"Money Makes the World Go Around"

February 24, 2020 | Bill V.

I was watching Cabaret last night, and as always was blown away by Liza Mannelli and Joel Grey's performances and Bob Fosse's choreography. So I thought to myself as I was humming this song on the way to work, why not write a blog about money?

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

"Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance. Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it's the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it's the chains of labor. But in The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress."

And don't miss the DVD version of The Ascent of Money.

The History of Money

"In his most widely appealing book yet, one of today's leading authors of popular anthropology looks at the intriguing history and peculiar nature of money, tracing our relationship with it from the time when primitive men exchanged cowrie shells to the imminent arrival of the all-purpose electronic cash card."

History of Money: From Ancient Times to the Present Day

"A new edition of a detailed, scholarly analysis of the development and role of money in many of the world's nations from ancient to modern times."

Money: A History

"Money tells the story of coins and paper money from ancient to modern times. The book is an exciting collaboration by curators at the British Museum, home to one of the world's finest numismatic collections. Profusely illustrated with 545 color and archival images, Money traces the use of monetary exchange from a primitive barter system to the online, cashless systems operating today."

Money: The Unauthorised Biography

"What is money and how does it work? The conventional answer is that once upon a time people exchanged what they produced for what they wanted--cod in Newfoundland, sugar in the West Indies, tobacco in Virginia--and that today's financial universe evolved from barter. But there is a problem with this story. It's wrong. And dangerous."

Naked Money: A Revealing Look at What It Is and Why It Matters

"We use money every day. Yet the practice of exchanging paper or bytes for goods and services seems absurd if you think about it. Naked Money explores why money exists and why it so often gets entire nations in trouble.Charles Wheelan explains with his trademark wit and refreshing clarity how our banks and monetary systems should work in ideal situations, and he reveals the havoc and suffering caused in real situations by inflation, deflation, illiquidity and other monetary effects. With illuminating stories from Argentina, Zimbabwe, North Korea, America, China and elsewhere around the world, Naked Money demystifies the curious world behind the paper in our wallets and the digits in our bank accounts."

Money Art An Uneasy Alliance (DVD)

"Guided by historians, art collectors, economists, and artists, this documentary travels through history, revealing the unique relationship between money and art." You might also be interested in Money Origami.

Show Me the Money: The Image of Finance, 1700 to the Present

"Show me the money: The image of finance, 1700 to the present documents how the financial world has been imagined in art, illustration, photography and other visual media over the last three centuries in Britain and the United States. Richly illustrated, it tells the story of how artists have grappled with the increasingly intangible and self-referential nature of money and finance, from the South Sea Bubble of the eighteenth century to the global financial crisis of 2008. Show me the money sets out the history and politics of representations of finance through five essays by academic experts and curators, and is interspersed with provocative think pieces by notable public commentators on finance and art."

Eyewitness Books: Money

"From the earliest forms of money to the intricate banking systems we have today, currency has been around for millennia, whether made from stones and shells to the coins and paper we see today. This guide details various types of currency from both the past and present, from the sea salt money of Ethiopia to the modern Euro. Discover where the term piggy bank came from, why Ancient Greeks put coins in the mouths of dead people, and how coins and banknotes are made today."

Gold: The Once and Future Money

"For most of the last three millennia, the world's commercial centers have used one or another variant of a gold standard. It should be one of the best understood of human institutions, but it's not. It's one of the worst understood, by both its advocates and detractors. Though it has been spurned by governments many times, this has never been due to a fault of gold to serve its duty, but because governments had other plans for their currencies beyond maintaining their stability. And so, says Nathan Lewis, there is no reason to believe that the great monetary successes of the past four centuries, and indeed the past four millennia, could not be recreated in the next four centuries. In Gold,he makes a forceful, well-documented case for a worldwide return to the gold standard."

The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order

"When turmoil strikes world monetary and financial markets, leaders invariably call for 'a new Bretton Woods' to prevent catastrophic economic disorder and defuse political conflict. The name of the remote New Hampshire town where representatives of forty-four nations gathered in July 1944, in the midst of the century's second great war, has become shorthand for enlightened globalization"

The Coin Atlas: The World of Coinage from Its Origins to the Present Day

"Discusses the history of coinage, stressing the development of differing world traditions."

Warman's Coins & Paper Money: Identification and Price Guide

"2014 The popularity of collecting coins and paper money is at an all-time high. Now you can enjoy this dynamic and rewarding hobby with Warman's Coins and Paper Money, a helpful, comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide from a publisher with more than 60 years of numismatic experience. This thoroughly researched and richly illustrated reference contains nearly 1,000 color images and detailed listings with historical references to assist even the newest of enthusiasts." You may also be interested in:

Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System

"First published more than a decade ago, Globalizing Capital has remained an indispensable part of economic literature. This classic book emphasizes the importance of the international monetary system for understanding the international economy. This edition is published in 2019 and updated". See also A Brief History of Doom: Two Hundred Years of Financial Crises.

FAKE: Fake Money, Fake Teachers, Fake Assets: How Lies Are Making the Poor and Middle Class Poorer

"The author uses his perspectives and insights into financial events and crises in his lifetime as well as references drawn from Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller's 1983 work, Grunch of giants and Steven Brill's May 28, 2018 Time magazine article to illustrate what may be on the world's financial horizon and how individuals can better insulate their finances from these possible events."

The Finance Curse: How Global Finance is Making Us All Poorer

"Financial journalist Nicholas Shaxson first made his reputation as a war reporter studying the 'resource curse,' seeing first-hand the disastrous economic and societal effects that followed the discovery of oil in Angola. He then gained prominence as an expert on tax havens, revealing the dark corners of that world long before the scandals of the Panama and Paradise Papers. Now, in The Finance Curse, revised with chapters exclusive to the American edition, he brings his broad knowledge to bear in an eye-opening investigation of how finance has overbalanced the economies of Western democracies, exerting an outsize effect on policy-making and effecting a brain drain of the brightest and best to the financial industry and its offshoots, much to the detriment of both the business sector and broader society."

The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary

"The international monetary system has collapsed three times in the past hundred years, in 1914, 1939, and 1971. Each collapse was followed by a period of tumult: war, civil unrest, or significant damage to the stability of the global economy. Now James Rickards, the acclaimed author of Currency Wars, shows why another collapse is rapidly approaching--and why this time, nothing less than the institution of money itself is at risk."

You might also be interested in these titles:

Grokking Bitcoin

"Inflation, depressed economies, debased currencies... these are just a few of the problems centralized banking has caused throughout history. Bitcoin, a digital currency created with the ambition to shift control away from change-prone governments, has the potential to bring an end to those problems once and for all. It's time to find out how it can help you. Grokking Bitcoin explains why Bitcoin's supporters trust it so deeply, and why you can too. This approachable book will introduce you to Bitcoin's groundbreaking technology, which is the key to this world-changing system. This illustrated, easy-to-read guide prepares you for a new way of thinking with easy-to-follow diagrams and exercises."

Inside Blockchain, Bitcoin, and Cryptocurrencies

"This book covers blockchain from the underlying principles to how it enables applications to survive and surf on its shoulder. Having covered the fundamentals of blockchain, the book turns to cryptocurrency. It thoroughly examines Bitcoin before presenting six other major currencies in a rounded discussion. The book then bridges between technology and finance, concentrating on how blockchain-based applications, including cryptocurrencies, have pushed hard against mainstream industries in a bid to cement their positions permanent. It discusses blockchain as underlying banking technology, crypto mining and offering, cryptocurrency as investment instruments, crypto regulations, and markets."