Merryn Talks Money: John Law, The Gambler Who Invented Modern Money (Part 1)
Odd Lots26 Dec 2025

Merryn Talks Money: John Law, The Gambler Who Invented Modern Money (Part 1)

Hello Odd Lots listeners! As we take a break for the holidays we'd like to take a moment and bring you an episode by one of our sister shows here at Bloomberg Podcasts, Merryn Talks Money.

In this special two-part series, John Stepek and Merryn Somerset Webb tell the extraordinary story of John Law: a fugitive Scots gambler who became the most powerful financier in France and helped invent the modern monetary system. From murder and exile to paper money, banking revolutions and spectacular collapse, Law’s life reveals why today’s financial system works the way it does—and why it sometimes blows up. It’s history, scandal and monetary theory rolled into one irresistible tale.

We used a range of sources for this podcast but two key books to read if you'd like to find out more are:
John Law: A Scottish Adventurer of the Eighteenth Century (2018), by James Buchan
John Law: Economic Theorist and Policy-Maker (1997), by Antoin Murphy

Like this episode? Listen and Subscribe to the Merryn Talks Money podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts

Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox — now delivered every weekday — plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(1217)

The Hidden Plumbing of Commodity Finance

The Hidden Plumbing of Commodity Finance

We talk about the commodity supply chain all the time. We talk about the ports and the trucks and the ships and all of that. But there's another dimension to moving commodities all around the world, w...

1 Juni 46min

How the Invention of Rope Gave Us Modern Civilization

How the Invention of Rope Gave Us Modern Civilization

Rope is easy to take for granted. It seems obvious and straightforward. But of course, it had to be invented. Early humans discovered that by twisting fibers around each other, the resulting structure...

30 Maj 36min

Gita Gopinath on Why Interest Rates Have Surged All Around the World

Gita Gopinath on Why Interest Rates Have Surged All Around the World

There's been a massive selloff in the bond market and rates are rising all around the world. Japan, Korea, the UK... You name it. Gita Gopinath, Harvard economics professor and the former first deputy...

29 Maj 51min

Brendan Greeley on the Real 500-Year History of the Dollar

Brendan Greeley on the Real 500-Year History of the Dollar

We love talking about money. And of course, we love talking about the dollar, in all its varieties — from bank deposits to eurodollars to stablecoins. But what fundamentally is a dollar and who actual...

28 Maj 55min

What It Takes to Run One of London's Most Popular Pubs

What It Takes to Run One of London's Most Popular Pubs

As our listeners know, restaurants are great microcosms for macro-economic trends. They sit at the intersection of everything from consumer confidence to commodity costs to the labor market. So on our...

25 Maj 1h 8min

Architect Norman Foster on Why the West Struggles to Build Big

Architect Norman Foster on Why the West Struggles to Build Big

Not many people think of designing buildings as an exercise in economics, but the entire process is defined by constraints around resources (both physical and financial), and an iconic building can al...

23 Maj 54min

'The Assassin' Fahmi Quadir on How to Survive as a Short-Seller

'The Assassin' Fahmi Quadir on How to Survive as a Short-Seller

A short seller is a gumshoe who roots out a particular story about a specific company and brings it to light. And Fahmi Quadir, the founder and CIO of Safkhet Capital, has been labeled "The Assassin" ...

22 Maj 31min

Why Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman Built The World's Largest Computer Chip

Why Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman Built The World's Largest Computer Chip

Size is the name of the game for the AI chipmaker Cerebras: Their chips are truly massive, about the size of a dinner plate. According to Andrew Feldman, CEO and founder of Cerebras, that is about 58 ...

21 Maj 51min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
varvet
badfluence
rss-borsens-finest
uppgang-och-fall
svd-tech-brief
avanzapodden
fill-or-kill
24fragor
lastbilspodden
rss-dagen-med-di
bathina-en-podcast
borsmorgon
rss-jossan-nina
tabberaset
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
kvalitetsaktiepodden