{"id":8246,"date":"2008-11-29T03:35:21","date_gmt":"2008-11-29T08:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=8246"},"modified":"2018-08-11T03:37:26","modified_gmt":"2018-08-11T07:37:26","slug":"16967-janet-gleeson-millionaire-%e2%80%95-the-philanderer-gambler-and-duelist-who-invented-modern-finance-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=8246","title":{"rendered":"16967. (Janet Gleeson) Millionaire \u2015 The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1720, France suf\u00adfered a bank\u00ading and cred\u00adit cri\u00adsis, and an eco\u00adnom\u00adic melt\u00addown, because of a bub\u00adble in its new\u00adly con\u00adtrived stock mar\u00adket. The cri\u00adsis spread through the bank\u00ading and cred\u00adit sys\u00adtems of Europe. The super-rich, who had been spec\u00adu\u00adlat\u00ading wild\u00adly and mak\u00ading mon\u00adey through spe\u00adcial deals with the State, war finance, and an un-mon\u00adi\u00adtored and un-reg\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded stock mar\u00adket, were quick to get them\u00adselves bailed out and their inter\u00adests pro\u00adtect\u00aded, but for mil\u00adlions the cri\u00adsis meant ruin and star\u00adva\u00adtion. At the cen\u00adter of this sto\u00adry, which should be strange\u00adly famil\u00adiar-sound\u00ading to a read\u00ader in 2008, was the Scot\u00adtish pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal gam\u00adbler, John Law, who became France\u2019s \u201cChair\u00adman of the Fed\u201d, as well as the cre\u00adator of the infa\u00admous Mis\u00adsis\u00adsip\u00adpi Com\u00adpa\u00adny, which was at the cen\u00adter of the mar\u00adket bubble.<\/span>
\n
\nPeo\u00adple who imag\u00adine that the Neo-Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive clich\u00e9s about a \u201cself-reg\u00adu\u00adlat\u00ading mar\u00adket\u201d orig\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded with Adam Smith should take note. It\u2019s a libel on Adam Smith, who nev\u00ader said any such thing, and would have been utter\u00adly hor\u00adri\u00adfied by the crack\u00adpot bull\u00adshit spout\u00aded by today\u2019s Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtives. The rich and dis\u00adhon\u00adest have always fer\u00advent\u00adly main\u00adtained that they should not be under scruti\u00adny, or sub\u00adject to laws, and they have always pro\u00adpound\u00aded the notion with the same pompous sanc\u00adti\u00admo\u00adny. These events took place more than half a cen\u00adtu\u00adry before Smith\u2019s work was around to be trav\u00ades\u00adtied and mis\u00adquot\u00aded. As sane voic\u00ades ques\u00adtioned the absurd \u201cbull mar\u00adket\u201d he gen\u00ader\u00adat\u00aded by manip\u00adu\u00adlat\u00ading stocks and France\u2019s laws, John Law lec\u00adtured to them that \u201ccon\u00adstraint is con\u00adtrary to the prin\u00adci\u00adples upon which cred\u00adit must be built.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

This biog\u00adra\u00adpher\u2019s inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtion is rather bizarre. She is infat\u00adu\u00adat\u00aded with her sub\u00adject, and deter\u00admined to put him in the best pos\u00adsi\u00adble light. This is quite a stretch, since the events make it clear that he was an utter\u00adly ruth\u00adless scoundrel who caused immea\u00adsur\u00adable human suf\u00adfer\u00ading. But through\u00adout the book, she insists that he was an \u201cide\u00adal\u00adist\u201d, and explains away all his nas\u00adti\u00adest deeds in the most implau\u00adsi\u00adble ways. Sounds to me like the kind of crap that gets writ\u00adten about Con\u00adrad Black. But despite this, the book is a win\u00addow into a peri\u00adod in the dis\u00adtant past which is.\u2026. now.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1720, France suf\u00adfered a bank\u00ading and cred\u00adit cri\u00adsis, and an eco\u00adnom\u00adic melt\u00addown, because of a bub\u00adble in its new\u00adly con\u00adtrived stock mar\u00adket. The cri\u00adsis spread through the bank\u00ading and cred\u00adit sys\u00adtems of Europe. The super-rich, who had been speculating \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bs-reading-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8247,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8246\/revisions\/8247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}