Links & notes: 'Money' by Jacob Goldstein

Thank you to everyone who attended this Sunday's conversation of Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein and helped to unspool the evolving complexity of "this made up thing."

Links for further exploration from the conversation include:

• Two of our recent books covered content related to aspects of the historical parts of Money: Metropolis by Ben Wilson and Extraordinary Popular Delusions by Charles MacKay.

• The Swedish Institute delves into the country's growing embrace of a cashless society--and the resistance.

• San Francisco-based nonprofit Earthjustice co-published a 2022 guide about the environmental impact of cryptocurrency and data mining.

• NPR's Fresh Air recently featured Jeanna Smialek, author of Limitless: The Federal Reserve Takes On a New Age of Crisis. You can read the transcript or listen here.

• The World Affairs Council has a couple of recent podcast episodes on global economic issues: "21 Economies Walk Into a Conference Room" and "Can Microloans Lift Women Out of Poverty?"

• And one more article of interest shared by one of our members: Politico published an analysis of gun violence trends across the country. Author Colin Woodard (whose book American Nations we read in 2013) traces the variance in rates of gun deaths around the country to colonial times.

Our May Discussion

In May, we turn to Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'Neil.

Discussion details:

Sunday, May 28, 2023

11:00 a.m. to approx. 12:15 p.m.

Where:

In person at Books Inc. Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco

The paperback of the book is in stock and available for purchase at a discount at Books Inc. Opera Plaza. (Ask at the check-out desk.)

Ebooks also can be purchased through Books Inc.

Thank you, as always, for reading!