Paper Promises
Money, Debt and the New World Order
-
- $16.99
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Spears Business Book of the Year Award
Longlisted for the Financial Times Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award
In today's financial climate, we are all, naturally, obsessed by debt. In almost every aspect of our life we experience it - on our credit cards, mortgages, bank loans and student loans. But where has this debt come from? How does it work? What is any money really worth? And what promises do we need to believe to keep the whole system afloat?
In this fascinating look at money through the ages - including our own unstable future - award-winning financial journalist Philip Coggan examines the flawed structure of the global finance systems as they exist today, and asks, with deeper imbalances that the world is currently facing, what's actually at stake.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Coggan (The Money Machine) traces "history's tug of war between monetary shortage and excess" in this engaging and timely book about the current financial crisis. From early stages of money forms, the author portrays a clash of opposing forces and ideologies: sound money or easy money, fixed rates or floating rates, creditors or debtors. Governments' role in monetary policy is given particular attention with respect to the Keynesian/monetarist debate: do we use fiscal stimulus to interfere with the markets or do we give it free rein? Through many diverse topics exchange rates (being "the history of paper money") and the forces driving their wide and volatile swings, bubbles, "debt-fueled booms," and the Minsky effect Coggan outlines his main thesis: "Money (debt) expanded to gratify the desire of the consumers and businesses for greater economic activity (more trade)." The book concludes with a discussion of the consequences of the debt crisis, namely, "inflation, stagnation and default," and outlines a new system. A history of economics is avoided; many major economists, such as Marx, Marshall, and Walras, never show up. However, these omissions prove expedient and allow this otherwise dense treatment to maintain direction and flow. A thoughtful and thorough book aimed at the layperson.
