The Money Plot: A History of Currency's Power to Enchant, Control, and Manipulate
Frederick Kaufman
(Author)
Description
Half fable, half manifesto, this brilliant new take on the ancient concept of cash lays bare its unparalleled capacity to empower and enthrall us. Frederick Kaufman tackles the complex history of money, beginning with the earliest myths and wrapping up with Wall Street's byzantine present-day doings. Along the way, he exposes a set of allegorical plots, stock characters, and stereotypical metaphors that have long been linked with money and commercial culture, from Melanesian trading rituals to the dogma of Medieval churchmen faced with global commerce, the rationales of Mercantilism and colonial expansion, and the U.S. dollar's 1971 unpinning from gold. The Money Plot offers a tool to see through the haze of modern banking and finance, demonstrating that the standard reasons given for economic inequality--the Neoliberal gospel of market forces--are, like dollars, euros, and yuan, contingent upon structures people have designed. It shines a light on the one percent's efforts to contain a money culture that benefits them within boundaries they themselves are increasingly setting. And Kaufman warns that if we cannot recognize what is going on, we run the risk of becoming pawns and shells ourselves, of becoming characters in someone else's plot, of becoming other people's money.Product Details
Price
$27.99
Publisher
Other Press (NY)
Publish Date
November 24, 2020
Pages
304
Dimensions
6.3 X 9.1 X 1.2 inches | 1.19 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781590517185
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About the Author
Frederick Kaufman, an English professor by training and profession, has for the past decade focused his attention on the fiction that is money. His unorthodox insights into the ways of Wall Street have resulted in numerous magazine articles for publications ranging from Scientific American to Wired to Foreign Policy to Harper's, as well as television appearances on NBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business Network, and Democracy Now!, and invitations to lecture in both the United States and Europe, including an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Reviews
Praise for Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food "[An] energetic, wide-ranging work of investigative journalism...this is neither dry argumentative soup nor antiglobalization polemic, and the villains aren't black and white; Kaufman's tone is subtly ironic without being snarky--a nice addition to Michael Pollan." --Publishers Weekly "A revealing view into commodity markets and food pricing." --Kirkus Reviews "Kaufman makes a convincing and terrifying case that the same merchant bankers who destroyed our housing market--and economy--five years ago are at it again. This time their target is the world's food supply." --Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland