Ascent Of Money, Niall Ferguson, The Paperback Bookshop, Melbourne, Australia

The Ascent of Money argues that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress, that it is the essential back-story behind all history. Ferguson explains why the origins of the French Revolution lie in a stock market bubble caused by a convicted Scots murderer. He shows how financial failure turned Argentina from the world's sixth richest country into an inflation-ridden basket-case - and how a financial revolution is propelling the world's most populous country from poverty to power in a single generation.  The most important lesson of the financial history is that sooner or later every bubble bursts - sooner or later the bearish sellers outnumber the bullish buyers - sooner or later greed flips into fear. The Ascent of Money argues that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress, that it is the essential back-story behind all history. Ferguson explains why the origins of the French Revolution lie in a stock market bubble caused by a convicted Scots murderer. He shows how financial failure turned Argentina from the world's sixth richest country into an inflation-ridden basket-case - and how a financial revolution is propelling the world's most populous country from poverty to power in a single generation.  The most important lesson of the financial history is that sooner or later every bubble bursts - sooner or later the bearish sellers outnumber the bullish buyers - sooner or later greed flips into fear.