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Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing
Money only works because we all agree to believe in it. In Money, Jacob Goldstein shows how money is a useful fiction that has shaped societies for thousands of years, from the rise of coins in ancient Greece to the first stock market in Amsterdam to the emergence of shadow banking in the 21st century.
At the heart of the story are the fringe thinkers and world leaders who reimagined money. Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor, created paper money backed by nothing, centuries before it appeared in the west. John Law, a professional gambler and convicted murderer, brought modern money to France (and destroyed the country's economy). The cypherpunks, a group of radical libertarian computer programmers, paved the way for bitcoin.
One thing they all realized: what counts as money (and what doesn't) is the result of choices we make, and those choices have a profound effect on who gets more stuff and who gets less, who gets to take risks when times are good, and who gets screwed when things go bad.
Lively, accessible, and full of interesting details (like the 43-pound copper coins that 17th-century Swedes carried strapped to their backs), Money is the story of the choices that gave us money as we know it today.
The co-host of the popular NPR podcast Planet Money provides a well-researched, entertaining, somewhat irreverent look at how money is a made-up thing that has evolved over time to suit humanity's changing needs.
At the heart of the story are the fringe thinkers and world leaders who reimagined money. Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor, created paper money backed by nothing, centuries before it appeared in the west. John Law, a professional gambler and convicted murderer, brought modern money to France (and destroyed the country's economy). The cypherpunks, a group of radical libertarian computer programmers, paved the way for bitcoin.
One thing they all realized: what counts as money (and what doesn't) is the result of choices we make, and those choices have a profound effect on who gets more stuff and who gets less, who gets to take risks when times are good, and who gets screwed when things go bad.
Lively, accessible, and full of interesting details (like the 43-pound copper coins that 17th-century Swedes carried strapped to their backs), Money is the story of the choices that gave us money as we know it today.
The co-host of the popular NPR podcast Planet Money provides a well-researched, entertaining, somewhat irreverent look at how money is a made-up thing that has evolved over time to suit humanity's changing needs.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 690 reviews
August 22, 2022
A quick and interesting book that I managed to learn a lot from in just 270 pages. Favourite chapters were on the beginning of money in the ancient world and the last one which was about bitcoin. Not feeling a proper review this morning, but that doesn't mean anything negative about the book (just me being lazy).
(PS - Did you know there used to be American bills featuring Santa Claus? This was when banks in the US were allowed to print their own money and there were 8,370 different kinds of paper money in circulation.)
(PS - Did you know there used to be American bills featuring Santa Claus? This was when banks in the US were allowed to print their own money and there were 8,370 different kinds of paper money in circulation.)
October 12, 2020
This is a fast and interesting treatment of the history of money and the controversies surrounding it. It's a planet money treatment though so not very deep. For a more thorough history, I'd recommend Felix Martin's book or Christine Desan's Making Money or Debt by Graeber
July 9, 2020
Gave up at about the halfway point.
The very thing that made me excited for this book - the fact the author is a co-host of the NPR podcast Planet Money, one of my favorite shows - caused its downfall. This didn't read like a book: it read like a transcript of a bunch of Planet Money episodes. Rather than presenting one overarching, unifying idea and then weaving a larger narrative around it, this book is a bunch of small, disconnected vignettes that are completely isolated from one another. The cute asides that work so well in spoken form are distracting and pull you away from the main thread. For most of the chapters, I had no idea why the information was being included or why I should care other than 'oh, that's mildly interesting.'
This book was deeply oversimplified. Concepts were introduced at SUCH a high level that there's no way a reader could actually learn anything about the patterns of history or economics - statements about history were so broad as to be impossible to disprove, yet so vague as to make them not really worth knowing. I had to take the author's word that what he was saying about how money worked was true, but there's not enough information to develop your own understanding.
To be fair, I may not be the target audience for this book. I think it's aimed at readers who don't typically go for personal finance or economics books and are looking for an introduction to the topic. If that describes you and you're dipping your toe into this genre, you might enjoy this a bit more. But at the same time...if that DOES describe you, just go on a Planet Money binge and pick up an introductory history of economics book that actually works as a book.
*I received a copy of this book for free from NetGalley
The very thing that made me excited for this book - the fact the author is a co-host of the NPR podcast Planet Money, one of my favorite shows - caused its downfall. This didn't read like a book: it read like a transcript of a bunch of Planet Money episodes. Rather than presenting one overarching, unifying idea and then weaving a larger narrative around it, this book is a bunch of small, disconnected vignettes that are completely isolated from one another. The cute asides that work so well in spoken form are distracting and pull you away from the main thread. For most of the chapters, I had no idea why the information was being included or why I should care other than 'oh, that's mildly interesting.'
This book was deeply oversimplified. Concepts were introduced at SUCH a high level that there's no way a reader could actually learn anything about the patterns of history or economics - statements about history were so broad as to be impossible to disprove, yet so vague as to make them not really worth knowing. I had to take the author's word that what he was saying about how money worked was true, but there's not enough information to develop your own understanding.
To be fair, I may not be the target audience for this book. I think it's aimed at readers who don't typically go for personal finance or economics books and are looking for an introduction to the topic. If that describes you and you're dipping your toe into this genre, you might enjoy this a bit more. But at the same time...if that DOES describe you, just go on a Planet Money binge and pick up an introductory history of economics book that actually works as a book.
*I received a copy of this book for free from NetGalley
September 29, 2020
Money only works because we all agree to believe in it; that's the reality of one of humanity's strangest inventions. In Money, economics columnist, Jacob Goldstein shows how money is a useful fiction that has shaped societies for thousands of years, from the rise of coins in ancient Greece to the first stock market in Amsterdam to the emergence of shadow banking in the 21st century. At the heart of the story are the fringe thinkers and world leaders who reimagined money. Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor, created paper money backed by nothing, centuries before it appeared in the west. John Law, a professional gambler and convicted murderer, brought modern money to France (and destroyed the country's economy). The cypherpunks, a group of radical libertarian computer programmers, paved the way for bitcoin.
One thing they all realised: what counts as money (and what doesn't) is the result of choices we make, and those choices have a profound effect on who gets more stuff and who gets less, who gets to take risks when times are good, and who gets screwed when things go bad. All in all, this is lively, accessible, and full of interesting details (like the 43-pound copper coins that 17th-century Swedes carried strapped to their backs), Money is the story of the choices that gave us money as we know it today. Goldstein reminds us that money is a concept rather than the paper and coins we refer to as such and through a combination of fascinating, informative and entertaining anecdotes he ensures that after picking up this book you'll never think of money in quite the same way again. Many thanks to Atlantic Books for an ARC.
