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  • The End of Alchemy

  • Money, Banking and the Future of the Global Economy
  • By: Mervyn King
  • Narrated by: Roger Davis
  • Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (243 ratings)
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The End of Alchemy

By: Mervyn King
Narrated by: Roger Davis
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Summary

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

What listeners say about The End of Alchemy

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Quite a hard read

I was constantly rewinding and ended up buying a hard copy. I would say Mervyn King is not a natural story writer - not a Michael Lewis - and the subject matter is hard. King seems to argue that people 'decide' to 'bring forward future earnings to the present' because they see the low interest rates and overestimate their future earnings (a sort of rational error). I think people just get into debt because they 'can', so I found some of his theorising unconvincing. I liked his 'paradox of policy', which explains why politicians are attracted to Keynesian expansion, because it works short term, but which actually gets them deeper in the s*** long run. This explains something that had been puzzling me - why politicians believe that more debt is a solution to a debt crisis. It is a paradox, comparable to Keynes's paradox of thrift. By the way, there is not really an optimistic ending to this book.

Narration. I found it irritatingly 'Jackanory'. ie. the style is like an adult reading to a child, with exaggerated emphasis on clues as to what will happen next.

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7 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

lots of hindsight

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

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Suprised by frankness

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.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant and informative book on global financed

Would recommend to anyone wanting to understand how global finances work and the reasons behind previous downturns. Also explains his concerns on different currencies.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Nearly no anecdotal insight

Obviously too cool for school because despite an informative discussion of banking there is almost no anecdotes from his time in banking to add a bit of colour to the at times colourless theories. Worth a listen because he is obviously an expert

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Must read or listen

Succinct and to the point. Intelligent book with loads of insights and suggestions. Very well structured.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Struggled to finish, but some interesting topics

The book was good, but really long, and some parts really struggled to stay focused

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The audio is better than the actual book

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.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

excellent!

I'd highly recommend to all those interested in modern finance and economics. written in clear easy format

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Monotonous story, lacking sequence of events

I felt that the story was lacking "and so what" element at times. There was nothing new in Author's slides and several themes were totally repetitive and did not resonate with me. For example, "uncertainty" is a trendy term these days which doesn't really mean much, in my view. It was a stretch to dedicate a 1/3 of the book to a topic which is part of everyday life and has been for centuries. Narration is somewhat monotonous too.

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