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Money and Magic: A Critique of the Modern Economy in the Light of Goethe's Faust

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Towards the end of the middle ages, monarchs and kings came to the realization that the transmutation of elements may not be physically possible. The creation of wealth via alchemical means therefore shifted to another sphere. Rather than employ chemists laboring to create gold from lead, rulers instead hired economists to create gold from paper. The symbolism and metaphor of the alchemical process carried over from chemical to economic terms is really quite enlightening.

The relationship to the Faust legend and the role of Goethe in the development of the early modern economy makes this book a very interesting read for anyone who may be baffled by the current system of value creation in our modern economy.

The real insight of this book lies in its illumination of humankind's quest to gain mastery over time and our own mortality. Here the author demonstrates how science is used to gain predictive control over time by use of the past (the evidence of scientific method). Economics is used to master time via control over the future (money as "value" stored for future use). And the arts overcome the constraints of time by stretching out the present (the transporting nature of the sublime). The alchemical means by which this is accomplished is demonstrated clearly. Magic turns out to be very real indeed.