If there is one adjective we have heard repeatedly in the last year and a half it is “unprecedented”. It has been applied to describe the amount of monetary and fiscal stimulus that’s been poured into the economy. It has been used in relation to the pandemic lockdowns and reopenings, and the record-breaking runs in stock, bonds, real estate, and commodity markets.

Is there no historical precedent for these events? 

Who better to ask than this week’s WEALTHTRACK guest, Niall Ferguson? Ferguson has studied booms, busts, the rise and fall of empires, the power of social networks, and catastrophes of all sorts including plagues and pandemics?    

He is one of the world's leading historians and an influential commentator on contemporary politics and economics. Ferguson is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, along with being the author of numerous articles, and a regular columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

His most recent book is Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, which analyzes how societies have reacted to crises from the Roman response to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius to how various governments have handled Covid-19.

According to Ferguson, experience has taught him that understanding history does help make us better investors. In this week’s interview, he explains why.

WEALTHTRACK #1803 broadcast on 07-16-21

More info: https://wealthtrack.com/using-history-to-predict-the-markets-with-renowned-historian-niall-ferguson/

Bookshelf:

Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe - https://amzn.to/2Ujtdw3

Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire - https://amzn.to/2VL2HvP

The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West - https://amzn.to/3epbI48

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World - https://amzn.to/3z8p0u6

The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook - https://amzn.to/3B9jKrH