Paper Promises: Money, Debt and the New World Order - Hardcover

Bold and confident ... Coggan covers the terrain with characteristic calmness and objectivity, avoids over-simplification, and laces his arguments with his trademark erudition ... The alphabet soup of acronyms, from SIVs to CDO Squareds, is blissfully lacking ... Finally, the book is free from the shrieking ideology that afflicts virtually all contemporary debates over money. Indeed, it offers a clear explanation of the fresh ideological divisions that have arisen over how to deal with the crisis ... the book should be taken very seriously (Financial Times)

This book stands way above anything written on the present economic crisis (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of 'The Black Swan')

The most illuminating account of the financial crisis to appear to date ... [written] with a lucidity that enables him to convey deep insights without a trace of jargon ... [a] thought-stirring book (John Gray New Statesman)

A remarkable book from one of the most respected economics journalists on the planet. Every page brings a fresh insight or a new surprise. A delight (Tim Harford, author of 'The Undercover Economist')

Fascinating and authoritative, with the rigour and depth to satisfy an economist and the accessibility and pace to engage the layperson ... If everyone read Coggan's book we might just be a little more circumspect if and when the next burst of irrational exuberance overtakes the economy (Management Today)

A masterful history of financial crises (Independent)

By far the best analysis of the "new normal" (David Stevenson Financial Times)

An excellent book ... a smart and witty analysis of the current economic storm, set in the context of the history of money (David Wighton The Times)

Coggan is ... an exceptional banking and economic historian (Irish Examiner)

Coggan traces 'history's tug of war between monetary shortage and excess' in this engaging and timely book about the current financial crisis.... Thoughtful and thorough (Publishers Weekly)

The world is drowning in debt, in paper promises. Can we stay afloat? In his masterful new book, Philip Coggan shows how the current financial crisis has very deep roots indeed - in the very nature of money itself. Societies from ancient Greece to revolutionary France have experimented with all kinds of money, from seashells to tobacco, before finally settling on the paper version we have come to know so well. What exactly is money? How has its function changed over decades and centuries? What purpose did the gold standard actually serve? Why, for that matter, is gold still worth anything? Who are the world's real creditors and debtors today? Above all, what promises do we need to believe to stop the whole system falling apart? We take for granted so much about the current financial system. Only by going back to the beginning - to first principles and to our history - can we comprehend where all this debt has come from, and it's very serious consequences now. In doing so, Philip Coggan examines the flawed structure of the global finance system as it exists today, and shows that the world is facing even deeper imbalances than we are yet grappling with. Where will the world go next? How will we get out of the debt crisis? The answers can only be found in surprising places from Mississippi swamps, through Chinese economic strategy, to the Wizard of Oz. The way that our paper promises are kept or broken will determine our future. Before we can solve the debt crisis, we need to understand what is going on.