Frederick Kaufman believes that money has incredible power. He takes a historical approach to explore how humans went from trading goats for chickens to trading goats for sea shells, to exchanging goats for gold coins. And then Kaufman goes through the evolution of paper money.
Not surprisingly, Kaufman believes digital currencies like Bitcoin are the future of money. Right now, there are over 2000 crypto-currencies circulating in today’s world economy.
I found Kaufman’s approach to money as a metaphor very convincing. If you’re interested in money–now and in the future–The Money Plot lays it all out in clear, concise, and understandable language. GRADE: A
Table of Contents
I Small Money
Behind the Curtain 3
1 The Shell Game 7
2 The Trophy Wife 37
3 Acts of Violence and Other Words 55
4 The Soul of Money 69
5 The Crusade 87
II Big Money
The Silver of Count Hieronymus von Schlick 127
6 Money Wants to Be Free 131
7 The Buck Starts Here 145
8 The Float 179
9 How to Make Money 211
10 The End of Money 243
Acknowledgments 253
Timeline 255
Glossary of Selected Terms 261
Bibliography 267
Illustrations 287
I’ve heard a lot about money, and always wanted to try some, but so far I haven’t had much chance.
Dan, there’s wild speculation in the 2000 cryptocurrencies. Some people have made a lot of money, many have lost their shirts!
I think it was in one of Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie books that money is referred to as “an act of collective imagination.” That’s about as succinct a definition for it as I can come up with: we all believe this item has a particular value and—voila!—it does.
Deb, well said! Yes, people have to believe in the currency for it to work. But, too often we see people lose faith in certain forms of money and the result is disastrous! We’re seeing that now with many of the cryptocurrencies.
Every time I think about digital currencies my brain short circuits. I don’t know why since I virtually never deal with paper currency. I have $17 in my wallet, and the same four bills have been there for nearly two years.
Michael, clearly you have faith in your checks and credit cards. I rarely use cash especially when I travel.
It’s true. Since the pandemic, I find myself using credit cards most of the time. I only use cash of something costs a few dollars, or at most $15. Jackie would use credit cards for everything.
Jeff, Diane uses her credit cards for about 95% of her spending.
Bitcoins make me think of Elon Musk and I want to smack the living sh!t out of him. No interest in this.
Jeff, a lot of people want to smack Elon especially those investors in Dogecoin who took a 30% loss when Elon made fun of it on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.
Wow, what did he do that upset you?
Some stores no longer want cash. I can see why. Making change slows down the transaction. And with the new machines, the clerk hardly needs to touch your card. On the east coast and Canada, the waiter brings the credit card machine to your table in a restaurant. We are just a few steps away from a cashless society.
I HOPE NOT!
As long as the coins and bills are made, they should be accepted. If I were told “no cash accepted “, I’d walk out, leaving my potential purchases, and not return. I like, carry and use cash.
We don’t need to be in such a hurry that we can’t wait while change is made! Plus, the seller has to pay a fee to the credit card company, which they do not do for cash transactions.
Rick, as Patti pointed out, there are other costs to cash transactions. Sadly, many cashiers I’ve dealt with can’t do the math to make change correctly!
Patti, some people never think about the germs that are all over paper money. A credit card is much safer.
In Hungary I only pay cash when the seller/working guy says:
Do you need a bill?
And then I often ask:
Would you like Euro instead of Hungarian Forint?
For some of these people that extra money is necessary to live …
Re bitcoin I have a crazy story:
An internet site asked users to help pay the costs but it had to be done anonymously. So all in all they got around 2 bitcoins – and the someone lost/destroyed the info!
Those 2 BC would be worth around 100 000$ today – but it seems they’re lost forever.
Wolf, I’m extremely dubious about BITCOIN and many other cryptocurrencies. They are a fad right now.
I use a debit card a lot but I always have cash on hand!
Bob, a credit card is much safer than a debit card.