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The Death of Money: How the Electronic Economy Has Destablized the World's Markets and Created Financial Chaos
Money - in the traditional sense - no longer exists. It died to decades ago when Richard Nixon forever abolished the gold standard. Since then, money as we once knew it has been replaced by an unstable new global medium of exchange that Joel Kurtzam calls "megabyte money".
This strange new world is far more volatile and chaotic than anything that has preceded it; it involves not goods, services, or raw materials, but speculation, "weitless dollars," and transactions made purely for finacial gain.
This strange new world is far more volatile and chaotic than anything that has preceded it; it involves not goods, services, or raw materials, but speculation, "weitless dollars," and transactions made purely for finacial gain.
- GenresEconomics
256 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 28, 2007
Very interesting discussion of the workings of the stock market and its various money "products." Kurtzman also discusses the change from gold-standard-linked money to electronic money based on faith alone, and its effects, good and bad.
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August 3, 2011At the time he wrote this book in 1993, JOEL KURTZMAN was Executive Editor of the Harvard Business Review. For anyone tracking global trends toward a global electronic monetary system, this book is a "must read."
Excerpts:
"Money now is different. It is no longer a thing; it is a system. Money is a network. It is connected to the huge number-crunching supercomputers at Morgan Stanley & Company and to the PCs of individual investors ...
"Few people realize that money, in the traditional sense, has met its demise. Fewer still have paused to reflect on the implications of that fact.
"Tangible money, old-fashioned money ... is a phantom from the past, an anachronism. In its place is an entirely new form of money based not on metal or paper, but on technology, mathematics, and science. This new 'megabyte' money is creating a new and different world wherever it proceeds.
"Money is now an image."
Excerpts:
"Money now is different. It is no longer a thing; it is a system. Money is a network. It is connected to the huge number-crunching supercomputers at Morgan Stanley & Company and to the PCs of individual investors ...
"Few people realize that money, in the traditional sense, has met its demise. Fewer still have paused to reflect on the implications of that fact.
"Tangible money, old-fashioned money ... is a phantom from the past, an anachronism. In its place is an entirely new form of money based not on metal or paper, but on technology, mathematics, and science. This new 'megabyte' money is creating a new and different world wherever it proceeds.
"Money is now an image."
October 11, 2011
Written soon after the Wall Street crash of 1987, the book explores the new economy which may have brought it on. The author begins with Nixon's decision to abandon the gold standard. That lead to the creation of an economy based on debt. I get $100 and put it in a bank. The bank keeps 10% and loans 90% to builder A, who deposits his $90 in his bank, which keeps 10% and loans 90%, etc. Suddenly a $100 check become worth so many more times its original value. The author also discusses how, thanks to computers and algorithms, the economy now runs almost on automatic. There are few investors making knowledgeable decisions on individual risks, but instead relying on software to monitor the market has a whole then suggest transactions based on the whims of the day. It's a dated book, but applicable to today, especially in relation to the housing debt bubble's collapse.
January 28, 2013
Some of the best quotes from this book...
Economics, far from being just a science, also reflects our values and sensitivities. It is one of the ways in which we, as a society, organize and define ourselves. – Joel Kurtzman; The Death of Money
In spite of all its fervid activity, money remains a naked symbol with no intrinsic value of its own and no direct linkage to anything specific. It is, as the French economists like to say, merely a “token,” a simple game-board piece moved from one file to another in the world’s vast computerized database. – Joel Kurtzman; The Death of Money
If companies were run just for the shareholder, it would be as disastrous to the country as if everyone saved during a depression. Perhaps more. – Joel Kurtzman; The Death of Money
Economics, far from being just a science, also reflects our values and sensitivities. It is one of the ways in which we, as a society, organize and define ourselves. – Joel Kurtzman; The Death of Money
In spite of all its fervid activity, money remains a naked symbol with no intrinsic value of its own and no direct linkage to anything specific. It is, as the French economists like to say, merely a “token,” a simple game-board piece moved from one file to another in the world’s vast computerized database. – Joel Kurtzman; The Death of Money
If companies were run just for the shareholder, it would be as disastrous to the country as if everyone saved during a depression. Perhaps more. – Joel Kurtzman; The Death of Money
August 27, 2014
I read this for an Economics class back in 1996. The way the economy continues to change and with online payment sites such as Paypal the book is a must read for current economic students or those interested in the economy. It will only be a matter of time before some of the concerns on how "money" will change will actually exist and the question will be how will it affect the global economy.
March 30, 2016
Remarkably ahead of its time. Kurtzman foretold so much that has followed.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews