Against Money

A powerful deconstruction of humanity’s most influential invention, from the acclaimed economists J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev. Money is unavoidably fundamental to our daily lives. It lurks behind the swipe of a card when buying groceries; in looming student-loan debts; in the prices of things we want; and in our subconscious navigation of the modern world. Money is an invisible convenience that saves us, as a society, the hassle of bartering for goods and services—a reflection, in our pockets and on our phones, of the hard facts of scarcity and desire. Or is it something more? In this revelatory book, economists J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev explain how and why money is so deeply misunderstood by the world it dominates—and what the dangerous implications of this misunderstanding are. Against Money tackles the most strongly held “truths” of economics, arguing that the world of money actually never has been an impartial representation of the world of things. Instead, its existence in different forms—debt, capital, liquidity, and interest—increasingly shapes events in the real world rather than just reflecting them; sometimes opening new forms of cooperation, and sometimes exercising a malevolent domination. Human existence is not just facilitated by money, but also governed by it. Perfect for fans of Thomas Piketty and David Graeber, Against Money is an erudite, disruptive intervention against the illusions and tyrannies of money. Mason and Jayadev present a radically different way of thinking about money—imagining a hopeful future in which it no longer defines the possibilities of our collective existence.