Naked Money: A Revealing Look at Our Financial System
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Charles Wheelan’s wonderfully whimsical, best-selling Naked series tackles the weird, surprisingly colorful world of money and banking.
Consider the $20 bill.
It has no more value, as a simple slip of paper, than Monopoly money. Yet even children recognize that tearing one into small pieces is an act of inconceivable stupidity. What makes a $20 bill actually worth twenty dollars? In the third volume of his best-selling Naked series, Charles Wheelan uses this seemingly simple question to open the door to the surprisingly colorful world of money and banking.
The search for an answer triggers countless other questions along the way: Why does paper money (“fiat currency” if you want to be fancy) even exist? And why do some nations, like Zimbabwe in the 1990s, print so much of it that it becomes more valuable as toilet paper than as currency? How do central banks use the power of money creation to stop financial crises? Why does most of Europe share a common currency, and why has that arrangement caused so much trouble? And will payment apps, bitcoin, or other new technologies render all of this moot?
In Naked Money, Wheelan tackles all of the above and more, showing us how our banking and monetary systems should work in ideal situations and revealing the havoc and suffering caused in real situations by inflation, deflation, illiquidity, and other monetary effects. Throughout, Wheelan’s uniquely bright-eyed, whimsical style brings levity and clarity to a subject often devoid of both. With illuminating stories from Argentina, Zimbabwe, North Korea, America, China, and elsewhere around the globe, Wheelan demystifies the curious world behind the paper in our wallets and the digits in our bank accounts.
15 illustrations
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (April 11, 2017)
Language : English
Paperback : 368 pages
ISBN-10 : 0393353737
ISBN-13 : 978-0393353730
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches
Customers say
Customers find the book to be an easy and intelligently written read. They say it’s a great introduction to money and the banking system. Readers appreciate the fun and interesting anecdotes and occasional footnotes with fun facts. They also mention that the information is informative and relevant.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
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Original price was: $18.95.$12.29Current price is: $12.29.