Professor Niall Ferguson - The Descent of Money

Professor Niall Ferguson lecture at New College of the Humanities on The Descent of Money.
New College of the Humanities (NCH) offers a new model of higher education for the humanities in the UK. NCH students enjoy one of the best staff-to-student ratios in UK higher education and benefit from a high number of quality contact hours including engaging and challenging one-to-one tutorials. www.nchlondon.ac.uk/courses/

[@JustinPavoni]

Austrian economics explains the crisis 100%. Boom and bust is a fact of life with a fiat money fractional reserve banking system. Guys like Peter Schiff called it in 2006, shorted the financials, and understood exactly what was happening. Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard are the dudes to read. The crisis isn't over - it has just been papered over in the short term.

[@SK-yb7bx]

Peter Schiff was saying the sky was going to fall for decades. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

[@7_red24]

@Deplorable Person And mainstream economists never saw it coming. Never countenanced even the possibility. Economic law asserts itself despite widespread ignorance of it, and despite the pretensions of social engineers and the myopic maneuverings of politicians---self-interested and otherwise. Many factors contribute to the exact timing of historical events and, thus, to the ultimate manifestation of economic cause/effect. It is silly---even foolish---for Schiff to make predictions regarding exact timing---economic science cannot provide such answers. He is, however, a businessman after all, with investment services to sell. Not primarily an economist. What doesn't change is the fact that Austrian (i.e. Misesian/Rothbardian) economics predicts these crises to occur---as sure as the sun rises in the east---within every banking system characterized by the monopoly issue of fiduciary media (i.e. claims to purchasing power not fully backed by a commodity money). What it can't tell you is what time, exactly, to expect the sun on the horizon. Time and again, banking and economic crises have occurred around the world, in the 18th--20th centuries, due to this---legislated---privileging of certain banks/groups of banks to enjoy the right of monopoly issue of fiduciary media.

[@PeterSodhi]

Justin Pavoni well said. Niall shows zero insight here.

[@bighands69]

+Jamie Peake Marxist did not predict the economic recession. What they do is constantly predict for the last 150 years that capitalism would collapse and they then could introduce their version of communism. To predict the economic recession of 2008 to 2017 you would need to explain how it was going to happen and roughly when it was going to happen. Not everything is going to fail because capitalism is flawed.

[@th8257]

All of the major schools of economic thought have explanations for crises. The Austrian school is nothing special in that respect

[@larsorloff3393]

did I mention yet that I just flew in from Beijing? And not in economy? >

[@AKAHEIZER]

In the 80s the German Bundesbank already complained: Rich Countries should produce a current account surplus, and than export the surplus to poorer countries.

[@a.citizen7668]

Niall has a great mind.

[@jadenephrite]

An excellent movie to watch is called “Margin Call” from 2011 starring Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Zachary Quinto, Demi Moore, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci and Jeremy Irons,. It dramatizes how an investment bank crashed due to its risky over-leveraged investments.

[@00BillyTorontoBill]

+Jade Nephrite I wasnt impressed much... but have you seen Rogue Trader?

[@joelfortin2026]

Could anyone please tell me where I can get all the information that Ferguson uses ? countries GDP, Credit %, income growth etc. I'd like to have access to all the necessary economic data, updated on a regular basis so I can make my own analysis. There surely is a website where I can find all the data. Thanks

[@timqamar4003]

all that data comes from multiple sources, compiled over time, for which he then goes through and prepares this lecture; theres no "one stop shop" for all this information; A lot of it is digging through economic journals, IMF reports, bank reports, etc etc; Some of it might even be paid for; Your question is for someone in the profession (economics, history, academics, etc)

[@balletboy94]

Joel Fortin There is a "one stop shop" called FRED! google it "Fred data"

[@billytheweasel]

I like Shadowstats and FRED

[@grubbygruber1621]

He never saw any foodbanks ? Didnae look very hard !!!

[@th8257]

He mentions not seeing soup kitchens from Heathrow to Russell Square - perhaps he should have been looking out for food banks instead

[@stephentsang2000]

Returning to gold standard is the only solution to "the banksters question" once and for all.

[@francisliew2801]

There is not enough gold in the Universe, not to mention the Earth for all the USD bills that the Feds had printed.

[@Aeros802]

Liew sim yilk That's the point kid. It constrains the fed from printing massive amounts of money resulting in de-valuation. Of course there is not enough Gold in the world for all the amount of USD printed, butt here is enough Gold for a stable monetary system.

[@r00b0t1]

Liew sim yilk Not true. I concede there is not enough gold at the current market value. However if the gold standard was returned to then the price of gold would have to dramatically increase to match the value of current world currency.

[@francisliew2801]

And how much would that be? And what would that do to the IT industries who uses gold for IC manufacturing? What would the price be for gold rings for newly married?

[@r00b0t1]

Liew sim yilk I have no idea what the actual dollar value required to return to the gold standard would be. And I think it would be unpractical to do so. I just wanted to point out that the amount of available gold on the earth was irrelevant if the the price of the gold can be set to the necessary $ per Oz to cover the currency in the world economy. Obviously if the price was high enough then gold would become too valuable to be made into rings and alternative decorative metals would be used instead.

[@brianyoung5310]

All in all, I agree with Niall Ferguson's take on how the 2008 financial crisis came about, but his thoughts on quantitative easing are quite wrong. Pumping more money into the system may have blunted the blow we would have endured in 2008 - 2009, but it also blunted the recovery we could have had after Wall Street was forced to revert back to solid investment strategies. Now, we are just airing up the next bubble to be popped and they still believe in TBTF and speculators see this and invest accordingly. On top of that, there is no serious consideration taken on real inflation, nor is anyone serious about increasing interest rates to combat real inflation. Central banks around the world falsely refer to CPI as inflation, when that is simply a symptom of real inflation (increased supply of money). Who knows what will cause the next crisis. Indeed, China's meltdown could be be the first match lighted that will cause the dollar to default when they start to right the trade imbalance they're in with the U.S. by selling their excess dollar reserves. When that happens, the house of cards collapses. Our global system of currency will be seen for what it is. The question that remains is, is it already too late to turn things around. Unfortunately, very few who are in power have the backbone to even try. They are more concerned with getting reelected than making the hard choices they really need to make.

[@francisliew2801]

You elected these people under a free and universal suffrage. If you don't like the system, why not try Marxism?

[@joybartlett379]

The sound is SO bad it's hard to hang in there until you hear what he has to say. And even though you hear the sound of his voice, the words are hard to distinguish.

[@panscopia1791]

24:00 spoiler alert....

[@joelfortin2026]

Well... I guess he was kinda right.

[@th8257]

Definitely not right about the UK

[@Dunpil3]

How spectacularly wrong his predictions turn out to be :)

[@SaraVV]

EnvyF I just couldn't waste my time watching past the 3 min. mark 2:38 "....Keynesian economists too odious to name." -- "professor" Niall Ferguson

[@billytheweasel]

@@SaraVV Didn't he say numerous not odious? Anyway, it looks like his assertions will turn out

[@SaraVV]

@@billytheweasel :-D I hope he said "odious" or else my hearing is going :-D Thank you :-)

[@AuditorInvestor]

Wth are you talking about - he was just pointing out the facts. If you look at his other talks, it's surprising how accurately he predicted Trump's election and what he will do as a populist. Or are you just shitting here because you're a PC snowflake who doesn't agree with his politics? LOL.

[@jokerthegangster8012]

@@SaraVVcc

[@cjsandoval]

I had to stop at 19 min. this guy is was sounding quite arrogant then he put the icing in thr cake and saying he was one of three to predict the housing crisis. yea... sure buddy.

[@christopherevans7112]

Mmm by by come on Webster upset she wants a sabbatical from the bath today just taking a sabbatical can you bring it then

[@bighands69]

If you read his book The Ascent of Money then you can criticize him other wise "sure buddy" means nothing.

[@a.citizen7668]

His intellect has earned him the right to be arrogant. I love it.

[@SaraVV]

2:38 "....Keynesian economists too odious to name." -- "professor" Niall Ferguson Google Dr. Ron Paul

[@treyquattro]

that Weegee-style American accent was awful, and annoying. Stick to economics Mr. Ferguson. On 2nd thought, maybe don't, ...

[@DavidLindes]

16:37 - angry much? Might be appropriate in the right context, but for an educational lecture, that doesn't seem like the context for it, to me. And the growth emphasis? Sounds like an impossible hamster mentality going on. It's a pity... I suspect he has useful analysis on some of this stuff, but... I'm finding it increasingly hard to want to keep listening, even with a critical mindset towards understanding his viewpoint.