Money for Nothing: The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich
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Money for Nothing: The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Thomas Levenson (Author), Dan Bittner (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 191 ratings
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The sweeping story of the world’s first financial crisis: “an astounding episode from the early days of financial markets that to this day continues to intrigue and perplex historians ... narrative history at its best, lively and fresh with new insights” (Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lords of Finance)

A Financial Times Economics Book of the Year ● Longlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

In the heart of the Scientific Revolution, when new theories promised to explain the affairs of the universe, Britain was broke, facing a mountain of debt accumulated in war after war it could not afford. But that same Scientific Revolution - the kind of thinking that helped Isaac Newton solve the mysteries of the cosmos - would soon lead clever, if not always scrupulous, men to try to figure a way out of Britain’s financial troubles.

Enter the upstart leaders of the South Sea Company. In 1719, they laid out a grand plan to swap citizens’ shares of the nation’s debt for company stock, removing the burden from the state and making South Sea’s directors a fortune in the process. Everybody would win. The king’s ministers took the bait - and everybody did win. Far too much, far too fast. The following crash came suddenly in a rush of scandal, jail, suicide, and ruin. But thanks to Britain’s leader, Robert Walpole, the kingdom found its way through to emerge with the first truly modern, reliable, and stable financial exchange.

Thomas Levenson’s Money for Nothing tells the unbelievable story of the South Sea Bubble with all the exuberance, folly, and the catastrophe of an event whose impact can still be felt today.

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  1. Listening Length
    12 hours and 12 minutes
  2. Author
    Thomas Levenson
  3. Narrator
    Dan Bittner
  4. Audible release date
    August 18, 2020
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B085ZRNMLW
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 12 hours and 12 minutes
Author Thomas Levenson
Narrator Dan Bittner
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date August 18, 2020
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B085ZRNMLW
Best Sellers Rank #73,468 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#100 in History of Science
#112 in Economic History (Audible Books & Originals)
#190 in Great Britain History (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
191 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Chad
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard Read but easy if u have a financial brain
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2024
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Great book and what a history - knowing this has really opened my eyes
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Jos Dujardin
4.0 out of 5 stars introduction to financial history
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2022
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The somewhat long subtitle of the book captures it very well. I learned how calculus, invented amongst others by Newton, allowed our mind to grasp monetary value of the future to the present. The well written history of the South Sea company demise provides an introduction to concepts of financial trade and its derivates, all started in some coffee houses in a quarter of London.
2 people found this helpful
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Kelly R
5.0 out of 5 stars An army travels on its bank account
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2020
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In the UK's case, both its navy and its army travelled worldwide, although especially in Europe and against bigger and richer France. How? The UK's GDP was smaller, as was its population. Yet Britain emerged the victor.

This book traces a critical change in financing war and empire to the turning of science to analyzable mathematical abstraction, which then influenced how money was viewed on both sides of the Channel. Both the UK and France turned debt into assets - really, the payment streams from debt into quantifiable assets. Both nations had resulting financial bubbles that burst in 1720. France's government returned to its older revenue-generation schemes, for example privatizing tax collection, which was stable but not flexible. Even after the UK's South Sea Company stock bubble burst, bankrupting many investors, the UK held onto its new liquid exchange for trading those promised payment streams. That gave the government ready access to debt at interest rates that could adjust to new conditions and risks.

The South Sea Company had contemporaneous critics who analyzed and criticized as unsupportable its vast growth in stock value against its revenue streams. Yet Isaac Newton, easily the best mathematician in Britain, lost money, and the critics' math didn't stop the psychology that made bubble look solid to many normally astute investors. Until it wasn't solid any more, and there was nothing to stop the bursting.

Sounds like 2008, huh? There will always be greedheads. How to keep them from crashing the economy like the speculative bandits they are remains an open question. Because they'll always be using every financial innovation to slice themselves the biggest piece of the pie.
5 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Timely reminder 300 years later
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2021
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I finished this book on 18th Jan 2021 - some 300 years after the South Sea Bubble bursted.

With US markets at record highs, Tesla stock rallying from ca. $100 to $800 over a year, and Bitcoin at ca. $40k, this book is an excellent reminder that:

1) when something is too good to be true - it might be a bubble
2) when financial engineering is way beyond the level of comprehension of an individual investor - it might be a bubble
3) when irrational exuberance takes over, and even well-informed investors flock to the market in the fear of missing out on what they fully understand is a speculation - it might be a bubble.
12 people found this helpful
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Robert Ray
4.0 out of 5 stars A different take on the famous South Sea Bubble
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2020
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Unlike other books covering the South Sea Company this one also looks at its philosophical antecedents and why the British government was desperately in need of the South Sea Company's 'solution.' It also gives a thorough history of the company and why it needed to pump up its stock. It finishes by showing how afterwards Prime Minister Walpole was able to keep its main innovation (turning a wide variety of prior government debt issues into a single and most importantly tradable bond issue) to enable Britain to finance its almost endless 18th century wars with France by its ability to raise previously unimaginable amounts of money in the financial markets.
7 people found this helpful
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Adem T
5.0 out of 5 stars A well written + invigorating read on the south sea bubble
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2020
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A great + well written book on a fascinating topic (the South Sea bubble in 18th century England) w/ a unique angle (highlighting the main characters + changes in late 1600’s they led to the scientific revolution - which birthed a financial revolution) ~ and also covers 1700’s British Treasury finances and how it helped birth the empire it became.

Very much worth it for students of Financial history
2 people found this helpful
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JT
5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding our financial world
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2020
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A fantastic history on financial development. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to understand our world
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars if WeWork was a whole country
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2020
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Nothing particularly deep, or even enlightening, here, and not particularly well-written. But interesting and engaging nevertheless; a fun distraction from the modern world.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Gabriel M. Pedra
3.0 out of 5 stars It's ok
Reviewed in Brazil on March 25, 2021
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It's an 'ok' book. The first half is very elucidating, almost thrilling. The second half, not so much.
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Gunther31
5.0 out of 5 stars Many facts, presented in separate chapters
Reviewed in Germany on July 6, 2021
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Very interesting, but needs a lot of attention when reading it. Each chapter is a historic story in its own.
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