by Juvoni Beckford@juvoni
Before readingWhy I picked it up
After the financial crisis and the wide scale damage that it had on the economy and the shock, it had on people's state of mind I wondered how come other countries don't use this as a weapon more. And what do you know I would happen to find a book all using currency as a weapon on a domestic and international scale. The book goes through war games and other situations with vivid details and worst case situations. I like to learn about system weak points to better understand the system as a whole and have more knowledge on how to improve it.
After readingPosted
Almost like a financial horror story, I learned some scary ways governments can manipulate their currencies as a weapon. Rickard's core theme is that the world powers are moving towards a large-scale currency war, which could potentially do a lot of damage to the world economy more so than the 2008 financial collapse. Rickard's goes over the history of past currency wars, the first leading to The Great Depression & WII, and the second leading to stagflation in the 1970s. Rickard shows many countries are devaluing their currencies to boost their exports and increase their GDP, but other countries have competitively devalued their countries to protect their local economies and exports. The author provides some suggestions to prevent the worst from happening, and I enjoyed the depth of research and how he made the content accessible to readers who lack a strong economics background.
Three reasons to read it
- History of currency wars and how money manipulation can be used as a weapon
- Learn about the tools governments have to control and manage currencies
- Insight into how international countries manage their holdings of dollars
Notes for this book are still being transcribed.
