Customer Reviews

Russell Sage, the money king

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are reading this review, you are surely off the beaten trail. Nevertheless, this is a good financial account of the markets and the country from 1850-1906. If you are interested in financial history, then you will enjoy this book as characters from Gould to Morgan are in the circles of The Money King.

Of importance from this reviewer, are the topics on the panic of 1873 that reads like 2008 all over again. See if this quote from the book jogs any memories of the 2008 crisis, `The banks have been departing from their legitimate line of business. There has been a railroad mania and the banks have lent large sums of money on railroad bonds to the exclusion of the merchants needs ... last year over 6,000 miles of new railroads were built, not 500 miles of which were really needed or can be turned to any profitable use. The foreign markets have been glutted with these schemes. Many gross swindles of one kind or another have been foisted upon these markets the past two years ... the first thing that is needed is confidence. Can the government restore it'?

Just replace railroad, with house, and it rings as if it was written in 2008 versus 1873. To paraphrase George Santayana, `For those that do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it'.

All in it was a nice financial history book to read as one is able to get a sense of the times. Though we believe that things have improved tremendously, some things still remain the same. Below are a few additional recommendations with respect to financial history.

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson
Art of Contrary Thinking by Humphrey Neill
Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing by Roger Lowenstein