Post by 4aapl on Nov 7, 2023 14:56:08 GMT -8
I've brought this book up a couple times, but apparently didn't put a separate entry here for it. It's a long book about a long time period with a lot of characters that it tries to give full backstories to. So, it's not a light read.
It starts with about 1890 and goes up to 1944, though most of it is 1914-1934. We think back about the great depression, but this includes global economic events leading up to it and after the stock crash that contributed to the severity. In short, the causes were huge war reparations, the gold standard, interest rates, and bank failures due to gold and not having a lender of last resort.
The first time I read it I skimmed a lot of it. Then I looked through it, mostly back to front, trying to find a quote in it (that I believe was in France at the top of the stock/currency bubble) that was the equivalent of recent day SPACs. And now I decided to read it again, this time completely, still looking for that quote.
Didn't find it, and I'm thinking it must have been in a different book that I read while reading this one the first time. But I did read plenty of good stuff, mainly on the problems caused by countries using the gold standard, but also on bank and near country failures and their causes.
I'm torn on this. It was a tough read, at least for me. But I feel I got something from it this time. And just finishing the 504 pages now, the Epilogue does a great job of summing it up. I'd start there, and decide it you want to read the whole thing. From there, if you want a lot of it but not the full read, the last 55 pages were great, starting with Roosevelt taking office.
As for that quote I was trying to find, maybe it was in "Money - the true story of a made-up thing". If I had the exact quote Google could probably find it, but it's something on the order of "a syndicate being started to invest in unknown things that will make money", from I think around 1928 in Paris. I'll find it eventually.
It starts with about 1890 and goes up to 1944, though most of it is 1914-1934. We think back about the great depression, but this includes global economic events leading up to it and after the stock crash that contributed to the severity. In short, the causes were huge war reparations, the gold standard, interest rates, and bank failures due to gold and not having a lender of last resort.
The first time I read it I skimmed a lot of it. Then I looked through it, mostly back to front, trying to find a quote in it (that I believe was in France at the top of the stock/currency bubble) that was the equivalent of recent day SPACs. And now I decided to read it again, this time completely, still looking for that quote.
Didn't find it, and I'm thinking it must have been in a different book that I read while reading this one the first time. But I did read plenty of good stuff, mainly on the problems caused by countries using the gold standard, but also on bank and near country failures and their causes.
I'm torn on this. It was a tough read, at least for me. But I feel I got something from it this time. And just finishing the 504 pages now, the Epilogue does a great job of summing it up. I'd start there, and decide it you want to read the whole thing. From there, if you want a lot of it but not the full read, the last 55 pages were great, starting with Roosevelt taking office.
As for that quote I was trying to find, maybe it was in "Money - the true story of a made-up thing". If I had the exact quote Google could probably find it, but it's something on the order of "a syndicate being started to invest in unknown things that will make money", from I think around 1928 in Paris. I'll find it eventually.