Money Changes Everything
In the aftermath of recent financial crises, it's easy to see finance as a wrecking ball: something that destroys fortunes and jobs, and undermines governments and banks. In Money Changes Everything, leading financial historian William Goetzmann argues the exact opposite--that the development of finance has made the growth of civilizations possible. Goetzmann explains that finance is a time machine, a technology that allows us to move value forward and backward through time; and that this innovation has changed the very way we think about and plan for the future. He shows how finance was present at key moments in history: driving the invention of writing in ancient Mesopotamia, spurring the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome to become great empires, determining the rise and fall of dynasties in imperial China, and underwriting the trade expeditions that led Europeans to the New World. He also demonstrates how the apparatus we associate with a modern economy--stock markets, lines of credit, complex financial products, and international trade--were repeatedly developed, forgotten, and reinvented over the course of human history. Exploring the critical role of finance over the millennia, and around the world, Goetzmann details how wondrous financial technologies and institutions--money, bonds, banks, corporations, and more--have helped urban centers to expand and cultures to flourish.
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3recommend
4mentions
4people
2016–2020years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- He is interesting but also wrong a lot: https://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2013/04/david-graeber-april-f...
If you'd like an antidote to his book Debt, Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible is useful. Debt may be called "5,000 years of anecdotes:" https://jacobinmag.com/2012/08/debt-the-first-500-pages.
This: https://quillette.com/2019/09/09/the-anarchist-and-the-anthr... also doesn't cover him with glory.
He did think differently and often intelligently, which is to be admired, but "Different and also correct" is different from simply "different."
- Even in Roman times currency were debased though. Financial technology has a pretty long history (Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible, was a pretty cool read on that).
- The book mentioned in the comments is very interesting https://www.amazon.com/Money-Changes-Everything-Civilization...
"William H. Goetzmann in “Money changes everything”, a history of the influence of finance on civilisation from Babylonian times onwards, also credits Leonardo of Pisa with introducing the concept of what we now call Net Present Value in one of his Liber Abbaci problems."
- Money Changes Everything - William Goetzmann; pub 2016: A history and exploration of money and finance and its centrality in building civilization. There is a great review of the book at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/books/review/money-changes...
Chess is My Life -Victor Korchnoi; pub 1977! (One reason I like reading biographies is for the fact that occasionally, they disabuse your mind of the notion that certain people secure success with ease)
How non-conformists move the world - Adam grant and Sheryl Sandberg; 2016: Explanatory title.
The well grounded Rubyist (I'm on Chapter 13 yay!)
Deep Work - Carl Newport 2015; because it rocks as a guide for increased personal effectiveness.
All recommended.
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