One thing they all realised: what counts as money (and what doesn't) is the result of choices we make, and those choices have a profound effect on who gets more stuff and who gets less, who gets to take risks when times are good, and who gets screwed when things go bad. All in all, this is lively, accessible, and full of interesting details (like the 43-pound copper coins that 17th-century Swedes carried strapped to their backs), Money is the story of the choices that gave us money as we know it today. Goldstein reminds us that money is a concept rather than the paper and coins we refer to as such and through a combination of fascinating, informative and entertaining anecdotes he ensures that after picking up this book you'll never think of money in quite the same way again. Many thanks to Atlantic Books for an ARC.
November 3, 2022
First five star read if what I hope will be a non fiction heavy month. Learned a lot about money and thought it was easy to understand and enjoyable to listen to
May 22, 2022
It is no surprise that Jacob Goldstein, one of the minds behind Planet Money, produced an entertaining and enlightening guide to money from (nearly) its very beginning up through cryptocurrency. It is a combination of excellent stories with a lot of economic insights. Ultimately, Goldstein argues that money is whatever people think it is—and that most of the previous innovations in money have been less about the deliberate design of a new money and more backing into it, often when the government comes to the rescue in a crisis establishing the principle that whatever it was was indeed money.
It begins with the origins of metallic money and then shifts to China which invented paper money but then basically stopped using it (coincident with it stopping a lot of elements of its economic development). The story then shifts to goldsmiths in England who had what were essentially claim checks on gold that themselves became money. The story expands out beyond money narrowly defined to the origins of finance, including joint stock companies, banks and lending, public debt, life insurance, money market funds and much more. It has nice capsule biographies of John Law, the early history of crypto and much more. At times the book stretches the definition of “money” to fit subject that Goldstein seemingly wanted to include, but at times innovations themselves stretched the boundaries of what is money.
In all of this developments and innovations in money result from a combination of technological change (e.g., ability to make paper), political change (e.g., the sovereign of France needs money for wars), social changes (e.g., the empowering of the mercantile class), and is both a cause and a consequence of economic changes (e.g., greater divisions of labor).
Near the conclusion Goldstein has a nice version of this history of money and how crypto has, so far, been the exact opposite: “The history of money is largely the history of stuff becoming money without people really realizing it. Banknotes and then bank deposits started out as a record of a debt and sort of crept their way into being full-blown money. Shadow banking grew for decades before anybody thought to call it shadow banking. It was only in moments of crisis—the moment when the thing suddenly threatened to become not-money—that everyone looked around and said, well, I guess banknotes and bank deposits and money-market mutual funds are money now. The history of electronic money is exactly the opposite. Someone—David Chaum, Satoshi Nakamoto—has a very clever technological breakthrough. Then they climb up to the mountaintop and proclaim to the world: ‘Here is a new kind of money!’ And then it doesn’t really become money. Or at least it hasn’t yet.”
Highly recommended, I got a lot out of it even though I knew many of the ideas already, and if you do not do not worry—Goldstein is an excellent guide.
It begins with the origins of metallic money and then shifts to China which invented paper money but then basically stopped using it (coincident with it stopping a lot of elements of its economic development). The story then shifts to goldsmiths in England who had what were essentially claim checks on gold that themselves became money. The story expands out beyond money narrowly defined to the origins of finance, including joint stock companies, banks and lending, public debt, life insurance, money market funds and much more. It has nice capsule biographies of John Law, the early history of crypto and much more. At times the book stretches the definition of “money” to fit subject that Goldstein seemingly wanted to include, but at times innovations themselves stretched the boundaries of what is money.
In all of this developments and innovations in money result from a combination of technological change (e.g., ability to make paper), political change (e.g., the sovereign of France needs money for wars), social changes (e.g., the empowering of the mercantile class), and is both a cause and a consequence of economic changes (e.g., greater divisions of labor).
Near the conclusion Goldstein has a nice version of this history of money and how crypto has, so far, been the exact opposite: “The history of money is largely the history of stuff becoming money without people really realizing it. Banknotes and then bank deposits started out as a record of a debt and sort of crept their way into being full-blown money. Shadow banking grew for decades before anybody thought to call it shadow banking. It was only in moments of crisis—the moment when the thing suddenly threatened to become not-money—that everyone looked around and said, well, I guess banknotes and bank deposits and money-market mutual funds are money now. The history of electronic money is exactly the opposite. Someone—David Chaum, Satoshi Nakamoto—has a very clever technological breakthrough. Then they climb up to the mountaintop and proclaim to the world: ‘Here is a new kind of money!’ And then it doesn’t really become money. Or at least it hasn’t yet.”
Highly recommended, I got a lot out of it even though I knew many of the ideas already, and if you do not do not worry—Goldstein is an excellent guide.
September 27, 2020
I marked this as "magazine-article-as-book" but I really mean "podcast transcript as book." I bought this as a Kindle book minutes after hearing the author interviewed on Morning Edition, only to find that the most interesting tidbits had already been revealed in the interview. It was pleasant to read throughout but I'm not sure how much I took away from it that I didn't already know from being a newspaper reader and even occasionally listening to Planet Money.
This book is a jaunty, informal retread of information I'd already gotten from The Ascent of Money and the moments where Money was an improvement were episodes that are too recent to have been included in Ferguson's book: especially the explanation of how the shadow banking system fit into the Great Recession, and the part about bitcoin.
Sometimes I review long serious nonfiction books and get comments like "Thanks for reviewing this because I would never read it." If you would never take on The Ascent of Money and/or you are particularly interested in the most recent developments, I would recommend this--otherwise it's pretty thin.
This book is a jaunty, informal retread of information I'd already gotten from The Ascent of Money and the moments where Money was an improvement were episodes that are too recent to have been included in Ferguson's book: especially the explanation of how the shadow banking system fit into the Great Recession, and the part about bitcoin.
Sometimes I review long serious nonfiction books and get comments like "Thanks for reviewing this because I would never read it." If you would never take on The Ascent of Money and/or you are particularly interested in the most recent developments, I would recommend this--otherwise it's pretty thin.
