The fascinating, entertaining story of how money connected the world-and unleashed a world of conflict.
Money is weird. It's familiar yet confusing, a deeply social invention that's also a symbol of selfishness, a driver of both material progress and economic crises.
In Money, Jacob Goldstein, cohost of NPR's "Planet Money," demystifies this ever-evolving tool, telling the brisk, captivating story of how we invented and refined-with plenty of hiccups-a resource both public and private. As Goldstein reveals, tensions have surged around money for as long as it has existed, from the paper money that helped launch an economic revolution in China a thousand years ago (while inspiring an industry of forgers); to the convicted murderer who reinvented money in 18th-century France, got rich, then had to flee a rioting country when the economy collapsed; to cryptocurrencies that have given rise to illegal online marketplaces and forced us to again confront the question of who money is supposed to be for.
The answer, as Goldstein illuminates, is all of us, but figuring out how money can serve us-and ensuring governments and bankers don't misuse it to serve themselves-is not so simple. Money is a captivating story about the unusual figures who created the engine of our economy and a powerful force that we have never quite learned to contain.
