"An economist examines three modern forces that have redefined what ""money"" means, who controls it, and what the future of finance might look like. Money is increasingly cheap, digital, and mobile. In Money in the Twenty-First Century, economist Richard
Holden examines the virtues and risks of low interest rates, mobile money, and cryptocurrencies, and explains
how these three elemental forces will continue to play out-in our wallets, on the blockchain, and throughout
major economies-in the decades to come.
Holden weaves in the stories of three people who have exerted massive influence over the future of modern
money: US treasury secretary Janet Yellen, Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin, and Raghuram Rajan, former
governor of the Reserve Bank of India and chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Moving from
micro to macro, Holden investigates the infrastructure that permits digital transactions, the currencies that
underpin them, the race for control of those currencies, shifts in policy and the international monetary system,
and the impact on our politics of money in the digital age. Ultimately, Money in the Twenty-First Century asks
if governments can keep these three tectonic powers of low interest rates, mobile money, and decentralized
finance under control."
