Money·Greed·Desire—Causes of the Financial Crisis (An Illustrated History of World Finance)

Author: Charles R. Morris (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: This series of books tells the real stories of the long history of American financial development. It covers the transformation of Wall Street, the rise of monopolies in the United States, the causes of financial turmoil in the financial sector, and more. It analyzes how human nature's greed and desire for money are entangled in historical events. This is a highly readable series of books, serving as a repository for showcasing one's knowledge and refined taste after meals. The book points out that accurately predicting the future of the stock market is a highly unrealistic goal. However, by examining history, one can gain some clues, which helps in estimating the arrival of the next stock market opportunity. To find such clues, the book conducts a tentative examination of the 10 best years of the 20th century, proving that there are indeed commonalities. Through skillful analysis of historical and contemporary financial events and their dominant factors, the book offers a fresh perspective on the causes of financial turmoil, a rare kind of book. It studies the eternal cycle of financial crises: from the rise of wise innovations to the overall overdevelopment, and the inevitable market collapse before investors and financial institutions fully adapt. It explains why the U.S. financial system evolved from a stagnant state of capital scarcity in the 19th century to its current global dominance. It examines the technological, economic, demographic, and industrial factors that drove the rapid development of the financial system from the 1980s to the 1990s. It demonstrates how to analyze recent financial turmoil in South Asia and Russia by drawing on the alternating cycles of prosperity and recession in early American financial history. In the process, we become more realistic in our expectations of the prospects of each new stage of the capital system and financial markets. It explains the reason why globalization is not a new phenomenon. The investment system of the 19th century was even more globalized than the current world. It reviews the contemporary financial geniuses, such as Michael Milken, one of the typical examples, and clarifies the fact that all the financial instruments invented by contemporary financial geniuses were already thought of by financial geniuses of the 19th century, such as Jay Gould.