The End of Alchemy
by Mervyn King · first published 2016
78% recommend22% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Clear, accessible overview of money, banking and the 2007-8 crisis, written by a former Bank of England governor. Its history of money and banking and its island fishermen parable explaining financing are highlighted.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mervyn King, formerly of the Bank of England, in "The End of Alchemy" has a great parable of an island populated by fishermen. It starts with a pretty basic need of financing the nets and boats to do the fishing, where the lender then gets slowly repaid with the fish caught.…
on “Finance is Not the Economy” ↗If you're interested in monetary policy and a fundamental analysis of the state of money and banking in the world today, I highly recommend "The End of Alchemy" by Mervyn King [0]. The book starts with a long history of why we have money at all, why it takes the forms it takes, and how banks evolved into their current role. It then goes on to describe why…
on “This Bubble's Got Legs” ↗If I may recommend a book that really will make most people change their perspectives it's "The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy" Rarely have I read a book which made me think about a subject I thought I had a pretty good understanding of completely different. And if that is…
on “Summer Reading List” ↗A good book to read for anyone interested in economics is called "The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy", by Mervyn King, who was head of the Bank of England for about 10 years and during the financial crises of 2007-8. In the book, he discusses "the…
on “Tether Is Breaking Its Peg to the Dollar” ↗I think Mervyn King's take in "The end of Alchemy" is a better approach from a practical perspective than Taleb's though. Essentially that we just need to stop kidding ourselves that we can predict the tails, and to build greater buffers into all our…
on “The World in 2036: Nassim Taleb looks at what will break, and what won't (2010)” ↗On that topic (contemporary monetary policy), I've found "the end of alchemy" by Mervyn King fairly interesting and accessible.
on “Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century, in 20 minutes (2014) [video]” ↗Best book I have read on money is "The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy" by Mervyn King (former CEO of Bank of England) He has a real knack for putting everything into context and explores the sub-prime crisis without…
on “Shelling Out: The Origins of Money (2002)” ↗Can't recommend "The end of alchemy" by Mervyn King former CEO of Bank of England enough.
on “Money creation in the modern economy (2014) [pdf]” ↗The end of alchemy, Mervyn King. There are several very interesting points and mental models in there. Eye opening for someone that did undergrad Econ.
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗I think two books on this subject are extremely informative. One is _Stress Test_ by Timothy Geithner, the other is _The end of Alchemy_ by Mervyn King. Both have to do with the policies discussed in this article and the Lender of Last Resort (LOLR) policies implicit in the role of central banks. You are describing the Moral Hazard…
on “Regulators Move to Ease Post-Crisis Oversight of Wall Street” ↗"The End of Alchemy" by Mervyn King is a great book that explains fiscal/monetary policy and the modern banking system from the ground up. King was the head of the Bank of England during the last recession. This was the…
on “Ask HN: Book recommendations for understanding financial systems?” ↗There is a fantastic book that covers this topic called "The End of Alchemy" by Mervyn King who was Governor of the Bank of England during the 2007 crisis: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30231791-the-end-of-alch... It explains how banks work today in a patient and and accessible…
on “Banks create money, but it's less impressive than it sounds” ↗…higher amounts of leverage and that the government has colluded with the banking industry to constantly socialize their losses, while the banking sector privatizes gains. For more reading check out, The End of Alchemy [7] Which do you think is more likely Bitcoin is going to stop working or banks will under-engineer their financial safety factors and fail (like they've habitually done)? Hopefully you have your skin…
on “World’s Central Bank: Crypto Could Risk Bank Runs” ↗The best explanation I have heard of the financial crisis was in the book "The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking and the Future of the Global Economy" by the former head of Bank of England. It makes the convincing case that there is no real single place to point fingers and that the crash was the…
on “The Real Cost of the 2008 Financial Crisis” ↗…What if two data centers were nuked? How much redundancy is in the system? Are there third-party agencies that track private bank ledgers? How hard is it to take them out too? Ever since I read "The End of Alchemy" (a great book, btw) this thought has haunted me.
on “Tell HN: Wells Fargo completely offline” ↗