Ripon Public Library

The price of time, the real story of interest, Edward Chancellor

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [315]-333) and index

platesillustrations

index present

non fiction

The price of time

bibliography

1320818518

Edward Chancellor

the real story of interest

"A comprehensive and profoundly relevant history of interest from one of the world's leading financial writers, The Price of Time explains our current global financial position and how we got here. In the beginning was the loan, and the loan carried interest. For at least five millennia people have been borrowing and lending at interest. The practice wasn't always popular-in the ancient world, usury was generally viewed as exploitative, a potential path to debt bondage and slavery. Yet as capitalism became established from the late Middle Ages onwards, denunciations of interest were tempered because interest was a necessary reward for lenders to part with their capital. And interest performs many other vital functions: it encourages people to save; enables them to place a value on precious assets, such as houses and all manner of financial securities; and allows us to price risk. All economic and financial activities take place across time. Interest is often described as the 'price of money,' but it is better called the 'price of time': time is scarce, time has value, interest is the time value of money. Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, interest rates have sunk lower than ever before. Easy money after the global financial crisis in 2007/2008 has produced several ill effects, including the appearance of multiple asset price bubbles, a reduction in productivity growth, discouraging savings and exacerbating inequality, and forcing yield-starved investors to take on excessive risk. The financial world now finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place, and Edward Chancellor is here to tell us why. In this enriching volume, Chancellor explores the history of interest and its essential function in determining how capital is allocated and priced."--, Jacket flaps

Introduction: The anarchist and the capitalist -- Pt. 1. Of historical interest -- Babylonian birth -- Selling time -- The lowering of interest -- The Chimera -- John Bull cannot stand two per cent -- Un petit coup de whisky -- Pt. 2. How low rates begot lower rates -- Goodhart's law -- Secular stagnation -- The raven of Basel -- Unnatural selection -- The promoter's profit -- A big fat ugly bubble -- Your mother needs to die -- Let them eat credit -- The price of anxiety -- Rusting money -- Pt. 3. The game of marbles -- The mother and father of all evil -- Financial repression with Chinese characteristics -- Conclusion: The new road to serfdom -- Postscript: The world turned upside down