Reading Suggestion
I would like to second Avedon Carol’s recommendation on reading a couple of my favorite author’s books to understand banking.
In Terry Pratchett’s two novels, Going Postal and Making Money, you learn about the consummate conman, Moist von Lipwig, and his resurrection of the Post Office and the Bank in Ankh-Morpork on Discworld.
The reason for reading them is to appreciate the importance of the Post Office and have a painless introduction to Modern Monetary Theory. Making Money was published in 2007, but it could have been written about any of the ‘too big to fail’ banks involved in the our global meltdown.
An additional reason I’m reminded of Going Postal is that this Saturday, May 12th, is the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive of the Postal Workers. I participate every year by filling a bag with non-perishable food items and putting it on the mail box Friday night. The food pantries need the help, because they are serving an ever-increasing number of people.
2 comments
Going Postal was excellent. I’m glad there’s more of Moist to come.
I just finished Snuff (thank you, Houston Public Library!) and found it put a real gloss on Sam Vimes hagiography… though I’m not sure he would appreciate being made a saint…
I have Making Money but I’m saving it for a rainy day. What would we do without Sir Terry?
It really is an excellent tutorial on banking and fiat currency, although MMT is never mentioned.
It was all explained in 2007 and then we got to see the ‘family feud’ in real time as the banks collapsed on ‘Ballworld’ 😉