October 31, 2021
This is a superb overview of the history of money and banking, touching on all aspects of both while swooping and diving through history, all across the globe. This is clearly not intended to be an exhaustive examination of every little detail, and it provides an enticing entry for anyone wanting to know more on this topic. As the subtitle says, it’s a true story of a made-up thing, and this truly underscores how bizarre and arbitrary the financial system is.
It does whet my appetite for more, but most books on this subject are crushingly dull. This one is refreshingly light. I hope Goldstein writes more because this is extremely engaging.
I was just thinking (and tweeted) yesterday that the way to blow a conservative’s mind is to point out that money is inherently socialist. Here we have numerous examples of that. Also the fact that the national debt is imaginary and is only used by politicians to scare people into voting. If this book were required reading, that would lose its teeth. That’s why forgiving student debt wouldn’t be a big deal, and also why the government is talking seriously about minting a trillion-dollar coin to pay for debt. Because money is completely made-up and inherently irrational. So there’s no point in getting our knickers in a twist about national spending on stuff we owe to ourselves.
There’s also no logical explanation about why the stock market does what it does other than the fact belief in it keeps it going, which Goldstein touches on here. As he says, even banks operate this way. The most financially-sound bank in the world would collapse in a second if people stopped trusting it. He gives examples of that.
The current performance of the stock market defies explanation; I’ve been expecting it to implode for a few years now because none of the supposed fundamentals are there to prop it up. 2020 made it all even worse. Housing swings, employment shifts, manufacturing cycles… all of the upheaval that traditionally freaks out the market has had almost zero effect on it. Yet here we are, right as rain falling softly on the fields. I’ve always thought Wall Street was insane, but this performance is completely divorced from reality. As Goldstein points out, it’s just belief that makes it work. I mean, the reason we haven’t seen a spike in inflation in America over the past 18 months is because we as a country have collectively decided not to. That’s kookoo bananas. Seeing as how all of this money stuff is really just a consensual reality we all agree on, it makes more sense.
But that also makes me angry that people are struggling, when they clearly don’t have to. Billionaires shouldn’t exist, not when children are starving. It’s all just bullshit, so it should be equitable. We can afford to feed and house everyone, and we can do it just by saying so. The only reason we don’t is because some people in power are petty and cruel. Books like this would open people’s eyes and take that power away.
It does whet my appetite for more, but most books on this subject are crushingly dull. This one is refreshingly light. I hope Goldstein writes more because this is extremely engaging.
I was just thinking (and tweeted) yesterday that the way to blow a conservative’s mind is to point out that money is inherently socialist. Here we have numerous examples of that. Also the fact that the national debt is imaginary and is only used by politicians to scare people into voting. If this book were required reading, that would lose its teeth. That’s why forgiving student debt wouldn’t be a big deal, and also why the government is talking seriously about minting a trillion-dollar coin to pay for debt. Because money is completely made-up and inherently irrational. So there’s no point in getting our knickers in a twist about national spending on stuff we owe to ourselves.
There’s also no logical explanation about why the stock market does what it does other than the fact belief in it keeps it going, which Goldstein touches on here. As he says, even banks operate this way. The most financially-sound bank in the world would collapse in a second if people stopped trusting it. He gives examples of that.
The current performance of the stock market defies explanation; I’ve been expecting it to implode for a few years now because none of the supposed fundamentals are there to prop it up. 2020 made it all even worse. Housing swings, employment shifts, manufacturing cycles… all of the upheaval that traditionally freaks out the market has had almost zero effect on it. Yet here we are, right as rain falling softly on the fields. I’ve always thought Wall Street was insane, but this performance is completely divorced from reality. As Goldstein points out, it’s just belief that makes it work. I mean, the reason we haven’t seen a spike in inflation in America over the past 18 months is because we as a country have collectively decided not to. That’s kookoo bananas. Seeing as how all of this money stuff is really just a consensual reality we all agree on, it makes more sense.
But that also makes me angry that people are struggling, when they clearly don’t have to. Billionaires shouldn’t exist, not when children are starving. It’s all just bullshit, so it should be equitable. We can afford to feed and house everyone, and we can do it just by saying so. The only reason we don’t is because some people in power are petty and cruel. Books like this would open people’s eyes and take that power away.
May 1, 2020
On nice, I'm the first one to review this. Woohoo. Behold all the good things I've got to say about this book.
Money is a loaded subject. That’s probably my best pun on this thing, but no guarantees I won’t try again. At any rate, it’s a fascinating subject. The made up thing of the most realistic proportions. Proverbially, it’s either (erroneously, it’s the love of…) connected to evil or makes the world go around. Presumably it can’t buy you love or make you happy, but it can buy or make you just about any other thing. So why not learn more about the actual mechanics of it? Especially when a book specifically designed to do just that just appears on Netgalley. Yes, it was time. And lean I did. I actually read the book in one day, which speaks volumes to its readability alone. But the author didn’t just make it accessible, it’s actually engaging. Not as humorous as I often prefer my serious nonfiction reads to be and not as opinionated or more like not as one or the other way leaning as some of nonfiction (especially on a subject as divisive as this one) tends to be, but a very enjoyable read all the same, this book takes you from the early days of the very invention of money to making it more practical and usable (paper money, thanks China) to making it the very soul of commerce that conquered and now rules the world. Whatever your thoughts on money, however inherently wrong the mindless pursuit of it before all others might be…let’s face it, you can use more. It’s just one of those things. No one actually needs the knowledge of economic theories to know where they stand on money. But some may want it…like I did. I was very interested in the backstory of it all and this book didn’t disappoint, in fact it educated the cr*p out of me. I learn new things and gained more theoretical knowledge of and historical context for the things I already knew or kind of knew. Some of it is pretty dense, like money markets and all the things leading up to the 2008 nightmare. Some of it is pure politics or at least economic politics, like the creation of Euro. Some of it is just an epic saga of arriving at logic…like the up and down tale of gold standard. Oh how about learning the origins of Luddites. Or meeting the man who created modern banking. Yeah, all that and so much more. And all of it…so interesting and, to the author’s credit, strikingly lively. Did I want more photos? Yes. Nerding out over some of the early moneys and so on would have been fun. But that’s what the internet’s for. Granted, you can probably learn most of this on the internet too, but for me…this is a preferred format. A well written, well put together book loaded with fascinating facts and edifying information. I can’t say this is a definitive historical account of money, there have been so many, the author cites so many, but…this is fresh, current, smart, balanced and fun. Might be a morbid reading during a financial crisis. But then again, for me anyway, knowledge is knowledge and smart is good, irrespective of the cr*appiness of the world outside. After all, the cr*appiness of world outside can almost always be directly linked to the scarcity of knowledge and paucity of smart. So yeah, read this book, learn things, be your best smartest self. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
