Niall Ferguson's book,The Ascent of Money, is an excellent, just-in-time guide to the history of finance and financial crisis in which he shows how promises and paper have lifted humans from subsistence farmers in Babylon to Masters of the Universe on Wall Street. Words: 975

Most investors didn’t take warnings about the future of the economy and the financial marketplace - warnings that a ‘Category 6 Fiscal Storm’, a ‘Debt-Driven Meltdown’, a ‘Systemic Banking Crisis’, a ‘Financial Train Wreck’, a ‘God-Awful Fiscal Storm’, etc. was in store for the U.S. - seriously until it began. Perhaps this time around, before the other shoe drops, we should become more informed so we will be better positioned to survive and prosper regardless of what comes next. Words: 2128

While belt-tightening is indeed required cutting too fast would tip the West back into slump and kill tax revenues, solving nothing – a risk that austerity priests rarely acknowledge. Pacing is everything. Words: 620

Officially, the crisis is over. Everyone says so. Central bankers and Treasury officials have been congratulating themselves. It’s been a year now since the end of the world didn’t happen. These fellows take credit for it. Claptrap! Balderdash! Flimflam! Words: 669

What is underpinning current dollar strength is a shift in market focus toward some of the headwinds facing the global economic environment. That’s swinging the risk appetite pendulum back toward safety, which is positive for the dollar. Words: 692

Governments the world over have spent the past year bailing out, backstopping, insuring, and stimulating their financial sectors and economies throwing around trillions of dollars, euros, yen, and pounds like Halloween candy. Officials have assured us there’s little risk to that strategy but I believe that the opposite is true - that if you borrow and spend too much, all you’re going to do is transform a Wall Street debt crisis into a Washington debt crisis. Words: 882

Secretly, the Fed is in a panic to ward off a bond market collapse! They know that, sooner or later, they MUST send the message that they're serious about cutting back on their mad money printing. The danger of course, is that foreign investors will get an entirely different message: that Washington's efforts to fight the most severe recession since the Great Depression are waning. If that happens, you could see turmoil — not just in the bond market, but in every asset class imaginable. Words: 770

America's massive debt and unfunded liabilities make inflation the only viable option for today’s policymakers because when the value of future dollars is diminished, future obligations in those depreciated dollars are diminished. Words: 2808

The Japanese monetary and fiscal anti-deflation reflex in reaction to the crash in the 90´s was very much the same as the recent and currently ongoing global pumping approach. Japan has been running exactly the same "stimulus" as the rest of the world is now employing to fight the downturn. It didn´t work in Japan and I doubt it will work globally. If ever there was an economic illustration of the fact that "stimulus" cannot revive a REAL economy, Japan is that illustration. Words: 861

The book's crucial assumption is that “the market” does have a central value and that the world of stock markets is a “mean reverting” world. As a consequence, the market can be over-valued or under-valued but will, over time, return to its central value. Words: 1317