02450cam a2200289 i 4500 on1143621518 OCoLC ta 200309s2020 nyuab b 000 0 eng 9781590517185 (hbk.) 1590517180 (hbk.) (OCoLC)1143621518 HG221 .K28 2020 Kaufman, Frederick, 1961- The money plot : a history of currency's power to enchant, control, and manipulate / Frederick Kaufman. New York : Other Press, c2020. 287 p. : ill., map. Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-285). I. Small money -- Behind the curtain -- 1. The shell game -- 2. The trophy wife -- 3. Acts of violence and other words -- 4. The soul of money -- 5. The crusade -- II. Big money -- The silver of Count Hieronymus von Schlick -- 6. Money wants to be free -- 7. The buck starts here -- 8. The float -- 9. How to make money -- 10. The end of money. . "Half fable, half manifesto, this brilliant new take on the ancient concept of cash lays bare its unparalleled capacity to empower, enchant, and control us. Frederick Kaufman tackles the complex history of money, beginning with the earliest myths and wrapping up with Wall Street's byzantine present-day doings. Along the way, he exposes a set of allegorical plots, stock characters, and stereotypical metaphors that have long been linked with money and commercial culture, from Melanesian trading rituals to the dogma of Medieval churchmen faced with global commerce, the rationales of Mercantilism and colonial expansion, and the U.S. dollar's 1971 unpinning from gold. The Money Plot offers a tool to see through the haze of modern banking and finance, demonstrating that the standard reasons given for economic inequality-the Neoliberal gospel of market forces-are, like dollars, euros, and yuan, contingent upon structures people have designed. It shines a light on the one percent's efforts to contain a money culture that benefits them within boundaries they themselves are increasingly setting. And Kaufman warns that if we cannot recognize what is going on, we run the risk of becoming pawns and shells ourselves, of becoming other people's money"-- Money History. Banks and banking History. Commerce History. Precious metals. Bitcoin. lcc BK 0 0 0 0 PNLIB PNLIB GEN 2021-06-17 HG221 .K28 2020 PNLIB21060506 2021-06-17 2021-06-17 BK 692 692