/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.16891667]

What's some good literature on the history of finance?

[Anonymous No.16891875]

Right now I'm reading David Graeber's history of debt. In Chapter 2 he interestingly undoes Adam Smith's idea that our economies evolved out of barter systems. Also Felix Martins book Money was OK, feel like there were a lot of assumptions left dangling but I'm not literate enough yet in financial things to say what. Both of these books seem to forward the basic idea that money is best understood not as the thing itself of the physical token, but as the token suggesting an underlying network of credits and debits. In other words credit predates money.

I wonder if anyone would come to Adam Smith's defense re. the origin of modern economies.

[Anonymous No.16891878]

>>16891667
i own this book, and was planning on reading it. god damn it, please create this thread in 30 days

[Anonymous No.16892180]

Bump

[Anonymous No.16892243]

>>16891875
David Graeber was an anthropologist not an economist nor a historian. Also, he was denied tenure at Yale because he was a chud. Read a book by someone who studied finance, not African tribes, if you want to learn about the history of finance.

[Anonymous No.16892267]

[Anonymous No.16892376]

>>16892243
What particular book(s) would you recommend?

[Anonymous No.16892394]

>>16892376
And are there any books defending Adam Smith?

[Anonymous No.16892570]

>>16892376
>>16892394
Economics is so politicized, rather than trying to get some unbiased, middle-ground view, I recommend you stick with Graeber, who was a miserable leftist hack, and follow it up with Ferguson.

Adam Smith was pretty spot-on about most of what he wrote, even ardent neolib Keynesians (mostly) admit that.

Regarding the evolution of the modern economy, it's pretty clear that bartering was the foundation, then came debt/credit systems, then money, which facilitated/revamped the debt/credit systems. Lots of animals engage in barter. Some primates have enough of sense of community and proto-moral systems to engage in debt/credit (in the rest of the animal kingdom, debt/credit is simply theft/murder). We were the only species smart enough to create the concept of money.

Graeber was a total hack who cherry picked anecdotal evidence, misinterpreted historical events, and if both of those tactics failed him, simply made shit up. But do keep reading him. The frustrations from reading him give you a better appreciation for good scholarship

[Anonymous No.16892639]

If you're more interested in the last 200 years or so, and with a focus on the US, Financial Regulation: Law and Policy by Michael Barr is very good. It's technically a legal casebook, but features very few actual cases. It's very well written, non-partisan, and would teach you almost everything about the nature and history of the different institutions in the financial ecosystem.

[Anonymous No.16892663]

[Anonymous No.16892681]

>>16892570
do you know of any reviews/articles/books/journals going against Graeber?

[Anonymous No.16893890]

Barren Metal by E. Michael Jones is good.

[Anonymous No.16894132]

Adam Tooze's stuff

[Anonymous No.16894199]

>>16894132
this

[Anonymous No.16894222]

>>16891667
It covers how capitalism formed, how it's fundamentally different from everything else, and to what kind of system and ruling class it inevitably leads.

[Anonymous No.16894704]

Dr Strangelove's Game by Strathern

[Anonymous No.16894999]

I also got this bood. p interesting.

[Anonymous No.16895185]

Origins of money by Alla Semenova is an outstanding work. you can find it for free online. it is mainly a compilation of very recent historical, anthropological, archaelogical and economic findings about how money came to be. Lots of name drops aswell so you can go from there and seek out other writers she mentions like Seaford, Schaps etc.

[Anonymous No.16895199]

>>16892243
>David Graeber was an anthropologist not an economist nor a historian.
A big part of what makes him so good.

[Anonymous No.16895260]

>>16892681
Graebers take was factual for the most part.
Ferguson who he suggested is as biased as graeber only instead of anarchism he shills for imperialism and british conservatism. Its almost reverential regarding Neoliberalism.

He's saying that reading two works from very opposite positions may help you reach a conclusion you agree with. Which sounds like solid advice. Just be aware of Graeber and Fergusons personal bias.

