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jtfales's review against another edition
4.0
Light, entertaining read that explores what societies have used for money throughout history. In doing so, it challenges our conception of modern money, identifying several types of monies in use in the USA currently, such as money market accounts. Great audiobook read by the author, a radio personality.
The central message that it is really BANKS that create our money was shocking to me and frankly, hard to wrap my head around. (I’m still trying.) The corollary that it is a wild and reckless policy to allow banks to claim to hold our money, but then lend multiple times that value out to people, also hit home.
Despite the high level analysis, I still managed to get lost in the discussion of the gold standard. Every change in monetary policy is good for creditors and bad for debtors or vice versa, and it’s hard to keep both parties interests in mind through the discussion.
I found the discussion of cryptocurrencies both too simple and not simple enough (as almost any discussion of crypto is doomed to be!). I was shocked the author didn’t even mention Ethereum, which gave people something to spend their crypto on (most notably NFTs), given his ultimate conclusion that Bitcoin has been a questionable innovation since it’s not very useful as a store of value or monetary exchange. The rise of *useful* cryptocurrency would have been more relevant to the book than than the play by play of how Bitcoin was invented, in my opinion.
The section at the very end about potential monetary reforms, while brief, was also fascinating.
The central message that it is really BANKS that create our money was shocking to me and frankly, hard to wrap my head around. (I’m still trying.) The corollary that it is a wild and reckless policy to allow banks to claim to hold our money, but then lend multiple times that value out to people, also hit home.
Despite the high level analysis, I still managed to get lost in the discussion of the gold standard. Every change in monetary policy is good for creditors and bad for debtors or vice versa, and it’s hard to keep both parties interests in mind through the discussion.
I found the discussion of cryptocurrencies both too simple and not simple enough (as almost any discussion of crypto is doomed to be!). I was shocked the author didn’t even mention Ethereum, which gave people something to spend their crypto on (most notably NFTs), given his ultimate conclusion that Bitcoin has been a questionable innovation since it’s not very useful as a store of value or monetary exchange. The rise of *useful* cryptocurrency would have been more relevant to the book than than the play by play of how Bitcoin was invented, in my opinion.
The section at the very end about potential monetary reforms, while brief, was also fascinating.
bucketoffish's review against another edition
4.0
I found this book to be very interesting and fast moving. It covered many interesting innovations in the history of money, from its invention to modern developments like money market funds and Bitcoin. I found it interesting that so many of the things we find intuitive about our modern system were worked out by trial and error over millenia, and that there are still many problems that remain to be solved.
kimmeyer's review against another edition
4.0
If you're interested in finance history and economics but know VERY little about it, this is fascinating. It's definitely podcast-like content strung together in a book though so probably not ideal for someone well versed in the subject or religiously listening to Planet Money.
_nayla_'s review against another edition
4.0
A pretty solid beginner's guide to understanding the concept of money. A lot of memorable tidbits of information, but what stuck with me was the sentiment that people will very quickly fall into the trap of "it has always been this way" and "it's how the world works" without examining the why. Goldstein reminded us of this several times, and I must admit I needed that reminder.
The audiobook read like a podcast, which I believe is the best way to consume things like this. Sometimes you want to learn things in a fun way! (Bonus: he actually knows how to read into a mic, unlike other author reads. Much appreciated.)
Overall: A fun little nonfiction book that'll probably want to make you listen to Planet Money — a few episodes, anyway
The audiobook read like a podcast, which I believe is the best way to consume things like this. Sometimes you want to learn things in a fun way! (Bonus: he actually knows how to read into a mic, unlike other author reads. Much appreciated.)
Overall: A fun little nonfiction book that'll probably want to make you listen to Planet Money — a few episodes, anyway
lilylikesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I actually learned things about money and finance, which I didn’t think was possible. He writes super intelligibly and with a wry wit. Definitely recommend to your novice economist