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The End of Alchemy

Money, Banking and the Future of the Global Economy

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The End of Alchemy

By: Mervyn King
Narrated by: Roger Davis
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About this listen

The past 20 years saw unprecedented growth and stability followed by the worst financial crisis the industrialised world has ever witnessed.

In the space of little more than a year, what had been seen as the age of wisdom was viewed as the age of foolishness. Almost overnight, belief turned into incredulity.

Most accounts of the recent crisis focus on the symptoms and not the underlying causes of what went wrong. But those events, vivid though they remain in our memories, comprised only the latest in a long series of financial crises since our present system of commerce became the cornerstone of modern capitalism.

Alchemy explains why, ultimately, this was and remains a crisis not of banking - even if we need to reform the banking system - nor of policy-making - even if mistakes were made - but of ideas.

In this refreshing and vitally important book, former governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King - an actor in this drama - proposes revolutionary new concepts to answer the central question: are money and banking a form of alchemy, or are they the Achilles heel of a modern capitalist economy?

©2016 Mervyn King (P)2016 Little Brown Book Group Economics Banking Capitalism Taxation Thought-Provoking Socialism Global Financial Crisis Great Recession Money US Economy Government Export
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This is a personal review as I feel it was very insightful and did in most areas breakdown the complex nature of the banking system very well, although I can't deny I got lost a few times with terminology. This book is an eye opener and one which I encourage people to listen to if we are ever going to question the future economy and banking infrastructure

Insightful if not a bit to clever about

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Having previously read this book before, I found it to be very involved and difficult to follow at times, however, the audio narration by Roger Davis makes the book much more digestible.
Mervyn King delivers as one would expect. As a former Bank of England Governor and an academic by trade, one would expect the book to be even more difficult to swallow than it actually is, but not so, especially the audible version.
The basic premise is the reality that paper money is no longer (if indeed it ever was) convertible to gold, and the value placed in money and the illiquidity of banks is in itself a form of alchemy.
Although Mervyn King was a key player in dealing with the crash of 2008, what this book is not is simply another blow by blow account of the meltdown, but rather an overview of the flaws inherent in the financial system, the basic underlying theories and models, and some comparative examples of previous crises.
King does offer some prescriptions for the future in the final chapter, but it is his insight and random gems of knowledge that are the selling points.
In all a decent work, readable and even more so, listenable.

The audio is better than the actual book

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Great first book, one I would have bought in hardback then taken a year to read. The narrator was excellent. 5 stars!

Excellent!

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What made the experience of listening to The End of Alchemy the most enjoyable?

I had anticipated one book and got another. Anticipating a dryer tome sanitised of harsh truths, however, I received a compelling easy read with some unvarnished heavy opinions, given by a man whose opinions can be codified closer to the real world than most. Highly recommended.

Suprised by frankness

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interesting that Mervyn did not advocate any of the ideas in this book when he was in charge of the Bank of England.

lots of hindsight

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