Money, Markets, and Sovereignty
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Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds
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Format: PaperPrice: $37.00
Winner of the 2010 Hayek Book Prize given by the Manhattan Institute
"Money, Markets and Sovereignty is a surprisingly easy read, given the complicated issues covered. In it, Mr. Steil and Mr. Hinds consistently challenge today's statist nostrums."—Doug Bandow, The Washington Times
In this keenly argued book, Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds offer the most powerful defense of economic liberalism since F. A. Hayek published The Road to Serfdom more than sixty years ago. The authors present a fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present and explore why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization.
Steil and Hinds describe the current state of international economic relations as both unusual and precarious. Eras of economic protectionism have historically coincided with monetary nationalism, while eras of liberal trade have been accompanied by a universal monetary standard. But today, the authors show, an unprecedentedly liberal global trade regime operates side by side with the most extreme doctrine of monetary nationalism ever contrived—a situation bound to trigger periodic crises. Steil and Hinds call for a revival of the political and economic thinking that underlay earlier great periods of globalization, thinking that is increasingly under threat by more recent ideas about what sovereignty means.
“This book is an important analysis of the roles of money and sovereignty in advancing globalization and its positive effects on living standards. Particularly in this era of political skepticism over gains from globalization, Steil and Hinds have written an essential text for our new leaders and those who advise them.”—Glenn Hubbard, Dean and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School
"Steil and Hinds have written a revelatory historical essay on the relationship between money and the state, emphasizing that from the very origins of coinage, rulers sought to establish and exploit monopolies over currencies. This, more than anything else, helps to explain the many inflations and other monetary disruptions in history. At a time when a global financial crisis is revealing the limits of state control over the money that banks create, this is a timely and original contribution."—Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University, and author of The Ascent of Money
"Money, Markets and Sovereignty is a surprisingly easy read, given the complicated issues covered. In it, Mr. Steil and Mr. Hinds consistently challenge today's statist nostrums."—Doug Bandow, The Washington Times
"In this surprisingly readable book, written by an esteemed economist and a former finance minister of El Salvador, the authors lay out the reasons that our troubled currency is undermining the global economy, as well as our own."—Steve Forbes, Forbes
“[I]mpossibly good.”—Brian Domitrovich, Forbes
Publication Date: March 30, 2010
50 b/w illus.
