Money : the unauthorized biography from coinage to cryptocurrencies
Felix Martin (Author)
"What is money, and how does it work? In this tour de force of political, cultural, and economic history, Felix Martin challenges nothing less than our conventional understanding of one of humankind's greatest inventions. Martin describes how the Western idea of money emerged in the ancient world, and was shaped over the centuries by tensions between sovereigns and the emerging middle classes. Money, he argues, has always been an intensely political instrument, and that it is our failure to remember this that led to the crisis in our financial system and the Great Recession. He concludes with practical solutions for making money serve us—and, in an introduction and epilogue new to this edition, a discussion of what Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies mean for money's future. From John Locke to Montesquieu, from Sparta to the Soviet Union, Money is a far-ranging and magisterial work of history and economics, with profound implications for the world today"--Publisher's description
Print Book, English, 2015
First Vintage books edition View all formats and editions
Vintage Books, New York, 2015
History
x, 323 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
9780345803559, 9780307962447, 0345803558, 030796244X
899245257
What is money?
Getting money's measure
The Aegean invention of economic value
The monetary maquis
The birth of the money interest
The natural history of the vampire squid
The great monetary settlement
The economic consequences of Mr. Locke
Money through the looking-glass
Strategies of the sceptics
Structural solutions
Hamlet without the prince : how economics forgot money ..
... And why it is a problem
How to turn the locusts into bees
The boldest measures are the safest
Taking money seriously
Epilogue