Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you only read one book about money this is the one., November 12, 2004
Having read numerous books on the issues of money systems I can say without equivocation this is the best by far of any I have come across including many of the Austrian economics books and those by Rothbard. All of them have their perspectives but Zarlenga's work and conclusions are a synthesis from history, well documented, and ring true on deep gut level. He makes his case very well and there is no hype or misplaced emotion as there are in many works on the money issues. Taken as a history book alone I would give the book 5 stars. Too many people, including me, have been ignorant of the historical roots of money and Zarlenga helps us to learn the dramas, political games, and debasement of money systems through the ages. It is fascinating and shocking story. What is taking place in the world now, including the Federal Reserve and World Bank is a slight variation of the historical power struggles over the control of money that go back thousands of years. The most informative issues that come out of this work is the history of gold and silver as money and how they are fiat currencies just like any other proclaimed currency. The money powers, governments, and kings have at various times decreed gold to be money (fiat) as they stood to benefit from it. Yes, gold can't be created out of nothing but it is just as fiat as a dollar bill. As a defender of the gold standard I have to admit that my notions of the gold standard have been flipped upside down even though I have read many of the Mises Institutes books. I can't say that a commodity-based money may not be useful or that the connection between paper money and its basis in gold adds integrity to the system but I do believe now that the issues is not black and white, gold or paper money. What Zarlenga elegantly makes clear is that all money, short of direct barter of goods, has always been a creature of law, i.e. someone decrees it so. As such it is open to abuse and perversion. The book, Subtitled " The Mythology of Money, the Story of Power", does a great service in taking the mythology issues and presenting them in a factual and understandable way. What I like about this book is it is common sense, down to earth, expertly researched and presented in a way that avoids the curse of too much economics jargon and pseudo-science. Money is not particle physics and it is an issue that touches each and every one of us every day. Money has, and continues to shape culture and the direction of life. Leaving the control of money, which seems to me to function as a sort of cultural economic DNA, to a private and secretive group of world elites is a recipe for life out of balance on all levels. It invites exploitation and abuse and as history show there has been much of that concerning the control of money.
Regarding the comments from a prior reviewer of the book who was somewhat critical of the work I disagree with his comment that the book does not give specific solutions. I got the sense that the reviewer wanted economic equations and esoteric pogroms that he could espouse as a scientific look at money. Money, at its roots is no more scientific than sex. Sure, you can define sex with all the science in the world but the gist of it is personal and well known to all of us. People get heated up over the issue of sex and everyone has an opinion. Money is no exception and taking the understanding and control of money and wrapping it up in academic polemics is simply a way to convince us that we need accredited experts to help us. Try that with sex and see what happens. The kinds of solutions that are needed are social and political. Zarlengas effort was not to micro-manage the topic but to show us the lay of the land and give us the broader concepts and tools to regain the control of societies money. It belongs to all of us and is part and parcel to human life and commerce. Just as "We The People" are the foundation and source of the authority for our constitution, we should also be the foundation and final arbiter of our money system. There is little difference between a dictatorship of the societal political process or the societal money process. Concentrated in the hands of the few leads to perverse distortion and societal destruction.
In my 50 years or so of life I have only a handful of books that I think are must-reads and this is one of them. With three sons all out of college and in their twenties this is one of the books I am getting for each of them to read. It is that important. I give this book 5 stars. It is a tour de force of excellent research and common sense analysis.
|
|
|
39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Hidden History of Money and Banking, July 4, 2003
This book is a "keeper"! It offers a wealth of valuable information about the history of money and banking in Western Civilization that will be indispensible for all students of history, particularly those interested in the reform of money and banking systems. It offers information that is very difficult to find elsewhere, and is the key to an in-depth understanding of history, in terms of the power exercised through the control of money. Despite all this, it is quite readable.I recall my "honors" course in the humanities at Ohio State in which I was assigned to write a paper on some aspect of ancient history. I chose the subject of money, as I thought this would offer the perfect opportunity to explore a subject which had been the object of my curiosity for some years. I spent hours searching the resources of the university library, with precious little result. I remember discovering information about the silver mining efforts of the Romans, but being generally frustrated in my search. When the dust settled, I had learned very little, and my focus returned to the physical sciences for the remainder of my college days. Much later, I came to read history as a hobby, but continued to be frustrated in my search for information about the role of money in history. With this background, reading Mr. Zarlenga's book was like drinking nectar. If only it had been available during my college days! It answered nearly all the questions about monetary history I've harbored since college. Every citizen should read this book; it has the potential to light the path to reforms that might save the present incarnation of Western Civilization from self-destruction. It will be a classic.
|
|
|
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Massive historical detail with a cogent message, November 17, 2004
This book provides a huge service to understanding one of the most central and powerful artifacts in human civilization: money. The brilliance of Zarlenga's treatment of this subject and what makes it stand out from others, is that while including massive historical detail and richness, he brings a cogent message about money that anyone (viz. the non-specialist) can walk away with. And it is, that money systems are designed by the intelligence of humans and established and empowered through a collective authority. Thus, the more all of society understands money and willingly participates in backing its authority, the greater the possibility that it will serve all people, and not private elites who may be tempted to structure its design in their favor. This single human innovation - money - has many alternative ways of being socially constructed and politically established as a means of exchange. Get the design right, and the quality of life for all people can be dramatically altered. The structural design of money will directly affect the degree to which individual market action will be morally and socially responsible. Getting the money system right can lead to the alignment of individual and collective action of people. This understanding that money is a human-specified tool (and not some mystical object that we all use but don't really know where it came from or how it works) is so important in birthing a new awareness around emergent economic and market behavior. To me, this kind of writing is a great examplar of how economics should be performed: taking a historical perspective to see what worked and what didn't work. The metaphysical clap-trap around money, as well as the professional economist's mathematical obfuscations are avoided. Seeing it for what it truly is - a designable artifact - is really the gift of this study. Highly recommended, and in my recent reading, complements Kevin Phillips', Wealth and Democracy.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Alan B. Jones
by Gary Allen
