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The End of Alchemy
- Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy
- Narrated by: Greg Wagland
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
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Publisher's summary
Something is wrong with our banking system. We all sense that, but Mervyn King knows it firsthand; his 10 years at the helm of the Bank of England, including at the height of the financial crisis, revealed profound truths about the mechanisms of our capitalist society. In The End of Alchemy, he offers us an essential work about the history and future of money and banking, the keys to modern finance.
The Industrial Revolution built the foundation of our modern capitalist age. Yet the flowering of technological innovations during that dynamic period relied on the widespread adoption of two much older ideas: the creation of paper money and the invention of banks that issued credit. We take these systems for granted today, yet at their core both ideas were revolutionary and almost magical. Common paper became as precious as gold, and risky long-term loans were transformed into safe short-term bank deposits. As King argues, this is financial alchemy - the creation of extraordinary financial powers that defy reality and common sense. Faith in these powers has led to huge benefits; the liquidity they create has fueled economic growth for two centuries now. However, they have also produced an unending string of economic disasters, from hyperinflations to banking collapses to the recent global recession and current stagnation.
How do we reconcile the potent strengths of these ideas with their inherent weaknesses? King draws on his unique experience to present fresh interpretations of these economic forces and to point the way forward for the global economy. His bold solutions cut through current overstuffed and needlessly complex legislation to provide a clear path to durable prosperity and the end of overreliance on the alchemy of our financial ancestors.
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- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the past four decades, China's remarkable transformation has garnered admiration but also sparked concern. George Magnus draws on his intimate knowledge of this dynamic nation to uncover the origins of its ascent and show why the economic traps it faces at home and the political challenges it faces abroad pose a serious threat to its continued rise.
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A pessimistic vision with western liberal bias
- By Jeronimo L. Jimenez on 10-23-20
By: George Magnus
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Dead Aid
- Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa
- By: Dambisa Moyo, Niall Ferguson - foreword
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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A national best-seller, Dead Aid unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. In fact, poverty levels continue to escalate and growth rates have steadily declined - and millions continue to suffer. Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Dambisa Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing the development of the world's poorest countries.
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Dangerous / Right Wing US view
- By David O'Donovan on 03-05-19
By: Dambisa Moyo, and others
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Naked Money
- A Revealing Look at What It Is and Why It Matters
- By: Charles Wheelan
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Consider the $20 bill. It has no more value, as a simple slip of paper, than Monopoly money. Yet even children recognize that tearing one into small pieces is an act of inconceivable stupidity. What makes a $20 bill actually worth $20? In the third volume of his best-selling Naked series, Charles Wheelan uses this seemingly simple question to open the door to the surprisingly colorful world of money and banking.
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This is a beautiful audiobook, and well-narrated.
- By Thirsty Mind on 11-10-18
By: Charles Wheelan
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Money Mischief
- Episodes in Monetary History
- By: Milton Friedman
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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What kind of mischief can result from misunderstanding the monetary system? The work of 2 obscure Scottish chemists destroyed the presidential prospects of William Jennings Bryan, as well as Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to appease a few senators from the American West who helped communism triumph in China, are just 2 such mishaps cited in this important work by Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman. This accessible work also provides an in-depth discussion on the creation of value.
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This book is not unabridged.
- By James on 01-18-09
By: Milton Friedman
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Globalization and Its Discontents
- By: Joseph E. Stiglitz
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This powerful, unsettling book gives us a rare glimpse behind the closed doors of global financial institutions by the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics. When it was first published, this national best-seller quickly became a touchstone in the globalization debate. Renowned economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz had a ringside seat for most of the major economic events of the last decade, including stints as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist at the World Bank.
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Plea
- By Asma on 10-13-20
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Money
- The Unauthorized Biography
- By: Felix Martin
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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From ancient currency to Adam Smith, from the gold standard to shadow banking and the Great Recession: a sweeping historical epic that traces the development and evolution of one of humankind’s greatest inventions.
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Difficult to imagine how it could be worse
- By J. M. Batista on 09-19-17
By: Felix Martin
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The Trillion Dollar Meltdown
- Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: Nick Summers
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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The sub-prime mortgage crisis is only the beginning; a more profound economic and political restructuring is on its way. According to Charles R. Morris, the astronomical leverage at investment banks, with their hedge-fund and private-equity clients, virtually guarantees massive disruption in global markets.
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Very Illuminating
- By Nelson Alexander on 06-20-08
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The Instant Economist
- Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works
- By: Timothy Taylor
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Economics isn't just about numbers: It's about politics, psychology, history, and so much more. We are all economists - when we work, save for the future, invest, pay taxes, and buy our groceries. Yet many of us feel lost when the subject arises. Award-winning professor Timothy Taylor here tackles all the key questions and hot topics of both microeconomics and macroeconomics, so you can understand and discuss economics on a personal, national, and global level.
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Timothy Taylor is the best
- By Jake on 02-15-15
By: Timothy Taylor
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Why Save the Bankers?
- And Other Essays on Our Economic and Political Crisis
- By: Thomas Piketty, Seth Ackerman - translator
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Thomas Piketty's work has proved that unfettered markets lead to increasing inequality. Without meaningful regulation, capitalist economies will concentrate wealth in an ever smaller number of hands. Armed with this knowledge, democratic societies face a defining challenge: fending off a new aristocracy. For years Piketty has wrestled with this problem in his monthly newspaper column, which pierces the surface of current events to reveal the economic forces underneath.
By: Thomas Piketty, and others
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A mostly successful and interesting history
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Listened twice. Everyone must read this.
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In March 2006, the world’s richest men sipped champagne in an opulent New York hotel. They were preparing to compete in a poker tournament with million-dollar stakes. At the card table that night was Peter Muller, who managed a fabulously successful hedge fund called PDT. With him was Ken Griffin, who was the tough-as-nails head of Citadel Investment Group. There, too, were Cliff Asness, the sharp-tongued, mercurial founder of the hedge fund AQR Capital Management, and Boaz Weinstein, chess “life master” and king of the credit-default swap.
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In this searing exposé, former Wall Street insider Nomi Prins shows how the 2007-2008 financial crisis turbo-boosted the influence of central bankers and triggered a massive shift in the world order. Packed with tantalizing details about the elite players orchestrating the world economy, Collusion takes the listener inside the most discreet conversations at exclusive retreats like Jackson Hole and Davos. A work of meticulous reporting and bracing analysis, Collusion will change the way we understand the new world of international finance.
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Fair history survey, lazy characterizations
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The Financial Times' Critique Doesn't Detract
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The cohost of the popular NPR podcast Planet Money provides a well-researched, entertaining, somewhat irreverent look at how money is a made-up thing that has evolved over time to suit humanity's changing needs.
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well researched and written but,
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What listeners say about The End of Alchemy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Philo
- 07-13-16
Two books in one, both very fine
A note added Nov. 2019, on a second listening: this book, particularly the first 60 percent of it, is one of the most clear and informative books on anything I have ever read. In particular, it tells in plain language, yet with great depth and elegance, what, in a world of an unknown future, finance does for us, and further, how money and banking (as now managed, imperfectly) facilitate this, and (sometimes dramatically) fail to facilitate this. Nobody has ever described finance this well for me. This book, some years post-release (and after such events as Brexit, Trump's election, and the recent fractures in global trading), wears well, being pretty timeless in approach. Nothing like the solutions the author suggests in the later parts of the book, has occurred. We remain vulnerable to the problems he pointed out so lucidly. My original review follows.
Here we have a tutorial on basics of money, banking and (some) finance, and their history. All the contemporary terminology is neatly fit into the explanations. It is a great way to become widely literate and current on this. Secondly, having educated and briefed the audience, the author shares his proposal to replace the overall central banking LOLR (lender of last resort) model (dating back at least to Walter Bagehot in his book 'Lombard Street' (available here), and the origins of modern central banking), with a PFAS (pawnbroker for all seasons) model. This in effect forces a kind of insurance premiums or pre-haircuts to be baked into credit deals from the start, to pay when they default en masse as they did in '08. I have seen this model criticized, as blocking the wild experimental quality of capitalism. But it is a great try and at least a start at remodeling the system so we won't have our overall financial system keep working in straightened times as an emergency insurer after the fact (after a financial collapse), charging ex post premiums back to us peasants for decades to come, while the fat cat bankers get bailed out (as the popular trope goes), and party on, with no fundamental fix to this model offered, to date. (Let me pause and say I do see some virtues in Dodd-Frank. I believe it goes some length toward reducing the frequency and depth of these problems.) Bravo for a very interesting read, and something to be pursued. This is the first Great Recession book (of dozens I have seen, most of the major titles) where anyone has bothered to propose any sizeable substantive changes. This deserves more workup. Very enjoyable and I expect to listen through again.
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11 people found this helpful
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- John
- 11-04-16
Educational and thought provoking
Very educational and thought provoking book. Mervyn King's audience here is anyone who not only wants to understand what happened during the financial crisis, but wants to better understand why it happened and what needs to change to prevent another. Thankfully, this isn't a book about finger pointing.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Keith James
- 07-11-20
Very very good
This is one of the best explanations of money, banking and our contemporary financial challenges in the world. And does provide some hope for the future but is very blunt, appropriately, about our realities. I highly recommend it.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Inuwa Shehu Mohammed
- 09-20-19
A good look at the crisis and what to do
This is my second reading. End of Alchemy is one of the most important books I have read. It is a very serious work from an honest and experienced practitioner that has seen pretty all.
I hope that we ride the Audacity of pessimism to Uhuru.
Well done and thank you Sir Mervin King.
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- zach van der most
- 10-02-18
must read
it's dense but so are the problems he's conveying. He does an especially good job of stating complicated financial ideas in layman's terms.
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- Blockchain Economy
- 12-17-16
Interesting but dry
Good summary and explanation of central bank purpose and function and rational supporting the policy.
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- Henry
- 07-11-16
Excellent. Excellent!!
Well written, well narrated. Highly recommended. Easy to follow and understand a very complex topic due to these positives. Excellent.
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- Andrew J Novak
- 05-16-23
a lot of standard economic platitudes
This the typical boiler plate and standard economic jibberish that obfuscates at least as much as it illuminates. Banking alchemy this, capitalism is the best bet that, increasing productivity is the key... etc etc. He never even touches upon the radical divergence between productivity and real wages that starts in 1971. We sure wouldn't want to acknowledge anything that shows we are full of bunk. None of propositions have aged well. Don't dispare though. Bitcoin fixes this.
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- Stevtar
- 01-18-23
Amazing!
Radical uncertainty deserves more attention and thankfully King brings in front and center in his reform proposals
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Story
- Jeff Lacy
- 07-31-22
Clear and illuminating
With a clear and modulated performance, Greg Wagland allows us to better understand Mervyn King’s illuminating and engaging book about money and banking.
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