Money is a loaded subject. That’s probably my best pun on this thing, but no guarantees I won’t try again. At any rate, it’s a fascinating subject. The made up thing of the most realistic proportions. Proverbially, it’s either (erroneously, it’s the love of…) connected to evil or makes the world go around. Presumably it can’t buy you love or make you happy, but it can buy or make you just about any other thing. So why not learn more about the actual mechanics of it? Especially when a book specifically designed to do just that just appears on Netgalley. Yes, it was time. And lean I did. I actually read the book in one day, which speaks volumes to its readability alone. But the author didn’t just make it accessible, it’s actually engaging. Not as humorous as I often prefer my serious nonfiction reads to be and not as opinionated or more like not as one or the other way leaning as some of nonfiction (especially on a subject as divisive as this one) tends to be, but a very enjoyable read all the same, this book takes you from the early days of the very invention of money to making it more practical and usable (paper money, thanks China) to making it the very soul of commerce that conquered and now rules the world. Whatever your thoughts on money, however inherently wrong the mindless pursuit of it before all others might be…let’s face it, you can use more. It’s just one of those things. No one actually needs the knowledge of economic theories to know where they stand on money. But some may want it…like I did. I was very interested in the backstory of it all and this book didn’t disappoint, in fact it educated the cr*p out of me. I learn new things and gained more theoretical knowledge of and historical context for the things I already knew or kind of knew. Some of it is pretty dense, like money markets and all the things leading up to the 2008 nightmare. Some of it is pure politics or at least economic politics, like the creation of Euro. Some of it is just an epic saga of arriving at logic…like the up and down tale of gold standard. Oh how about learning the origins of Luddites. Or meeting the man who created modern banking. Yeah, all that and so much more. And all of it…so interesting and, to the author’s credit, strikingly lively. Did I want more photos? Yes. Nerding out over some of the early moneys and so on would have been fun. But that’s what the internet’s for. Granted, you can probably learn most of this on the internet too, but for me…this is a preferred format. A well written, well put together book loaded with fascinating facts and edifying information. I can’t say this is a definitive historical account of money, there have been so many, the author cites so many, but…this is fresh, current, smart, balanced and fun. Might be a morbid reading during a financial crisis. But then again, for me anyway, knowledge is knowledge and smart is good, irrespective of the cr*appiness of the world outside. After all, the cr*appiness of world outside can almost always be directly linked to the scarcity of knowledge and paucity of smart. So yeah, read this book, learn things, be your best smartest self. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.
December 23, 2020
This is well written easy read. Covers much of the history of money in an easy to understand manner.
August 23, 2023
A brief and accurate treatise on the nature of money.
I've read lots of books like this but I haven't found one quite like this that boils down what money is in such a tight book with a dash of history and really good arguments. Goldstein gives us a nice history of how money was NOT borne out of battering and that forms of money have been around for a very, very long time in humanity. Trading companies formed the first stock companies which completely changed the way money was used. There's a nice bit of history of certain individuals like John Law in France and how their crazy ways of thinking about the nature of money can fundamentally change the future of money.
We get a nice overview of the events that led to the informal decoupling of the gold standard during the Great Depression. FDR understood that there was nothing natural about the gold standard and that it is as artificial as a free floating currency and that it was causing crazy deflation and killing debtors. FDR took quite draconian steps during this time, literally prohibiting people from cashing in money for gold and forcing blank closures. These were pretty extreme measures. They also worked as GDP and unemployment improved for the ten years after the Great Depression and before the boom of WWII.
Goldstein also gives us a nice overview of the 2007 financial crisis. Everyone knows it was caused by subprime lending wrapped into mortgage back securities. What Goldstein mentions and what everyone forgets is that the money markets at the time were acting like unregulated shadow banks and there was enormous shadow bank run which was a huge part of the crisis. Goldstein talks about the weakness of the Euro over the dollar mostly being that there is not really a central bank to back the Euro like there is a dollar. The Euro system is too fractured to ever have the strength and backing of the US federal reserve.
And then we get a nice discussion of the rise of bitcoin and crypto. It's funny how it all played out that Bitcoin was supposed to be a decentralize currency. The irony is that if Bitcoin actually worked as its framers intended, it would destroy the economy with deflation much like a currency being weighed down with the gold standard. What Bitcoin ultimately turned into is a speculative investment.
Here's a great reframing about cash: it's actually mostly for criminals. Large bills are mostly used for criminal purposes or avoiding taxes (also a crime.) Gladstone brings up a really simple solution to our money problems: get rid of banks. And no this isn't some leftist bonkers idea, it comes from the likes of Milton Friedman. Banks are essentially private companies that destroy the public resource of money. They also invent money and put it into the economy in a fairly unregulated way. Here's the idea: decouple deposit banking from investment banking. Make deposit banking at a place like the federal reserve. And then you have a separate lender backed ONLY by investment dollars. This setup would make a bank run impossible.I got to say, it's a pretty brilliant and elegant idea that will never happen. At the end of this book we get a nice intro to Modern Monetary Theory as well which is something I support.
At any rate, fantastic book and very digestible. Check it out.
I've read lots of books like this but I haven't found one quite like this that boils down what money is in such a tight book with a dash of history and really good arguments. Goldstein gives us a nice history of how money was NOT borne out of battering and that forms of money have been around for a very, very long time in humanity. Trading companies formed the first stock companies which completely changed the way money was used. There's a nice bit of history of certain individuals like John Law in France and how their crazy ways of thinking about the nature of money can fundamentally change the future of money.
We get a nice overview of the events that led to the informal decoupling of the gold standard during the Great Depression. FDR understood that there was nothing natural about the gold standard and that it is as artificial as a free floating currency and that it was causing crazy deflation and killing debtors. FDR took quite draconian steps during this time, literally prohibiting people from cashing in money for gold and forcing blank closures. These were pretty extreme measures. They also worked as GDP and unemployment improved for the ten years after the Great Depression and before the boom of WWII.
