Thursday, March 9, 2023

Money by Jacob Goldstein

Money has been a handy tool for a lot of practical purposes but one can say that this has created more problems than it has solved.

Barter system is not a bet solution no matter how honest it sounds, and money comes with its own challenges. And the biggest is not just its form (coin, note, digital or crypto) but what is the value of it. Can we actually say that a government backed currency is a good solution? Convenient, yes but not good, and the convenience lives as long as people trust in it.

But why do people loose trust in currencies? There are a lot of technical answers to this question but most easily understood is the rumours. Rumours are the speed breaker in the way of any financial instrument, be it currency, shares, bonds or what not.

This book starts from the origin of money, and how it evolved into its current form. And, yes, it does get a bit complicated to grasp the whole idea which is difficult because eventually its an artificial instrument which doesn't have any value of its own. Even with the historical gold and silver coins, it leaves a lot of room to jeopardise its own value.

So, can we do away with it? Yes we can but what we're going to replace it with? Can we accept this as a necessary evil? We have to. An ideal money (or money like instrument) is possible in an ideal world where we'll not be reaching any time soon, and the form of money doesn't matter.

Irrespective of our philosophical leanings it is very difficult to do away with things like money. If you try really hard, you can reach a point where it is minimalistic but never zero.

Peace

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