As for a history of finance thats les biased but equal in scope I would offer Contours of the World Economy by Angus Maddison.
(Though I quite like Graeber.)

[Anonymous No.16895266]

>>16895199
As if an anthropologist wouldn't be qualified to write about the history of money(a uniquely human history). The nerve

[Anonymous No.16895278]

>>16891667
mandatory reading

[Anonymous No.16895331]

>>16895260
outside of shilling for the likes of Soros or Greenspan I don't particulary see the neoliberal bias in Ferguson's work

did you have any particular takes in mind?

[Anonymous No.16895361]

Bankers of Babylon

[Anonymous No.16895440]

OP asked for books about finance not money. The only actual books on history of finance are:

>>16892267
>>16892663

which were taken from history of finance syllabi, but strangely got no replies from the chuds and deplorables of /lit/, oh well, can bring a beast of burden to the well but you can't make it drink

[Anonymous No.16895445]

>>16895331
Yeah, it was particularly that he spent so much time lavishing goldman sachs, soros, and greenspan. He never mentioned any negative associated with imperialist market globalization. I actually learned alot from his book though, I really can't jive with the guys current takes. The book wasn't as biased as Ferguson seems to be elsewhere. It was awesome in scope and explained things clearly. Have you tried any of Angus Maddisons works? His are alot more academic and dense, but I couldn't find a particular bias and the scope was mindblowing.

[Anonymous No.16895452]

OP asked for books about finance not money. The only actual books on history of finance are:

>>16892267
>>16892663

which were taken from history of finance syllabi, but strangely got no replies from the chuds and deplorables of /lit/, oh well, can bring a beast of burden to the well but you can't make it drink

[Anonymous No.16895455]

>>16895440
Finance is a broad term that describes activities associated with banking, leverage or debt, credit, capital markets, money, and investments. ... Finance also encompasses the oversight, creation, and study of money, banking, credit, investments, assets, and liabilities that make up financial systems.

Pbbbttt

[Anonymous No.16895476]

>>16895452
>>16894704
>>16895452
>which were taken from history of finance syllabi, but strangely got no replies from the chuds and deplorables of /lit
kek

[Anonymous No.16895522]

>>16895476
Oh, yeah, I forgot getting an education is a conspiracy to trick you into becoming a liberal!

[Anonymous No.16895540]

>>16895522
You forgot to reply to books taken from history of fiance syllabi while calling others out for doing the same. What you think you remembered is just further brainfarting on your part.

[Anonymous No.16895546]

>>16895540
Ascent of Money is assigned, but that lame book by the anarchist kook is not.

[Anonymous No.16895568]

>>16895546
>anarchist kook
>Strathern
kek, what makes him an anarchist kook, anon. Let's see where you think you're going.

[Anonymous No.16895581]

>>16894222
interesting anon, any more books like this?

[Anonymous No.16895595]

>>16895546
Lmao syllabi are created by profesors. I just googled and found Graebers book on several syllabi. Not Fergusons ekekeke

[Anonymous No.16895606]

>>16895595
Link it up bro

[Anonymous No.16895627]

>>16895595
How many fortune 500 CEOs and founders of startups valued over 1 billion did the b schools that put anarchist kooks on the reading list have?

[Anonymous No.16895658]

>>16895522
EVERY PROFESSOR IS A KARL MARXER

[Anonymous No.16895663]

>>16895627
>founders of startups valued over 1 billion
You're telling everyone your inability to do due diligence.

[Anonymous No.16895668]

>>16895522
Imagine being dumb enough to think that going to a university is the only or even best way to get an education. Modern education is a Prussian derived system to create masses of employees and cogs of the state.