Goldstein also gives us a nice overview of the 2007 financial crisis. Everyone knows it was caused by subprime lending wrapped into mortgage back securities. What Goldstein mentions and what everyone forgets is that the money markets at the time were acting like unregulated shadow banks and there was enormous shadow bank run which was a huge part of the crisis. Goldstein talks about the weakness of the Euro over the dollar mostly being that there is not really a central bank to back the Euro like there is a dollar. The Euro system is too fractured to ever have the strength and backing of the US federal reserve.
And then we get a nice discussion of the rise of bitcoin and crypto. It's funny how it all played out that Bitcoin was supposed to be a decentralize currency. The irony is that if Bitcoin actually worked as its framers intended, it would destroy the economy with deflation much like a currency being weighed down with the gold standard. What Bitcoin ultimately turned into is a speculative investment.
Here's a great reframing about cash: it's actually mostly for criminals. Large bills are mostly used for criminal purposes or avoiding taxes (also a crime.) Gladstone brings up a really simple solution to our money problems: get rid of banks. And no this isn't some leftist bonkers idea, it comes from the likes of Milton Friedman. Banks are essentially private companies that destroy the public resource of money. They also invent money and put it into the economy in a fairly unregulated way. Here's the idea: decouple deposit banking from investment banking. Make deposit banking at a place like the federal reserve. And then you have a separate lender backed ONLY by investment dollars. This setup would make a bank run impossible.I got to say, it's a pretty brilliant and elegant idea that will never happen. At the end of this book we get a nice intro to Modern Monetary Theory as well which is something I support.
At any rate, fantastic book and very digestible. Check it out.
November 24, 2023
Available as a five-and-a-half hour unabridged audiobook, read by the author.
Often, the best time to listen to financial news reports here in the US are the days when the stock markets are closed. That’s because the absence of daily financial trivia to report means that, on occasion, there can be reportage about historical events that, sometimes, can shed more light on the way things are today than knowing that the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up or down in the last 24 hours.
National Public Radio’s Planet Money radio program and podcast often resemble a constant stream of these closed-market-day segments of reportage. I mean that as a compliment. The author of this audiobook is a Planet Money reporter, so it’s not surprising that this book sometimes resembles a series of podcasts of this franchise, strung together in a more-or-less chronological fashion. Again: this is an endorsement, not a criticism.
I have many faults. One of them is that I like reading or hearing about things that agree with previously-held opinions. I want to tell you about one of these.
These days you hear a lot of jabber, both from the left and right, about how life was better at some time in the past. Granted, things often seem bad right now, so the temptation to look back on some past golden age is tempting – but mistaken. I can tell you from hard experience that people do not like to hear the alternative view that I hold, that is, things may be bad now, but things were even worse in the past.
In support of this, I offer you a summary of Chapter 8 of this audiobook. In it, the author narrates the findings of a Yale professor named Bill Nordhaus, who looked back through history and asked the question: “If you were a typical worker in [time and place] and spent your whole day’s earnings on light, how long could you illuminate a small room with as much light as you get today from a sixty-watt light bulb?” This was a way to measure improvements in the quality of life while holding other variables constant over, literally, thousands of years, assuming that you have no fantasies that people were better off when they sat for long periods in the dark.
Four thousand years ago, in ancient Babylon, lamps were lit with sesame oil. If an average worker there spent their whole day’s salary on light, they could buy ten minutes of light – then they’d sit in the dark until the next morning. New innovations had reduced prices so that, by 1800, with an average day’s wages, you could buy one hour’s worth of light – a six-fold improvement in a little less than four thousand years. (This was NOT an improvement, however, for whales, who were killed in great numbers to make the oil which lit people’s homes.)
By 1850, kerosene (in addition to reducing the appetite for killing whales) made it possible to light a room for five hours with an average day's wages – obviously, a five-fold improvement in a fraction of the time. By the end of the 20th century, an average day's wages could buy 20,000 hours of light at the same intensity – a 4,000-fold increase, and also enough hours to light the 60-watt light bulb, burning continuously day and night, for more than two years.
Most of this audiobook is about other topics, but this is the one that stuck with me the most. In any event, this is a good book to listen to, as I did, while cooking or waiting for the symptoms of the latest malaise to abate.
This book was recommended in September 2021 on the website and podcast "99% Invisible", see here.
Often, the best time to listen to financial news reports here in the US are the days when the stock markets are closed. That’s because the absence of daily financial trivia to report means that, on occasion, there can be reportage about historical events that, sometimes, can shed more light on the way things are today than knowing that the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up or down in the last 24 hours.
National Public Radio’s Planet Money radio program and podcast often resemble a constant stream of these closed-market-day segments of reportage. I mean that as a compliment. The author of this audiobook is a Planet Money reporter, so it’s not surprising that this book sometimes resembles a series of podcasts of this franchise, strung together in a more-or-less chronological fashion. Again: this is an endorsement, not a criticism.
I have many faults. One of them is that I like reading or hearing about things that agree with previously-held opinions. I want to tell you about one of these.
These days you hear a lot of jabber, both from the left and right, about how life was better at some time in the past. Granted, things often seem bad right now, so the temptation to look back on some past golden age is tempting – but mistaken. I can tell you from hard experience that people do not like to hear the alternative view that I hold, that is, things may be bad now, but things were even worse in the past.
In support of this, I offer you a summary of Chapter 8 of this audiobook. In it, the author narrates the findings of a Yale professor named Bill Nordhaus, who looked back through history and asked the question: “If you were a typical worker in [time and place] and spent your whole day’s earnings on light, how long could you illuminate a small room with as much light as you get today from a sixty-watt light bulb?” This was a way to measure improvements in the quality of life while holding other variables constant over, literally, thousands of years, assuming that you have no fantasies that people were better off when they sat for long periods in the dark.
Four thousand years ago, in ancient Babylon, lamps were lit with sesame oil. If an average worker there spent their whole day’s salary on light, they could buy ten minutes of light – then they’d sit in the dark until the next morning. New innovations had reduced prices so that, by 1800, with an average day’s wages, you could buy one hour’s worth of light – a six-fold improvement in a little less than four thousand years. (This was NOT an improvement, however, for whales, who were killed in great numbers to make the oil which lit people’s homes.)
