There's truth in these lies, 10 Jul 2004

Instead, it is a highly reader-participative text that contains a series of 30 simply expressed misconceptions the author calls "lies". The opening introductory chapter is the most reader-participative of all. It comprises a blank page where readers are invited to jot down what money means for them. The way the lies are visually presented also encourages readers to reflect, by leaving a blank page between each lie thus creating an occasion to pause for thought.

The author is at his best when he brings philosophy and psychology to inform us about the foundations of money, its capabilities, its incapabilities, our attitudes towards it, and our management of it. Amongst some of the best substantiated "lies" are "You need a certain amount of money to be happy", or "Money is security".

The author is rather less successful when he employs the disciplines of economics and finance. As a result, unfortunately, the 30 simply expressed misconceptions themselves contain more than the occasional misconception. For example, the role of money as a means of exchange in a trade transaction is sometimes confused with money having the ability to be easily transferred, but where no trade or exchange has taken place.

At best, these misconceptions keep the reader alert by creating the healthy need to question everything. At worst, certain financial institutions and certain financial instruments are unfairly portrayed, sometimes in a malign way. For example, banks appear to be magicians creating money out of nothing, and siphoning the rewards of their sleight of hand into their own coffers. Financial derivatives are explained as "unreal trades", whereas they perform an essentially efficient economic role in the allocation of resources by finely differentiating risk, "stripping" the different risks out, and finding a buyer [or holder] of that instrument who is prepared to accept that particular risk.

Whatever your preconceptions about money, money spent buying this book is well spent because many of the misconceptions outlined by the author are cogently argued and thought-provoking.