The Confusion

I didn't find The Confusion, Book Two of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, nearly as enjoyable as volume one. That's largely because the picaresque "Bonanza" sections of the novel don't seem to me to really add anything thematically to what we've previously seen of the adventures of Jack Shaftoe. I think this character simply isn't as fascinating as Stephenson thinks he is and it gets tedious at a certain point.

But the "Juncto" plotline dealing with the politics and economics of late 17th century Britain and Europe is great. Among other things, it contains an excellent narrative account of the seemingly mysterious fact that a shortage of money can lead to declining output of real goods and services. This is an idea people find highly counterintuitive for the very good reason that in your personal life you get more money by increasing your output of goods and services, so it seems clear that a national shortfall of money must be caused by insufficient production rather than vice versa. As Stephenson highlights, particularly at a time when people were walking around using little pieces of commodity metal as the medium of exchange this could easily become a very acute problem even in an otherwise advanced society. Given our current economic situation, for this reason alone I wish more people would read it.