Description
Book SynopsisHumans invented money from nothing, so why can't we live without it? And why does no one understand what it really is? In this lively tour through the centuries, Jacob Goldstein charts the story of this paradoxical commodity, exploring where money came from, why it matters and whether bitcoin will still exist in twenty years.
Full of interesting stories and quirky facts - from the islanders who used huge stones as a means of exchange to the merits of universal basic income - this is an indispensable handbook for anyone curious about how money came to make the world go round.
Trade ReviewFast-
paced and
chatty... a history of currency full of
astonishing tales you might tell a friend in the pub... Great preparation for turbulent times: a
vibrant and
accessible grounding in how the evolution of cash - organic, random and social - really works. * The New York Times *
Entertaining... [Goldstein's] strength is historical sweep, from the clay balls recording debts in Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago to decentralised encrypted electronic currencies including bitcoin. * Financial Times *
A roller coaster ride through the history of one of humanity's strangest and most consequential inventions. This is a
gripping,
mind-
bending story, and you couldn't ask for a better storyteller than Jacob Goldstein. * Tim Harford, author of How To Make The World Add Up *
A lucid, entertaining explainer of all things economic.
* Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life *
Table of Contents0: Inventing Money 1: The Origin of Money 2: When We Invented Paper Money, Had an Economic Revolution, Then Tried to Forget the Whole Thing Ever Happened 3: How Goldsmiths Accidentally Re-Invented Banks (and Brought Panic to Britain) 4: How to Get Rich with Probability 5: Finance as Time Travel: Inventing the Stock Market 6: John Law Gets to Print Money 7: The Invention of Millionaires 8: Everybody Can Have More Money 9: But Really: Can Everybody Have More Money? 10: The Gold Standard: A Love Story 11: Just Don't Call It a Central Bank 12: Money Is Dead. Long Live Money 13: How Two Guys in a Room Invented a New Kind of Money 14: A Brief History of the Euro (and Why the Dollar Works Better) 15: The Radical Dream of Digital Cash 16: CONCLUSION: The Future of Money
