Merryn Talks Money Why Everything You Think You Know About Money Is Wrong
Oct 25, 2024
David McWilliams, an author and economist renowned for his insightful works on currency, joins the discussion on the captivating evolution of money. He traces history from ancient coins to Bitcoin, illuminating how financial systems have shaped societies. The conversation dives into the impact of quantitative easing on inequality and political unrest, linking ancient economic behaviors with modern market emotions. McWilliams also unravels the misconceptions surrounding cryptocurrencies and the revolutionary potential of mobile banking in less-developed regions.
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Money As A Social Technology
- Money is a social technology that evolved to manage complexity and enabled writing, law, and organized religion to co-evolve with markets.
- David McWilliams argues that monetary innovations drive broad social and intellectual change across civilizations.
Coinage Democratized Commerce
- Coinage democratized value by making a prince's fiver and a pauper's fiver interchangeable and widened commerce into everyday life.
- McWilliams links the mass circulation of money to Greek advances in empirical thinking and intellectual progress.
Religion Responded To Monetary Change
- Christianity may have spread as an ideological counterweight to monetized meritocracies, appealing to those disadvantaged by commercial change.
- McWilliams suggests religious shifts can be responses to large inflows of bullion and marketplace transformations.