From the world’s first-ever bailout by the Romans to 33% interest loans 5,000 years ago, humans have pretty much always been in financial crisis

The first recorded personal name in human history didn’t belong to a king or a priest. It belonged to a Sumerian brewer named Kashim and his name was inscribed on a clay tablet to document a loan he’d taken out.

Some 5,000 years ago, he borrowed some barley to brew a batch of beer — and, remarkably, wrote down his debts.

There was just one small problem: the interest rate was 33%, and time was running out. Could he brew the beer fast enough? Would he get paid? Would the price of barley crash and wipe him out?

“We can picture Kushim, late at night, praying for a bumper harvest,” writes economist David McWilliams in “ The History of Money: A Story of Humanity ” (Henry Holt, out Tuesday).

Kushim’s financial anxieties feel remarkably modern because they are. The interest rate on his loan