Niall Ferguson's "Ascent of Money" (Channel 4)

whilst I don't work in our Front Office, my internal clients include
Finance, Compliance, Risk and Legal, so I do need to generally keep up
to speed with what's going on. Don't get me wrong, Ferguson's analysis
isn't particularly wrong, it's just quite dumbed-down.

what, you bought his "I could see it all coming, but kept quite just
so I could look smug in this documentary 1 year later" line?

no - A. really liked it and is looking forward to the rest of the
series.

 

<g> You mean you can't pause live TV? Essential in our house - gives
you a chance to deal with telephone calls there and then.

 

A, B(ee), C(hamp). Hmmm. It's a chick-flick thing, isn't it?

 

TV programme targets lowest common denominator shocker! News at 10.

 

You mean you actually watch *live* TV? <boggle>

 

well, for sure.

I was just somewhat disappointed, given the rigour of his book
"Empire".

 

I'm going to watch it on catch up at some point so I can join in
properly.

They'll amuse me.

That depends what we're classing as a monetary system. There are
archaeological records which have been interpreted as evidence for
trade (shells inland for example) which certainly proves mobility of
tribes and it is this mobility which is key. There's a Danish study on
when trade ceases to be a strategy for survival and becomes a cultural
marker, which is IMO what money is, but my ATHENS fu is weak this
afternoon. The Greenland studies are fascinating because the physical
conditions give a clear picture of a migration route used by at least
4 distinct cultures. Of course then you get into the 'what constitues
a culture?' debate <grin>

My interest is more on the effect the move to agriculture had on the
position of women in society, with a nod to Engels on the way.

"All higher forms of production, however, led to the division of the
population into different classes and thereby to the antagonism of
ruling and oppressed classes."

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1876/part-played-labour/index.htm

I hate fast cut stuff.

I'll try and find time later this evening to have a look. I'm off to
see 'Of time and the city' which I'm really looking forward to.

http://www.oftimeandthecity.com/

 

Sounds like a normal day chez Ace. The 'babies' are now about 9 months
old, and have just been snipped, but they've been catching stuff for
about four months and eating it for about three.

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It's pretty simple - the trailing apostrophe only applies in the case of
a plural.

Mr Strauss's family were the Strausses.
The Strausses lived at the Strausses' house.

 

You're not allowed to enter a competition for which you set the rules.

 

That must be why Terence Trent D'arby changed his name - he realised he
was a grammatical aberration.

--
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www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

But a good singer. There aren't many in the Pop world that can just
sit in front of a piano and do the biz.

 

Aye, it's a shame he didn't do a couple more 'normal' albums before
crossing to the weird side.

--
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www.MuddyStuff.co.uk
Off-Road Classifieds

'02 MV Senna '03 Tiger 955i '96 Tiger '79 Fantic Hiro 250

 

It seems to be a bit of a trigger word with you. In any case I reckon
the more correct word for him to have used would be trust. The religiuos
aspects he discussed had a bearing, but even the first time a loan was
given and accepted I suspect it was based on evidence that the person
was 'good' to repay rather than just their word for it.


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I'm wondering if some TV critics got the original version. The RT review
mentioned that the series was made before the credit crunch so contains no
references to it.

I was surprised to see the bit you refer to.

RT has changed the review for the repeat on More4

 

yeah - I noticed that too.

well, BBC, eh?

isn't there a thread somewhere that we could slag them off in?

 

I was getting bored to begin with. The fast cut stuff you mention below
was annoying. I'm not sure I needed to see the big hill in S America to
be convinced that the Spanish pillaged the place.

well, we've had loads of series about Romans and Greeks who had monetary
systems. This series seems to be concentrating on how we got from there
to the current globalized system via modernity. I'm sure that the series
concentrating on this period is purely coincidental with his book, The
Cash Nexus, doing much the same thing

Did he claim that? I couldn't have been concentrating. In the Cash Nexus
he states that money does not make the world go around. Sex, violence &
power have more influence on human actions in his view.

See above.

It did get more interesting in the last third. I preferred it when he
was talking to the camera rather than showing loads of images or
dramatisations which distracted from the narrative.

He didn't really need to be at the locations to tell the story, but good
luck to them if they can persuade the production company to finance
their jollies to Florence etc.

 

This is the nub with most factual programming nowadays - the producers
seem to think that unless we have lots of spinning images in front of
our eyes, we won't stay interested. Recent episodes of Horizon are
terribly guilty of this.

Personally, I'd be very happy to have an hour of Niall Ferguson
talking straight to camera.

 

About 2 minutes in - "essentially the back story of history" etc.
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He doesn't say it is the root of everything.

He claims that since the time of Mesopotamia money has been "the back
story" and an "indispensible part" whilst talking about war & power.

Without the human desire for power, using violence when required, money
would've remained a mechanism to facilitate the exchange of food.

The Spanish example in the programme shows that money itself is useless as
inflation makes it worthless. It's the power behind the money that has the
real agency.