Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3673 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-12-15
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 285 minutes

Synopsis
In this six-part documentary respected author, journalist and lecturer Professor Niall Ferguson examines the dynamic role of money as he takes you on an epic tour of the financial world. A professor in History and Business Administration at Harvard University, as well as an author of numerous books and a commentator on contemporary politics and economics, Ferguson explains how finance rose to play such a terrifyingly dominant role in all our lives. This beautifully-shot documentary covers a broad spectrum of economic history from the 14th Century right up to the present day. But are you in on the secret? Do you really understand what causes a bank run, an inflationary meltdown or a stock market crash? Can you tell a sub-prime from a prime loan? Only with this historical perspective can one understand the essential truth about finance.

Customer Reviews

Snappy and educational financial overview. Very timely!
This is an accessible and extremely useful series which popped up at just the right moment to help unravel exactly what's been going on with the worldwide money markets.
The presentation is clear, concise and occasionally witty, and has really helped us to get to grips with the mysteries of the modern money machine.

Prof Niall Ferguson is an engaging host and an excellent historian who has no trouble demonstrating how the same systems and behaviours affect financial markets, be they in the 1700s or right now. He normally relates each high-falutin' fiscal concept straight back to how it affects the real world.
Most of the six programmes rely heavily on his narrative with footage from around the world, as he explains how money itself began on Babylonian tablets, then how the Medici clan began banking; how the bond market rose and made millionaires of the Rothschild family, and so on.
Inevitably, much of the older material is hard to illustrate and, if you want to rest your eyes for a while, then you can quite easily just listen to the voice-over. The images on screen can be repetitive paintings of the main players, or blurry shots of stock market traders, or strings of meaningless share prices. There are moments when this series would probably work just as well as a radio programme!

However, the core information is fascinating. Ferguson explains how stock bubbles happen and the psychology behind bear and bull markets. He uses recent examples to illustrate historical trends -- such as the rise and fall of Enron. And with the more recent info there are interviews with relevant people which are enlightening and entertaining. And all through each programme, Ferguson underlines an uncomfortable truth: that financial dealings have had major impact on all aspects of global history, from the Dutch East India Company to the Renaissence to the French Revolution -- right up to day. Scary...

So if you'd like to understand more about hedge funds, stocks and shares, limited liability companies, money itself, global banking, reflation and deflation and heaps more -- this is a must-watch.
We've found it to be very enjoyable and extremely informative.

8/10

Absolutely Brilliant!!!
I really enjoyed this mini-series which asserts that to understand the state of finances we must look to the past and how financial systems arise. Covering the origins of money, the first banking moguls - the Medici's, and looking at insurance, loans, and the bond market, Ferguson covers it all in a very well presented narrative.
I highly recommend this to anyone in the least bit interested in understanding the fundamentals of how our economy has come to be the way it is, but also the forces that play such a big influence on our lives.
Very good, I'm giving it 10/10!

Interesting, as much for what it doesn't say, as for what it does
Since the start of the current economic crisis, I've come to realise that despite a 'good' education, I had been entirely under-educated when it comes to economics and the financial system on which we all depend. So I was delighted to receive this set of DVDs as a gift at Christmas. However, I have been educating myself on our financial system fairly intensively for the past year or so, which means that, although this is an interesting set of DVDs, there is much which it does NOT discuss which I feel it should.

As an example, we're told that usury was initially forbidden by the Christian religion, as it was considered to be a sin to charge interest on loans. We're told that the Jewish religion also considered usury to be a sin BUT with a get-out clause that it was OK to charge interest on loans to non-brothers ... e.g. Christians, so Jewish money-lenders quickly became rich as a result. Presumably at some point in history this "sin" was withdrawn by the Christian church ... but when did it happen? Who made it happen? Why did they make the change? How was the change made? This was such a key turning point in the history of money that I'm frustrated that this was skipped over in the DVDs. The reason WHY it was first considered a sin (and still is, I believe, in the Muslim religion) was not discussed either.

So, for a wide-ranging introduction to some of the mechanisms of the evolution of the current money system it is interesting, but raises as many questions as answers. Similarly the discussions on short-selling, options and derivatives -which have done so much to make a few people very VERY rich while simultaneously destroying the value of pension funds and the currencies of nations - left me confused as to the exact mechanisms by which they work. At no time in the DVDs was there any debate on the morality of these modern economic products.

In contrast, the short films "Money as Debt" and "Money as Debt 2" give a clear, unambiguous and easy to view explanation of the reason why the charging of interest on loans could be considered sinful, and at the same time, point to the explanation why some people will always default on loans - because the system demands it - and most importantly, explain why the future deeper and more painful economic crisis looms - and seems to be inevitable.

So, overall "The Ascent of Money" is an interesting but rather frustrating DVD, as much for what it doesn't say, as for what it does.