By 1850, kerosene (in addition to reducing the appetite for killing whales) made it possible to light a room for five hours with an average day's wages – obviously, a five-fold improvement in a fraction of the time. By the end of the 20th century, an average day's wages could buy 20,000 hours of light at the same intensity – a 4,000-fold increase, and also enough hours to light the 60-watt light bulb, burning continuously day and night, for more than two years.
Most of this audiobook is about other topics, but this is the one that stuck with me the most. In any event, this is a good book to listen to, as I did, while cooking or waiting for the symptoms of the latest malaise to abate.
This book was recommended in September 2021 on the website and podcast "99% Invisible", see here.
April 5, 2023
This is one of the better business books I’ve read recently and is kind of like masterclass meets the Economist meets the New Yorker meets Planet Money.
The book is about the development of monetary policy and Goldstein covers the early creation of money focusing on how it develop from tribute (more so than barter) and thrived in China through the Mongol empire before being dismantled.
He then skips to Europe and discusses how probability theory and tax/spending issues led to banking (originally with goldsmiths and eventually with insurance, annuities, and a stock market).
After that we skip to modern monetary policy starting with the Second central bank of the US and then the problems with the gold standard leading to the deepest problems with the Great Depression and why we need central banks to avoid deflationary spirals like took down modern economics in 1929-1933+.
Goldstein concludes with a discussion of cryptocurrencies origins and flaws (which I will summarize as a anarchist wet dream which if implemented, as Bitcoin folks hope, would be functionally digital gold standard taking us back in prosperity about 150 years with a terminal ceiling on economic growth, I.e. Bitcoin and it’s ill have no use cases, no stability as a currency and would lead to an oscillation between hyper inflation and malignant stagflation if implemented which doesn’t even seem possible).
This is a timely read for anyone interested in an accessible and fun book about monetary policy (M1 and M2 are not even mentioned it’s so smoothly written). Goldstein throws in some useful lay definitions of “money” such as it’s what you pay your taxes in or it’s the level of trust in a central banking system).
I especially appreciated the discussion of Irving Fisher and his work the Illusion of Money and how he tactically created a quasi-central banking system and helped pioneer the Federal Reserve (because Americans didn’t like the idea of a “central bank,”
apparently) and am still trying to conceptualize how Fisher’s tactics to get people to understand “money” offer inspiration on how we re-approach some legal doctrines that are fatally flawed.
Great book for anyone who wants to know about the financial system and will feel like snack food for Planet Money fans like me.
The book is about the development of monetary policy and Goldstein covers the early creation of money focusing on how it develop from tribute (more so than barter) and thrived in China through the Mongol empire before being dismantled.
He then skips to Europe and discusses how probability theory and tax/spending issues led to banking (originally with goldsmiths and eventually with insurance, annuities, and a stock market).
After that we skip to modern monetary policy starting with the Second central bank of the US and then the problems with the gold standard leading to the deepest problems with the Great Depression and why we need central banks to avoid deflationary spirals like took down modern economics in 1929-1933+.
Goldstein concludes with a discussion of cryptocurrencies origins and flaws (which I will summarize as a anarchist wet dream which if implemented, as Bitcoin folks hope, would be functionally digital gold standard taking us back in prosperity about 150 years with a terminal ceiling on economic growth, I.e. Bitcoin and it’s ill have no use cases, no stability as a currency and would lead to an oscillation between hyper inflation and malignant stagflation if implemented which doesn’t even seem possible).
This is a timely read for anyone interested in an accessible and fun book about monetary policy (M1 and M2 are not even mentioned it’s so smoothly written). Goldstein throws in some useful lay definitions of “money” such as it’s what you pay your taxes in or it’s the level of trust in a central banking system).
I especially appreciated the discussion of Irving Fisher and his work the Illusion of Money and how he tactically created a quasi-central banking system and helped pioneer the Federal Reserve (because Americans didn’t like the idea of a “central bank,”
apparently) and am still trying to conceptualize how Fisher’s tactics to get people to understand “money” offer inspiration on how we re-approach some legal doctrines that are fatally flawed.
Great book for anyone who wants to know about the financial system and will feel like snack food for Planet Money fans like me.
February 16, 2023
This book filled in the generational knowledge gap for "Its a Wonderful Life."
September 20, 2022
Breezy for sure and I think Goldstein leaves out the govts role in ‘08 — Fannie and Freddie owned a third of the mortgage market but the book’s doing a good job of explaining money quick..
His best point is that every so often money gets reinvented and things like cowrie shells or gold change into paper and electric code.
Who knows where the future goes, except the dislocation will be painful.
His best point is that every so often money gets reinvented and things like cowrie shells or gold change into paper and electric code.
Who knows where the future goes, except the dislocation will be painful.
August 2, 2022
So, what is money? Two things. One, whatever the government accepts as a tax payment. Two, whatever we all agree in our heads is valuable. That’s it. Yet, the story of how that comes to be through times and ages is fascinating. Sometimes it is comical. Others, flat out incomprehensible; but, most of the time… a combination of all these. Jacob Goldstein did a fantastic job turning what is usually a boring topic into an easily digestible and entertaining one. He will keep you reading until the end.
- Reviewed by Oscar O.
- Reviewed by Oscar O.
July 13, 2023
Because it happened a thousand years ago, China’s golden economic age of technological breakthroughs and paper money and fancy restaurants feels like a blip. And on a very long time horizon, it was dwarfed by the technological and economic growth of the past few centuries. But there’s another way of looking at this blip: it lasted about as long as our current experiment with paper money and technological breakthroughs and fancy restaurants has lasted so far. Today, we take economic growth and scientific discoveries for granted. If the economy shrinks even a little bit, for a few seasons in a row, we declare it a recession, and wonder what the problem is, and when it will get better. But one thing China’s 300-year blip tells us is this: economic growth and technological change aren’t guaranteed to continue forever. Development is not a one-way street. Civilizations don’t just get richer or stay the same. Sometimes they get poorer generation after generation. Sometimes, money itself disappears.
May 31, 2022
Jacob Goldstein's Money is an enjoyable romp through the history of money and its uses. The author reads his work with a peppy, podcast-friendly voice, which makes sense since Money is basically a bunch of Planet Money podcasts that have been loosely tied together. I'm not complaining - it makes for a fast-paced, fun read. But I could see how the lack of depth would be disappointing.
