Does scientific, artistic or political brilliance translate into investing success? It’s a topical question with hedge funds today accused of sucking talent away from the rest of the economy. So, the FT’s Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth sat down with reporter Toby Nangle, who has dug into the archives to assess the investment portfolios of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, John Maynard Keynes and other widely regarded geniuses of the past. What Toby found may surprise you, as will the historical wildcard he’s unearthed.

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Learn more at ft.com/tsom

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Read Toby’s full FT article here.

Toby’s sources:

On Churchill: https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-More-Champagne-Churchill-Money/dp/1784081817

On J.M.W. Turner:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5718586

On John Maynard Keynes:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2023011

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2287262

On Einstein:

https://einstein-website.de/en/what-happened-to-the-nobel-prize-money/#:~:text=By%20May%201924%2C%20Mileva%20had,visible%20result%20of%20my%20musings%E2%80%9D.

On Jane Austen:

https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/vol36no1/toran/

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Guest: Toby Nangle

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producers: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Giuompasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editor: Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Long before modern economics, rulers such as Hammurabi in ancient Mesopotamia grappled with a political problem that still haunts our economies today: when people’s debts grow faster than their ability to repay them, the entire economic system can start to crack. Hammurabi adopted a radical solution: cancel debts entirely. Amanda H Podany, professor emeritus of history at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and a research affiliate at New York University, tells The Story of Money hosts, FT columnist Gillian Tett and FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth, what these debt jubilees say about how the ancient Mesopotamian economy worked and what it might teach us about debt today.

To enjoy future episodes, be sure to subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts, also on the show's dedicated YouTube channel here.

Learn more at ft.com/tsom

Want more?

Check out Dr Podany’s book, Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producers: Michela Tindera and Laurence Knight

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music and sound engineering: Breen Turner

Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Gioumpasis

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

FT Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Video editor: Kristen Kenton at Podcast Discovery

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The economist John Kenneth Galbraith once quipped that “there can be few fields of human endeavour in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance.” This show sets out to prove the opposite. Each week, FT columnist Gillian Tett and FT Alphaville editor Robin Wigglesworth dig into the ideas, personalities and institutions that have shaped global finance. From unregulated banking in 19th-century frontier America to institutionalised debt jubilees in ancient Mesopotamia, and from the birth of credit derivatives to the great market meltdowns of the past, Robin and Gillian uncover the story of money because time and again, the same manias and mistakes resurface. Tune in and you might just understand where the next financial opportunities and disasters could be hiding.

Subscribe to The Story of Money wherever you get your podcasts and watch the show on YouTube.

Find out more about Gillian Tett here and Robin Wigglesworth here

Follow FT Alphaville here

Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth

Producer: Lulu Smyth

Senior Producer: Michela Tindera

Executive Producers: Flo Phillips and Manuela Saragosa

Original music and sound engineering: Breen Turner

Podcast Development: Laura Clarke

Global Head of Audio: Cheryl Brumley

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.