets and how they came ab.out is as important as being able buy a stock or make an investment. Very well done
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michael Barnett
- 09-06-20
Financial innovation's first song of the siren.
Anyone interested in economics, finance or economic history will love this book. A well-researched documentation of the first time financial innovation brought a western nation to its knees. I suppose the lessons of history are clear and the errors are doomed to be repeated by those not educating themselves about them.
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4 people found this helpful
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- D.C. Bull
- 04-14-21
The worlds first financial crash in entertaining detail
This is a finely detailed account of the South Sea bubble of 1720, rich in background information, vivid character sketches and lively period atmosphere. It’s well researched and very well read, so if you’re looking to understand why markets crash it’s a great place to start.
Given the amount of historical detail it will also please anyone interested in 18th century history, and is very accessible to anyone just looking for a good read!
Highly recommend!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Mike from MT
- 03-22-21
Great book for looking at repeating history
I honestly thought this was something else, and what a great mistake it was. Bittner brings you into an age that was much less sophisticated and explains things in a detail that kept my interest and wanting more.
If you have any interest in finance, or even wonder how irrational bubbles happen, this is a must-listen.
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- Omar Abu Omar
- 05-12-24
Long and technical
A long book that must be quite a read for people who are far more well-versed with finance and economics than I am 😂
I struggled to understand most of the book as it got quite technical and ‘financy’, but yhe gist of it (I think) is that bubbles happen an greed is a major cause.
Rating: 3/10 (someone more finance savvy than I am will probably give it 8 or 9 though)
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2 people found this helpful