"Money Changes Everything--How Finance Made Civilization Possible" by William N. Goetzmann

12/17/2016

January 19, 2017

Discussion lead by Sol Shalit

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/books/review/money-changes-everything-by-william-n-goetzmann.html Most helpful.

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10662.html

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/william-n-goetzmann/money-changes-everything/

3 Comments

Lucy Kennedy

12/27/2016 07:42:13 pm

Wow - this was a challenging read - but worth it. I've studied some economic history but this book was unique in relating politics and culture to the development of financial tools. Excellent recommendation. Thanks Sol - sorry I won't be at the discussion.

Sol Shalit

1/10/2017 06:03:42 pm

Thank you, Lucy.
Delighted to hear you liked the book.
Indeed, the main contribution was relating money and finance to culture, society, and civilization.
Happy New Year
SOL

sol s shalit

1/25/2017 06:41:32 pm

Here is an interesting email exchange with our Richard Wise and a possibility of considering a remarkable book for a future session:

“The Market as God”, by Harvey Cox. Harvard University Press.

====================

from: ECON <tilash@gmail.com>
to: "Richard W. Wise" richard@rwwise.com
RE: Our HSG Session on "Money
DATE: January 24, 2017

Dear Richard,

At the very end of our session on “Money” you asked me a question on the “basis for conservatism”. Given the late hour, I only gave you a quick answer (Adam Smith) that was (too) narrowly confined to Laissez-faire, free-market economics. Driving back home, I thought better of it and surmised that your real intention might have been far broader: the intellectual and philosophical basis for the conservative thought. And soon, resurrected from the past, some of the following immediately came to mind; most of whom, I trust, are already familiar to you:

John Locke, Edmund Burke, Voltaire [vs. Rousseau], Alexis de Tocqueville, Alexander Hamilton, Irving Babbitt, Eric Hoffer.
And more recent:

Leo Strauss, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig vonMises, Russell Kirk, Irving Kristol, William F. Buckley Jr.

Best regards,

Sol Shalit
=================

from: Richard W. Wise <richard@rwwise.com>
to: Alan Rubin <airubin@verizon.net>
Sol S Shalit <tilash@gmail.com>

Sol,

Thanks; just started reading a book called “The Market as God” by theologian Harvey Cox.

Best,
Richard

====================

from: ECON <tilash@gmail.com>
to: "Richard W. Wise" <richard@rwwise.com>

Very interesting, Richard! I bet somewhere in the book, Cox must deal with Calvinism.

The great Max Weber, [“Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”], posited that Calvinism -- itself a reaction to Roman Catholicism's stress on priestly authority and salvation through penance -- was very comfortable with the rise of industrial capitalism. Calvinists morally justified their amassing great wealth, even when impoverishing others and widening inequality, on the grounds that their divine destiny was to prosper…

I do hope we have an opportunity to devote one our future HSG sessions to this highly interesting and relevant book. Do you think posting this exchange (as a Comment) on the HSG Website in the hope that it might attract someone to host such a session? If so, I’m prepared to do it.

Cheers,
SOL
======================
from: Richard W. Wise <richard@rwwise.com>
to: ECON <tilash@gmail.com>

It is an interesting topic and as you point out, has a long philosophical history.

The deification of the market is ubiquitous in American political discourse. It is often a suppressed premise or presupposition fueling arguments about the role of profit in health care, education and social services. Despite lots of evidence to the contrary, the S&L scandal, Enron, the 08 meltdown, for profit higher education, there is a large segment of the Republican and some elements of the Democratic Party that seems to believe that the profit motive gives rise to the only efficient method of running any sort of organization. Somehow a cast of millions each devoted to wresting the maximum return from the distribution of goods and services, somehow, it is believed, works for the good of everyone. Somehow, unless distorted by government interference, the omniscient god of the market will sort things out.

There is a historical development here, but it would require a lot of research and more than one book to do properly. Post away!

Richard
===============

from: ECON <tilash@gmail.com>
to: "Richard W. Wise" <richard@rwwise.com>

Thank you, Richard.

What you say is, indeed, a fact. But facts do not speak for themselves, they require interpretation and analysis. There is a critical element missing in this narrative: A factual analysis of the role of government in that narrative. That's why this promises to be one of our more interesting sessions, if we ever get to do it.

I shall post it, let it all hang out there and we shall see if it speaks or just whispers...

Shall I post all of it? Including this one?. I think so.

Best regard and good night.
SOL

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"Money Changes Everything--How Finance Made Civilization Possible" by William N. Goetzmann

January 19, 2017

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