3:9:12 The End of Money, a book review

When I first heard of David Wolman's The End of Money: Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers--and the Coming Cashless Society, I was skeptical. Dismissed it as a geek fantasy I might expect from a Wired Contributing Editor (which Wolman is). If people have faith in anything, it's the green stuff. But Wolman travelled the globe in search of the authorities and characters who reveal what a cashless future might be like. And he upped the ante on his belief by going a year without coin or bills.

Still, as a reader who knows a smidge about money (including a "Money and Capital Markets" course in grad school), I knew any resolving narrative about a cashless future was sure to descend into financial arcana likely to engage only the most stubborn of readers.

[book cover]I was wrong!

The End of Money is not economic tedium--or its frequent cousin--an agenda-laden screed. Au contraire, Wolman engages us with colorful character portraits showing different aspects of our monetary lives and where we're headed. Each chapter has a theme and a character type we meet.

Thus, Chapter 1, "The Missionary," introduces Glenn Guest, pastor at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Danielsville, Georgia. Pastor Guest likes the hard-money, 1800s stance of a Ron Paul. Any notion of quitting cash for digits and plastic smacks of the Number of the Beast and related signs of the Apocalypse.

Chapter 3, "The Counterfeiters," introduces characters (and a nation: Ever wonder how pariah North Korea gets by?) using hi-tech to speed along the collapse of our coin and bill currencies. (Typical of how Wolman delves into monetary history, we learn Sir Isaac Newton, remembered as the physicist who sat under an apple tree, once took a job as head of the Royal Mint of England. He caught and convicted a bill forger, subsequently hung, drawn, and quartered.)

Perhaps the most uplifting chapter is Chapter 7, "The Revolutionaries." A revolution is afoot in places of traditional squalor like Kenya and the slums of India. Cash it turns out punishes the poor, who can't afford bank accounts to save money. But "leapfrog" cellphone technology changes that. Saving is now as simple as a text message. This third-world financial revolution outpaces our own!

Am I convinced of Wolman's cashless future? Let me answer this way: I read The End of Money on an e-reader. I now read more e-books than paper books. Not that many years ago, I didn't see this for my future. We should enjoy Wolman's scenario for the heads-up it is.

The End of Money by David Wolman, Da Capo Press/Perseus, Philadelphia, 2012, 228 pp., ISBNs: 978-0-306-81883-7 (hardcover) & 978-0-306-81946-9 (e-book).



Read more ...
(click to enlarge image)

The Cat at Light's End

Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection, The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:

.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)



more posts

7:25:13 Le Havre by Kaurismaki
7:20:13 This Ain't California
6:27:13 The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, a book review
5.29.13 My Linux (Mis)Adventures
5.25.13 Southern Cross the Dog, a book review
5.5.13 Russian Tumbleweed
4:16:13 "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster
3.26.13 Camera-rama
3.25.13 Moore's Law
3:13:13 Grocery Shopping 
2:28:13 Razor Blade in Moonlight
1:27:13 Made in Russia: Unsung Icons of Soviet Design, a book review
1:6:13 Alleys
12:9:12 White Bread, a book review
12:4:12 Update on Old-School Shaving
11:12:12 Ten Great Buys at Dollar Tree
11:6:12 My New Russian Camera
10:29:12 Leaf Day
10:2:12 The Russian Navy in New York?
9:21:12 The Righteous Mind, a book review
9:14:12 Revolution, 1989, a book review
8:23:12 Train Whistles in the Night
8:2:12 Why I've Stockpiled Light Bulbs
7:22:12 Old-School Shaving
7:16:12 Злектроника МК-52, computer de minimus
7:4:12 Ivan's Childhood by Tarkovsky
6:21:12 The Unabomber, a modern Thoreau?
6:12:12 Do the gods exist?
6:7:12 My "Retail Therapy"
5:28:12 On Taxes, We Should Go Green
5:17:12 Portland's Trash
5:6:12 The Toaster Project, a book review
4:24:12 No Seconds
4:12:12 Portland's Runaway Utility Bill
4:8:12 The Repossession, a book review
3:30:12 How I Got Published in Mississippi Review
3:18:12 Rothko
3:9:12 The End of Money, a book review
3:1:12 gutenberg.org
2:18:12 Beauty Plus Pity, a book review
2:5:12 Kirk's Castile Soap
1:29:12 Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer, a book review
1:22:12 Thirst, a book review
1:17:12 My IBM ThinkPad 1999-2012
1:11:12 String Beans
12:22:11 Spiritual TMJ
12:16:11 1Q84, a book review
12:11:11 How Portland Became Portlandia
12:1:11 The Fixie
11:20:11 Camus' Insight
11:13:11 Old & Worthy
11:7:11 Life Is Tragic
10:31:11 A Matter of Death and Life, a book review
10:25:11 Dead Letter, Email Fatigue
10:18:11 Reinventing Collapse, a book review
10:11:11 Rereading Pirsig
10:1:11 The Sisters Brothers, a book review
9:26:11 The Great Stagnation, a book review
9:16:11 Coffee, The Affordable Luxury
9:12:11 The Genius of Value
9:5:11 Death and the Penguin, a book review

home