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A review by ddrake
Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible by William N. Goetzmann
3.0
This book is a sort of financial companion to [b:A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World from Prehistory to Today|2413423|A Splendid Exchange How Trade Shaped the World from Prehistory to Today|William J. Bernstein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328774642s/2413423.jpg|2420600] and perhaps [b:Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States|34324534|Against the Grain A Deep History of the Earliest States|James C. Scott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1497092928s/34324534.jpg|55387238]. A lot of what we think of as a modern ill -- financial crises, government bailouts, and the like -- is actually millennia old.
Some of the historical chapters got a little dry, and the last chapter or so has a strong cheerleading tone, almost as if Geotzmann had written the entire book to lead up to the ideas of sovereign wealth funds and well-designed pension/retirement systems. But that's a minor quibble for an otherwise very impressive book.
Some of the historical chapters got a little dry, and the last chapter or so has a strong cheerleading tone, almost as if Geotzmann had written the entire book to lead up to the ideas of sovereign wealth funds and well-designed pension/retirement systems. But that's a minor quibble for an otherwise very impressive book.