Goldstein has more fun with his bitcoin primer and explanation of the 2008 recession than with Money's actual history elements. Again, he's a Planet Money presenter playing to his strengths. Your mileage may vary! I thought the book a pleasant diversion while mowing the lawn. If you really want to find the answer to "why did we develop money," maybe look elsewhere.
Goldstein has more fun with his bitcoin primer and explanation of the 2008 recession than with Money's actual history elements. Again, he's a Planet Money presenter playing to his strengths. Your mileage may vary! I thought the book a pleasant diversion while mowing the lawn. If you really want to find the answer to "why did we develop money," maybe look elsewhere.
February 3, 2021
This book goes on the list of “things every person over 18 should be required to read” and “things they should have taught me in school”. The book is an incredible overview of the history of money as an object, money as an idea, and a lot of the problems that money has created from the time of the Babylonians to 2020. An incredible task that Goldstein accomplishes with ease.
January 24, 2021
I enjoyed this! It’s entertaining and easy to read, even for people who don’t know a lot about economics. If you enjoy Planet Money, you’ll definitely like this book.
November 15, 2020
Money : The Story of a Made up Thing (2020) by Jacob Goldstein is an entertaining introduction and history of Money. Goldstein is a journalist who has written for the Wall Street Journal and who worked on the excellent NPR podcast Planet Money.
The book is really a series of interesting stories about money and finance through the ages. There are chapters on money in ancient China, the Dutch East India Company, John Law, US banks and the start of the US Federal Reserve, the Gold standard and modern cryptocurrencies.
Money isn’t a textbook nor is it a deep book that carefully goes over the characteristics of money. However, it is a well written, entertaining book that almost everyone will learn something from.
The book is really a series of interesting stories about money and finance through the ages. There are chapters on money in ancient China, the Dutch East India Company, John Law, US banks and the start of the US Federal Reserve, the Gold standard and modern cryptocurrencies.
Money isn’t a textbook nor is it a deep book that carefully goes over the characteristics of money. However, it is a well written, entertaining book that almost everyone will learn something from.
December 21, 2020
Money seems cold and mathematical and outside the realm of fuzzy human relationships... But it's really a made-up thing, a shared fiction. Money is fundamentally, unalterably social.
A thrilling primer by one of NPR's Planet Money hosts on the development of different types of money and the systems that support them. The book introduced me to a cast of characters & institutions central to the development of financial instruments (John Law, Kublai Khan, Irving Fischer, the Dutch East India Company etc) and made me even more fascinated by others who I knew a bit about but did not understand how central they were to the reimagination of the world (FDR, John Maynard Keynes, Satoshi Nakamoto).
A thrilling primer by one of NPR's Planet Money hosts on the development of different types of money and the systems that support them. The book introduced me to a cast of characters & institutions central to the development of financial instruments (John Law, Kublai Khan, Irving Fischer, the Dutch East India Company etc) and made me even more fascinated by others who I knew a bit about but did not understand how central they were to the reimagination of the world (FDR, John Maynard Keynes, Satoshi Nakamoto).
October 13, 2021
با ترجمهی میلاد راستی تحت عنوان «پول: داستان واقعی یک چیز الکی» از نشر راهپرداخت در اپلیکشن فیدیبوک.
نویسندهی کتاب موضعی علیه پشتوانهی طلا داره و از چاپ پول حمایت میکنه. از آغاز ایجاد پول شروع میکنه و تا ارز دیجیتال و اشکالات اون پیش میاد. ایرادات حوزهی یورو را بهصورت قابلفهمی توضیح میده.
کتاب جدیده و بعد دوران کرونا نوشته شده.
در آخر کتاب از نظریهی مدرن پولی حرف میزنه که من نفهمیدم تفاوتش با بقیهی صحبتهایش، که در دفاع از چاپ پول بدون پشتوانه است، چه فرقی دارد.
هیچ اشارهای به کینز و هایک نمیکنه.
نثر کتاب روانه و این تاحدودی عجیبه، چون بهلحاظ ویراستاری هر-از-گاهی اشکالاتی ابتدایی داره.
نویسندهی کتاب موضعی علیه پشتوانهی طلا داره و از چاپ پول حمایت میکنه. از آغاز ایجاد پول شروع میکنه و تا ارز دیجیتال و اشکالات اون پیش میاد. ایرادات حوزهی یورو را بهصورت قابلفهمی توضیح میده.
کتاب جدیده و بعد دوران کرونا نوشته شده.
در آخر کتاب از نظریهی مدرن پولی حرف میزنه که من نفهمیدم تفاوتش با بقیهی صحبتهایش، که در دفاع از چاپ پول بدون پشتوانه است، چه فرقی دارد.
هیچ اشارهای به کینز و هایک نمیکنه.
نثر کتاب روانه و این تاحدودی عجیبه، چون بهلحاظ ویراستاری هر-از-گاهی اشکالاتی ابتدایی داره.
April 2, 2021
This book struck a strange balance, in that it's a very simple introduction but also assumes a certain level of financial knowledge (which I, a money idiot, do not have). I really enjoyed the early chapters on the history of money and how it came to exist as a concept, but when it moved onto more modern financial matters like... stocks? (as you can see I did not retain as much information from this book as I'd hoped), it was harder to stay focused. I'm glad I read this, but I still don't really understand money or the basics of the financial system.
September 12, 2020
Very interesting and well written.
Money is one of those strange things that seems to make a lot of sense while simultaneously making no sense whatsoever. Unsurprisingly, this book talks exactly about that. Would recommend.
Money is one of those strange things that seems to make a lot of sense while simultaneously making no sense whatsoever. Unsurprisingly, this book talks exactly about that. Would recommend.
January 7, 2022
It's a very quick read with a lot of information. I was thinking the whole time I was reading that I wanted to learn more about the subject of money.
The truth about money is that it is "a made-up thing". Even gold and silver don't hold any more value than people choose to give them. If people value paper bills and coins then they will take them in exchange for goods and services. The book provides a brief history about how this came about. In particular I have been strongly impressed by the fact that I haven't carried any amount of cash in well over a year. It's just not necessary. All my transactions are with a card connected to my bank account. This confirms something I've been saying for a long time: "Money is just a mark on a page."The important thing is to have "enough" money and not worry about getting more or losing some of what you've got. It's not important how much money you have but what you do with it to make life more enjoyable. Of course people have to decide for themselves what is enough. I think a person should make a rational decision about that and once the goal is achieved they should feel at ease. For the people that really don't have enough money I am all for the idea expressed in the book that the government could give them the money they need for food, shelter and health care. According to the book, as long as there is no shortage of goods the government could create the money they need without causing inflation.
