Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #520673 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent book, both about money, and history!
What is the difference between digging gold out of the ground to coin, and printing paper money? The answer is shocking: in principle at least, not a lot!

Early in this fascinating book, Galbraith describes the inflation in Europe caused by the influx of gold and silver from the Spanish American Colonies. Later he details various experiments in banking and currency, including such bizarre innovations as tobacco certificates. Then his story follows the rise and fall of the gold standard, and the evolution of modern central banking. He also describes how banks can and do create money by enabling (at least) two people to spend the same money at the same time. All this is told in the proper context of the historical events which drove, and were driven by these developments.

Galbraith (1908 - 2006) was born over a century ago: hence his style may seem a little archaic to the modern reader. He is nonetheless very entertaining and at times hilarious. Another reviewer described this book as biased. I have never read an economics book which was not. Galbraith has an undisguised contempt for those who unthinkingly accept what he calls the "conventional wisdom"; but his real bias is in favour of a monetary system which is subservient to the needs of the wider economy, and hence to the greatest good of the greatest number. However, the mark of his scholarship is that those of another political persuasion could reach different conclusions while disputing very few of the facts presented.

I am very glad that this most excellent work is back in print.

Very good - but please be aware of bias
This book sets out to demystify economics, with a large degree of success. It attempts to answer questions like:

"How did banks start?"
"Where does money come from?"
"What is a loan?"
"What does a central bank do?"
"What causes a recession?"

The sort of questions that most people don't ask because they're embarrassed about not knowing the answers.

Galbraith takes us through a history of money and banking in the West from the 17th Century to the mid 1970's. It is international in scope, but, unsurprisingly, with a marked focus on America. I found his style a little quirky at first (he could have used more commas at times) but I warmed to it and ultimately found him very readable. He does however have a Keynesian and left-wing bias which becomes more evident in the last three chapters. It might be worth reading something by a monetarist, Austrian school or Classical economist to get a more balanced picture.

an alright book
i thought that it was an okay book, kind of hard to read