Money
Book description
From ancient currency to Adam Smith, from the gold standard to shadow banking and the Great Recession: a sweeping historical epic that traces the development and evolution of one of humankind’s greatest inventions.
What is money, and how does it work? In this tour de force of political, cultural and…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Money as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Money is often thought of as a valuable thing, like gold or silver.
This leads us to presume that it must be finite in quality due to its scarcity. Drawing on anthropological studies of objects such as Yap stones, massive stone disks found on a far-flung island in the Pacific Ocean.
Martin shows instead that money is not so much a thing but an abstract system for tracking who has what and who is entitled to what, similar to what the anthropologist Keith Hart has called a “memory bank.” By rethinking money along these lines, we might be able to…
From Daromir's list on how anthropology helps us understand the economy.
Most people think of economics as just everything to do with money (it’s more than that, of course, but it is a lot to do with money). We all think of money as a fixed thing – as notes or coins, or entries in our bank account. Felix argues that money is really a social technology, a set of ideas and practices for organising society. This quietly revolutionary book will change how you think about an important part of all our lives.
From Rebecca's list on economics for people who are allergic to algebra.
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