Money in an Unequal World: Keith Hart and His Memory Bank

A rare book in that it provides cross disciplinary thought about the history of economic transactions, with more. The book is full of information and wit; it is easily readable to anyone that is used to reading academic material and offers unique thought fodder for those that are seriously interested in the world and its condition. The book is informative and aims not at advocating ideology. While this is strength the book may leave the reader a little disappointed, due to the fact that Hart offers brilliant analysis but offers no real solutions. Still, if he did that would be something on the scale of an economic enlightenment. Seemingly Hart hopes that a reader may take the matter into consideration and hopefully come up with something very interesting. I recommend this book.

Money In An Unequal World is one of those key-stone books that should (must) be read by those who think they know about economy, and by those who believe that knowing about economy's single most important tool -money- is unnecessary. Keith Hart goes beyond a simple analysis of what money is. He places money in a context, in the past and the present, as well as in the future. If we are puzzled by what's happening with the stock market, or with the `unprecedented' economic collapse of countries such as Argentina, wondering how it is possible that within a week three million middle-class citizens suddenly became the New Poor of our era (with no fault of their own ... except perhaps trust in a system -the banking system- that makes us believe `our' money is in good hands), we'll gain some insight from reading Hart's book and perhaps make some urgent decisions of our own. We'll find out that `our' money isn't ours, that our choice to work isn't really a choice, because we're pressured to earn `their' money for it's the only money available and it has very definite rules ... which most of us happen to ignore, and side-effects ... which most of us prefer not to admit are there.Money In An Unequal World will pull the veil off of money. Are we depressed because we lack enough to fulfill our dreams ... or even our most basic survival needs? Well, one of the characteristics of `their' money is that it's scarce. If it's scarce, there won't be enough, and if there isn't enough and the value can be made to drop or rise without our consent or even understanding of why this happens, then of course we'll see that suddenly, no matter how much we work, a decision made by `them' will make it possible for our savings to drop in value by fifty percent, a hundred percent, or three hundred percent, as in Argentina, or five-hundred percent, as it occurred in Ecuador during 1999. Is it fair? Who makes the rules? Why aren't we asked if this is right? The answer is simple: because we are, among 99 percent of the world's population (including most economists), unaware that money is one of the prime reasons why we live in an unequal world. As Keith Hart himself writes: "For all the rhetoric of freedom that abounds in our societies, state capitalism is based on legal and economic coercion, on the ancient principle of territorial monopoly and on the newer one of having to sell oneself in order to live. State power looks as if it is on the wane; and, while the world's money system totters from one crisis to the next, the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few large corporations seems inexorable. This is our chance to find new forms of political association, more appropriate to popular needs, and perhaps even to subvert the dominance of a capitalism enjoying the fruits of globalization."Not that Hart is against capitalism as such, but since certain expression end up meaning something much different than at first, he would prefer that we enter an era of "economi

Marx and Engels figured out capitalism. This guy has figured out money.

Dr. Keith Hart is a distinguished social anthropologist, widely published author, and scholar who has taught on both sides of the Atlantic. He is currently a professor and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He has served on the faculties of Cambridge, Yale, University of Manchester, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and McGill University.This background should tell you something already about the author's perspective and what this book will be like. "Money in an Unequal World" is a deep academic treatment of the role of money in society. For those engaged in the study of this topic, this book offers a revolutionary way of rethinking money and society. Hart addresses how internet access separates societies by controlling their access to money and commerce. He shows how money that transfers outside national controls-and taxes-gives some the distinct advantage of being able to use "wild money." Virtual capitalism will change the money balance in the world.You will find a tremendous amount of information and commentary packed into this book. Expect to encounter page after page of small print text without illustrations. There are nine tables and figures in the entire book. For the serious reader on this topic, this is a page-turner. For the occasional reader in this field, this will feel like a highly focused textbook. In the introduction, Hart describes the book as being written from memory, but each chapter is backed-up by an abundance of footnotes. Fortunately, the book is indexed to help readers find particular areas of interest. While we can certainly appreciate Dr. Hart writing such a book from his ivory-tower perspective and manner, there are some really interesting aspects of this topic of value to the lay reader. Unfortunately, the design and languaging of the book does not appeal to that market. If this topic interests you, I recommend this book. If it does not hold high academic interest, move on to another book on the topic. You'll get bogged down in this one.