The Origins of Compound Interest

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Albert Einstein referred to compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world. The Assyrian word for interest is mash, which means the offspring of a kid goat. People have been worrying about the concept of compound interest in Mesopotamian credit activities. Karl Marx picked up Arthur Price's piece on the impossibility of compounding.

On this episode, financial historian Edward Chancellor joins Nate to give a meta-history of interest rates and human societies. With recent news of global financial turmoil in response to rising interest rates, taking a look at our history could help us interpret our present and plan for the future. How deeply entangled is this financial predicament that we’ve gotten ourselves into? Can we learn from the past to reshape a more stable monetary policy in the future, or are inflating financial bubbles (and popping them) simply in our human nature?

About Edward Chancellor:

Edward Chancellor is a financial historian, journalist, and investment strategist. He is the author of Devil Take Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation and his latest book, The Price of Time, where he explains the story of capitalism is really the story of interest: the price that individuals, companies and nations pay to borrow money. He is currently a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, MoneyWeek, the New York Review of Books and Financial Times.

For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/67-edward-chancellor

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