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The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World - Niall Ferguson
by darren55
This was my entry into the Express non-fiction contest, I would be very interested in views on the review.
Niall Ferguson suave good looking photogenic history professor writes about the flow of money through world history. Ferguson is best known for his white plague series of history books looking at the flood of white ... people across the world, in this book he continues on that theme but moves away from the person and into the financial. Ferguson like Simon Schama is a story weaver, he invests his personal opinion on world history through short stories about the people caught up in events.
Niall Ferguson writes like he talks and presents, everything is concise, considered, persuasive and engaging. His personal thoughts and views come through as he debates the importance of money. His final conclusions are on that age old connundrum does money corrupt? No the love of money corrupts and through desire for money came all the worlds problems.
Niall Ferguson good looking and a good read.
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MRI Bankers Guide to Foreign Currency - Arnold Efron
by Burning_Darkness
I was once in an airport waiting lounge, the ceiling of which was covered with literally hundreds of countries' flags. One of these, presumably from some obscure and war-torn African nation, consisted simply of a machete crossed with an AK-47 over a blood-red background. That's a 'don't screw with us' flag, if ever there was ... one.
You can often tell a lot about a country from its flag, then. Similarly, you can often tell a lot about a country from its foreign currency. The MRI Bankers Guide to Foreign Currency is designed for use by people who regularly work with foreign notes, but is also useful to anyone who likes to travel, and aside from that is just plain interesting to anyone with so much as a passing interest in history, politics or geography.
It contains detailed pictures and information on the legal tender of every country in the world (as well as brief backgrounds on said countries), and whilst obviously intended as a serious reference book to help spot fraudulent or outdated (and therefore potentially worthless) notes, it is very interesting to simply sit and browse, at your leisure.
Sadly for currency enthusiasts, the introduction of the Euro has removed a lot of very interesting currencies from circulation, but there are still plenty of weird and wonderful ones out there. Australian dollars, for example, come in a range of bright rainbow colours and are printed on waterproof polymer, whilst Khazakstani money looks like it was created on a pirated copy of Corel Draw 98. Swiss Franc notes are similarly post-modernist and ugly, looking like something knocked up on a cheap bubblejet printer, but a great many notes are more much appealing, revealing aspects of their countries rich heritage, showing for example a wooden stave church (Iceland) or Mayan warriors and statues (Guatemala). The political workings of a county are also frequently apparent- the same beaming image of Charman Mao appears on every single Chinese note, for example, whilst lingering traces of Britain's colonialist past are detectable by the presence of Queen Elizabeth on New Zealand, Canadian and many other now independent countries currencies besides (though interestingly not Australia). Economic attributes are often prominently displayed too- United Arab Emirates notes have images of oilfields on shipyards on them, whilst Singapore dollars promote their manufacting and exporting bases with pictures of a car factory-line, modern aircraft and shipyards.
It's great fun simply flicking through the book and absorbing the designs along with the political and historical information the images convey. The manner in which countries present their currencies speaks volumes about their culture past and present, but also, perhaps more importantly, reveals how they wish to be seen by the rest of the world. Its definitely worth looking through if you are planning to travel to a particular country in order to avoid getting scammed- for example Cuba, whilst firmly communist, relies heavily on capitalist-tourist trade (in part due to the long standing US imposed trade embargo), and to get round this has two currencies, one for tourists and one for the general populance, the denominations of the latter being worth many multiples less that those of the former, which is handy to know.
The book outlines the security features present on each issue of note (eg watermark in 1998 edition, new security-thread added in 2006 edition, that kind of thing), although it could go into a little more detail here. Also, the book abviously only has a limited lifetime, as it gets out of date quickly, and is updated every few years, but this shouldnt be much of a problem for anyone but the professional. The layout is simple and clear, and the currencies are listed from A-Z by country name. An interesting and informative book then, for both the professional and amateur enthusiast.
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