Niall Ferguson show on PBS on money
If high-finance types are as hyperactive as Niall Ferguson and his cinematographer show themselves to be in “The Ascent of Money,” it’s no wonder the world’s economy has crashed. Heed the fiscal warning signs? Can’t. Gotta rush headlong into the next investment trend.
Mr. Ferguson, the historian and best-selling author, moves at whirlwind speed in this two-hour documentary based on his recent book of the same title. The program, Tuesday on PBS, is dizzying, and not because it’s full of heady ideas. The camera work, with lots of the zooming and fast-motion tricks favored by filmmakers who fear their subject matter is intrinsically dull, comes close to inducing nausea.
A bit of motion sickness might be appropriate. Mr. Ferguson is all over the globe in this program: Memphis, Japan, Venice, Wall Street, Russia, South America, Chicago. But he generally doesn’t stay long enough in any one place to make more than a glancing point.
All of which renders “The Ascent of Money” somewhat frustrating. Mr. Ferguson is known for provocative theories and for an ability to render scholarly ideas in layman-friendly terms. Here he generally succeeds at the layman-friendly part, but the main theory isn’t provocative at all; it’s simply that all of what we have experienced lately — the housing bubble, the stock market plunge, the shady financial dealings — has happened before, and repeatedly.
Read entire article at NYT
Mr. Ferguson, the historian and best-selling author, moves at whirlwind speed in this two-hour documentary based on his recent book of the same title. The program, Tuesday on PBS, is dizzying, and not because it’s full of heady ideas. The camera work, with lots of the zooming and fast-motion tricks favored by filmmakers who fear their subject matter is intrinsically dull, comes close to inducing nausea.
A bit of motion sickness might be appropriate. Mr. Ferguson is all over the globe in this program: Memphis, Japan, Venice, Wall Street, Russia, South America, Chicago. But he generally doesn’t stay long enough in any one place to make more than a glancing point.
All of which renders “The Ascent of Money” somewhat frustrating. Mr. Ferguson is known for provocative theories and for an ability to render scholarly ideas in layman-friendly terms. Here he generally succeeds at the layman-friendly part, but the main theory isn’t provocative at all; it’s simply that all of what we have experienced lately — the housing bubble, the stock market plunge, the shady financial dealings — has happened before, and repeatedly.