[Anonymous No.16895686]

>>16893890
>>16895278
[antisemitic trigger warning]

[Anonymous No.16895706]

>>16895668
Imagine being dumb enough to think reading some shit off a 4channel infographic is the equivalent of a university education

[Anonymous No.16895720]

>>16895522
>imagine spending money on ijumakishun that isn't technical

[Anonymous No.16895739]

https://jeromeroos.com/blog/course-outline-financialization-debt-and-austerity
Cambridge

https://networks.h-net.org/node/GROUP_NID/blog/81875/history-capitalism-reading-list

Most of them are PDFs though andbI dont want to post these fucking google amp links.

Just search History of Finance Syllabus Graeber.

What's funny is Fergusom hasnt been on a single one lol. Soros has a book called Alchemy of Finance. Will it make me rich bros?

[Anonymous No.16895749]

>>16895706
Nice assumption, cuck. Go pay your student loans for your liberal arts degree. You didn't even try to rebut my post.

[Anonymous No.16895754]

>>16895668
It is the best way to get an education. Self directed study necessitates more time and really is only helpful to wage cucks like me who despite being intelligent lacked the money to go to a decent college (also I had a 30 ACT and didnt realize till later that our shitty counselor couldve gotten me a scholarship) also also I was dumb like you and thought university was ultimately a waste of time since "I can find meaning in the mundane, I don't need money or success:

[Anonymous No.16895771]

>>16895749
You sound dumb. Dumber than average. Im not who you're responding to by the way. Just thought you should know. You sound....dumb.

[Anonymous No.16895783]

>>16895754
I have a university degree. Im not deluded enough to believe that its the only or best way to be educated. The fact you think so is a grass is greener problem. A university degree is only marginally helpful if you want to be an employee and earned income. If you want actual wealth through passive or portfolio income, college is of no help.

[Anonymous No.16895784]

>>16895739
>What's funny is Fergusom hasnt been on a single one lol.

It's literally on the first one you fucking chud

>https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/8255/assignments/syllabus

Meanwhile the only one with David Graeber is some shitty Canadian school that assigns him during the "Marxist" week even though he's not a Marxist which should be a clue the school is shit.

[Anonymous No.16895793]

>>16895771
Lol. Ok.

[Anonymous No.16895797]

>>16895749
>Topic of thread is finance
>Hurr durr, I bet you have a liberal arts degree!

ok

[Anonymous No.16895802]

>>16895754
>wage cucks like me who despite being intelligent lacked the money to go to a decent college

That's what financial aid and student loans are for you financial toddler

[Anonymous No.16895805]

>>16895797
Ok

[Anonymous No.16895810]

>>16891667

You should check out the classical liberals as well. Not strictly economics, but the philosophy behind their standpoint:

Ludwig von Mises - Human Action
Friedrich Hayek - The Road to Serfdom
James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock - The Calculus of Consent

[Anonymous No.16895837]

>>16895802
I have a degree you bastards. It's just from a shittt school with a shitty professor. The structure is helpful for learning as is the guidance. I've probably learned more through self study but college is what you make of it. It could easily be far
better than going it alone, and is for most.

>>16895783
Passive income, portfolio income. Sounds boring though, why would I play some imaginary gambling game designed to make evil fucks even wealthier?

[Anonymous No.16895846]

>>16895784
Lmao they teach that shit at harvard. Fucking marxist professors subverting the youth with Ferguson.

[Anonymous No.16895856]

>>16895837
False dichotomy. Its not university or autodidact. There are other ways.

Its gambling if you don't know anything about building business or creating investments, but I guess you are happier making them richer through earned income, the most taxed form of income. Enjoy being their employee.

[Anonymous No.16895934]

>>16895846
>Lmao they teach that shit at harvard. Fucking marxist professors subverting the youth with Ferguson.

Ferguson was literally a professor at Harvard Business School, why would this surprise you?

[Anonymous No.16895935]

>>16895856
Being an employee? Sounds boring. Playing the market? Sounds boring and possibly like a form of religion. I have a productive farm. I only called myself a wagecuck cause i was indeed a wagecuck when I attended college.

[Anonymous No.16895980]

>>16895935
>I have a productive farm.

Nice larp, no one is more beholden to finance than farmers because the whims and fancies of commodity traders determine their whole future, not to mention trade agreements coming out of Washington, and constant competition pushing down margins from venture backed factory farms. Being a waged employee who gets paid a check good for cash money twice a month is significantly less cucked than being a farmer. If you went to college they would have taught you this and you could have avoided such a transparently false larp.

[Anonymous No.16896141]

>>16895980
Bitch what do you know about it? Most of my products sell locally(within 150 miles). If Washington or wall street get to greedy I'll co-operatize. I make a very decent living. I'm not rich, but I'm far from poor. I'm not some industrial cotton or basedbean farmer you rube. I love animals and meaningful produce. I also got a huge taxbreak for planting trees. It's a fun life and my wife and kids enjoy it as well. I'll never starve and want have to neck myself when the next market crash comes any day now.

[Anonymous No.16896217]

>>16896141
>wall street get to greedy
The commodities markets are based in Chicago.

[Anonymous No.16896493]

>>16896217
Lol damn you doctor semantics!!!

[Anonymous No.16896959]

>>16896493
Not him, but most of the major financial news stories from the US for the past 40 years have been based in the fact that futures are in Chicago and Wall Street is increasingly on servers which are nowhere near WS. It's not a semantics thing; it's a basic element of the system's repeated collapses that those markets are physically distant. It's the kind of shit you have to know if you want to call anyone a rube.

[Anonymous No.16897006]

Richard Ehrenberg - Capital And Finance In The Age Of The Renaissance. focus on Fuggers, but not exclusively.

https://archive.org/details/capitalandfinanc037633mbp/

[Anonymous No.16897035]

>>16896959
Most of the servers are in nj which is still p close to wall st, too bad governer phil the fuckup murphy is planning to tax transactions on the nasdaq servers to make up for the loss of tax revenue from his ccp style lockdown earlier this year.

[Anonymous No.16897055]

>>16894999
I meant >>16892267

[Anonymous No.16897390]

>>16891875
>David Graeber
anybody who still clings to the Labor Theory of Value is a moron.

[Anonymous No.16897499]

>>16897390
Why? My cousin still clings to the labor theory of value.

[Anonymous No.16897509]

>>16896959
Damn you dr. Formal Semantics

[Anonymous No.16897600]

>>16897035
> nj which is still p close to wall st
Go Google flash crash and see how it's the distances smaller than feet within NJ that causes one major problem. Pretty close is not close enough.

[Anonymous No.16898485]

>>16897499
because it's a relic of the 18th century and was disproved during the marginal revolution. How does one even calculate the "socially necessary labor time"?

[Anonymous No.16898628]

>>16898485
Dis many people need dis much product it take dis long to make dat much

[Anonymous No.16899071]

>>16891875
Ignore the naysayers. Graeber is based and was denied tenure at Yale because of his political opinions.

[Anonymous No.16899106]

>give proper suggestion
>retards laser focus on ted talk economist vs verso meme

[Anonymous No.16899115]

>>16899071
Yeah, they didn't want to be stuck with an anarchist kook.

[Anonymous No.16899135]

I have aglietta's theory of capitalist regulation on my reading list

[Anonymous No.16899145]

>>16891667
Any actual literature on finance gets immediately purged these days

[Anonymous No.16899169]

A Farewell to Alms is an economic history book though not strictly finance, more so the economy pre and post industrial revolution and the escape from the Malthusian trap

[Anonymous No.16899182]

>>16895185

>Alla Semenova

this may be the most unfortunate name I have ever encountered

[Anonymous No.16899260]

>>16895278
based

[Anonymous No.16899440]

>>16892243
lol seething tankie.

[Anonymous No.16899949]

>>16894222
come on man where u at