「金钱本色」系列节目，将带领观众经历一场世界金融的史诗之旅。尼尔‧弗格森说明在每一个巨大历史现象（帝国和共和国，战争和革命）背后，总存在一个金融秘密。信用和债务的演化与促成文明崛起（从古代的巴比伦到今天的香港）的任何科技革新一样重要。从『威尼斯商人』中的奸商夏洛克要求别人以身上一磅肉还债道格拉斯哥的放高利贷者，尼尔说明信用与债务的起源，并且解释为何信用网络是任何文明不可缺少的一部分。信用网络越是发达，债权人越不可能在债务人身上利用它们的的杠杆作用(例如在「第三世界」的格拉斯哥就会这样)。确实如此，在田纳西州的孟菲斯，破产的人才是老大─利用手段躲过债务，这在从前是难以想象的。

How did finance become the realm of the masters of the universe? Through the rise of the bond market in Renaissance Italy. With the advent of bonds, war finance was transformed and spread to north-west Europe and across the Atlantic. It was the bond market that made the Rothschilds the richest and most powerful family of the 19th century. And today governments are asking it to bail them out.

Life is a risky business – which is why people take out insurance. But faced with an unexpected disaster, the state has to step in. Professor Ferguson travels to post-Katrina New Orleans to ask why the free market can't provide adequate protection against catastrophe. His quest for an answer takes him to the origins of modern insurance in the early 19th century and to the birth of the welfare state in post-war Japan.

It sounded so simple: give state-owned assets to the people. After all, what better foundation for a property-owning democracy than a campaign of privatisation encompassing housing? An economic theory says that markets can't function without mortgages, because it's only by borrowing against their assets that entrepreneurs can get their businesses off the ground. But what if mortgages are bundled together and sold off to the highest bidder?

Since the 1990s, once risky markets in Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe have become better investments than the UK or US stock market. The explanation is the rise of 'Chimerica', the economic marriage of China and the United States. But does it make sense for poor Chinese savers to lend to rich American spenders?