A review by nick_jenkins
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson

It says quite a lot that Ferguson of all people judges the US for its recklessness, both geopolitically and in terms of using the market to provide what should be public goods (like health care and, to some extent, housing). His castigations are often self-serving—he's obviously at pains to distinguish (his) smart imperialism from Bush's dumbass imperialism—but are a reminder of how fanatical the market fundamentalists really were and are.