Since it was a relatively new book I could not find a good price for a used copy on Amazon. So, even though I have enough money to buy a new copy, I borrowed a digital copy from the library. Made up or not we have to take care of the money we have. The disadvantage is that now I can't reread the book at my leisure. The solution was to refer to the Notes at the end of the book where the author makes recommendations for further study. I went on Amazon and found four books at great prices. When spending that money, since I think I have enough, not a lot but enough, I didn't mind at all because all it did was change the marks on the page at my bank. Now I can really learn in depth about this subject and read and reread at my convenience.
I strongly recommend this book as an easy introduction to an important subject. It is very important to be educated on economic issues when there are such wide divisions on government policy.
The truth about money is that it is "a made-up thing". Even gold and silver don't hold any more value than people choose to give them. If people value paper bills and coins then they will take them in exchange for goods and services. The book provides a brief history about how this came about. In particular I have been strongly impressed by the fact that I haven't carried any amount of cash in well over a year. It's just not necessary. All my transactions are with a card connected to my bank account. This confirms something I've been saying for a long time: "Money is just a mark on a page."The important thing is to have "enough" money and not worry about getting more or losing some of what you've got. It's not important how much money you have but what you do with it to make life more enjoyable. Of course people have to decide for themselves what is enough. I think a person should make a rational decision about that and once the goal is achieved they should feel at ease. For the people that really don't have enough money I am all for the idea expressed in the book that the government could give them the money they need for food, shelter and health care. According to the book, as long as there is no shortage of goods the government could create the money they need without causing inflation.
Since it was a relatively new book I could not find a good price for a used copy on Amazon. So, even though I have enough money to buy a new copy, I borrowed a digital copy from the library. Made up or not we have to take care of the money we have. The disadvantage is that now I can't reread the book at my leisure. The solution was to refer to the Notes at the end of the book where the author makes recommendations for further study. I went on Amazon and found four books at great prices. When spending that money, since I think I have enough, not a lot but enough, I didn't mind at all because all it did was change the marks on the page at my bank. Now I can really learn in depth about this subject and read and reread at my convenience.
I strongly recommend this book as an easy introduction to an important subject. It is very important to be educated on economic issues when there are such wide divisions on government policy.
September 8, 2022
I love reading non-fiction books on different topics and I was looking for a short book to read (I worry I may not complete my reading challenge this year) and Money seemed like just the book I would enjoy. However, I was quite disappointed. Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing just wasn't that good. I think the author was trying to be funny, but he's no Bill Bryson, and I finished the book not gaining any understanding about money and economics. At least it was a quick read.
Addendum: on page 5 is the following passage: "On the Northwest coast of North America, for example, at festivals called potlatch, Native American people spent days hanging out, making speeches, dancing, and giving stuff to each other. Gift giving was a power move, like insisting paying the cheque at a restaurant. Before Europeans arrived, high-status people gave furs and canoes. By the twentieth century, they were giving sewing machines and motorcycles. This wanton generosity freaked out the Canadians so much that the government made the practice illegal. People went to prison for giving each other stuff."
Um, WHAT? Perhaps Goldstein is trying to be humorous and cutesy, but the REASON that WHITE PEOPLE made potlatches illegal is to ERADICATE THE FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE. Really, I should have just stopped reading at this point. Also, when I treated my husband and sister to lunch the other day, something which they were really appreciative of, I didn't realize I was exerting a "power move".
You know what, I am so mad I am changing this from two stars to one star, just for that fucking paragraph minimizing the genocide of First Nations people.
Addendum: on page 5 is the following passage: "On the Northwest coast of North America, for example, at festivals called potlatch, Native American people spent days hanging out, making speeches, dancing, and giving stuff to each other. Gift giving was a power move, like insisting paying the cheque at a restaurant. Before Europeans arrived, high-status people gave furs and canoes. By the twentieth century, they were giving sewing machines and motorcycles. This wanton generosity freaked out the Canadians so much that the government made the practice illegal. People went to prison for giving each other stuff."
Um, WHAT? Perhaps Goldstein is trying to be humorous and cutesy, but the REASON that WHITE PEOPLE made potlatches illegal is to ERADICATE THE FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE. Really, I should have just stopped reading at this point. Also, when I treated my husband and sister to lunch the other day, something which they were really appreciative of, I didn't realize I was exerting a "power move".
You know what, I am so mad I am changing this from two stars to one star, just for that fucking paragraph minimizing the genocide of First Nations people.
September 25, 2022
Heard the author interviewed on NPR some time ago & bought the book for my shelf where it stayed for some time unread. It's a very cursory and brief treatment of the history ... past, current and future of money in the world. If you have a finance background, you may find this book too superficial, as I often found it superficial and have no formal background in finance. Overall, I had mixed feelings about the book. It's based on a podcast and it's written in a very informal conversational style. As a result, it seemed a bit disjointed at times and there were times I wanted more information, background & details. I learned a bit, but not enough. I was entertained a bit, but not enough. I have a better understanding of the subject, but not enough.
April 19, 2024
"Money only works because we all agree to believe in it."
An intriguing history of monetary mediums, policies and outcomes, with an equally engaging discussion of potential futures. I enjoyed the psycho-behavioral analyses of money. Learning about economic movements beyond bartering offered a new and interesting account for individuals, such as myself, who hold generally apathetic views toward fiscal matters.
An intriguing history of monetary mediums, policies and outcomes, with an equally engaging discussion of potential futures. I enjoyed the psycho-behavioral analyses of money. Learning about economic movements beyond bartering offered a new and interesting account for individuals, such as myself, who hold generally apathetic views toward fiscal matters.
March 7, 2023
This is a fun and quick read. It gives a fairly high-level background on the history of money in a fun and entertaining way. Even if you don't have a background in finance/economics/accounting, Jacob does a nice job of breaking things down in simpler terms. And he also gave me some things to ponder in regards to where the future of money might go (some not so obvious).
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