Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
FREE Delivery in the UK.
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Inflated: How Money and D... has been added to your Basket
Dispatch to:
Select a delivery address:
To see addresses, please
Or
Please enter a valid UK postcode.
Or
+ £2.80 UK delivery
Used: Very Good | Details
Sold by Better World Books Marketplace West
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comment: Former Library books. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers.
Have one to sell?
Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 3 images

Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream Hardcover – 10 Nov 2010

by
R. Christopher Whalen (Author)
› Visit Amazon's R. Christopher Whalen Page
search results for this author
R. Christopher Whalen (Author), Nouriel Roubini (Introduction)
3.8 out of 5 stars
5 star
12
4 star
4
3 star
2
2 star
2
1 star
2
3.8 out of 5 stars 22 reviews from Amazon.com
See all 2 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Amazon Price
New from Used from
Kindle Edition
"Please retry"
£18.99
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
£30.99
£16.03 £5.44
Note: This item is eligible for click and collect. Details
Pick up your parcel at a time and place that suits you.
  • Choose from over 13,000 locations across the UK
  • Prime members get unlimited deliveries at no additional cost
How to order to an Amazon Pickup Location?
  1. Find your preferred location and add it to your address book
  2. Dispatch to this address when you check out
Learn more
£30.99 FREE Delivery in the UK. Only 1 left in stock (more on the way). Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Special offers and product promotions

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor (Columbia Business School Publishing)
    Tren Griffin
    4.4 out of 5 stars 17
    Hardcover
    £13.07 Amazon Prime
  2. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction
    Philip Tetlock
    4.4 out of 5 stars 66
    Paperback
    £6.99 Amazon Prime
Next

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.

Product details

Product description

Review

takes the reader on a journey through more than two centuries of monetary and fiscal policy and banking. (The Economist, December 2010).

From the Inside Flap

When it comes to matters of money, most Americans tend to view themselves as reasonably prudent people, reflecting the puritan roots of their European ancestors. Yet, at the same time, Americans also seem to feel entitled to a lifestyle, individually and nationally, that is well above the rest of the world′s, and well beyond our current means. Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream explores more than two hundred years of American politics and monetary policy to examine this conflict. In doing so, it asks whether the current understanding of the American Dream, one of entitlement, is so ingrained that to expect Americans willingly to live in a "deflated" world is unrealistic. This book simply and directly tells the story of inflation and public debt as enduring, and perhaps even endearing, features of American life. It describes:

  • The Gold Rush and how dreams of instant wealth replaced the notions of hard work and saving as the national ideal
  • How Congress′s deficit spending is a direct legacy of Abraham Lincoln′s presiding over the first legal tender laws, which gave the federal government control overthe issuance of "money"
  • How the financial crisis of 1893 led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System, ultimately confirming the cautionary views of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson that a central bank would prove antithetical to democracy and individual rights
  • The rise of investment trusts during the 1890s, and how those trusts were the precursors of hedge funds and complex financial derivatives
  • How the dollar′s role as the world′s currency after WWII encouraged America′s tendency to demand immediate gratification of national wants and needs
  • Why the Gold Standard Act of 1900 was the high watermark for sound money in the United States, and why Richard Nixon′s decision to end the dollar′s gold convertibility in 1971 opened the door to vast inflation and debt in the decades that followed
Whether taming the frontier in the 1800s, fighting poverty during the Great Depression, or bailing out private corporations deemed "too big to fail" in the twenty–first century, America′s tendency to borrow from the future is a core ethic of American society. In the post market meltdown economy, Inflated explores the rich history of living beyond one′s means, and whether Americans an instinctively self–reliant, isolationist people are more likely either to embrace fiscal stringency if other nations demand it or turn their backs on the rest of the world.

See all Product description

Customer reviews

There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Write a customer review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) (May include reviews from Early Reviewer Rewards Program)

Amazon.com: 3.8 out of 5 stars 22 reviews
63 of 64 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read! 8 Dec. 2010
By Brandon G. Adams - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I've read an insane number of books on the current economic crisis (I was Michael Lewis' research assistant for The Big Short) and this is one of the few that I would put in the "must read" category.

Very few of the recent published books on the US economic crisis have an adequate historical perspective. In Inflated, Chris gives us a very full history -- he starts at the founding of the Republic! The book is nonetheless extremely entertaining. I found myself captivated by it, and finished it fairly quickly.

Chris is an endearing narrator who is obviously more detail-oriented than many of his fellow commentators -- he clearly brings a high level of understanding to this work.

The book is very much of the Austrian School. I don't fully agree with some of Chris' views -- I think I'm generally more tolerant of inflation and inflation risk than he is.

Chris is quite pessimistic about the long future of the American economy, but I think I'm more pessimistic. He believes that austerity measures are required in the US and that the US will be able to weather these austerity measures fairly well socially and politically. I believe that the US cannot deal with austerity measures socially or politically -- therefore, they will not occur. The consequences of a lack of austerity are anyone's guess. Chris believes that high rates of inflation are inevitable without austerity -- I think high inflation and declining living standards are likely but not inevitable.

I find Chris overall views on debt and inflation quite similar to those of Peter Warburton, author of the truly incredible book, Debt and Delusion. The views of both of these authors are wholly different than the New Keynesian thinking of Ben Bernanke. I tend to slightly favor the Warburton/Whalen side of the debate.

Brandon
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Whalen: The Smartest Guy in the Room 11 April 2011
By D. B. Collum - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
As usual, this was first posted on another site, which explains reference to Amazon reviews in the last paragraph....

I thought this was going to be another crisis book--I must have read 20 of them--but it turned out to be an exceedingly pleasing historical treatise on intersection of money, debt, politics, and monetary policy over the two centuries. (I decided to read it out of my deepest respect for Chris' analytical skills.) Although much of the material will not be new to connoisseurs of fine economic history, I thought it was tied together very nicely. I, for example, found the discussion of bimetallism and the underlying political currents fascinating. (I realized that I had failed to understand William Jenning Bryan's famous "cross of gold" speech.) Chris generally does an excellent job of describing the political cross currents underlying important political events. I also think this book dovetails nicely with Reinhart's and Rogoff's "This Time is Different" in that it delves into the slow, methodical undermining of our monetary system--a single case study of sorts.

As I was nearing the end of the book, I began to see what I would call the "praying mantis model." We got handed the reserve currency and a globally profound position. We got to run the world. As debts accrued, our creditors kept assuring us that, as masters of the universe, we were good for it. ("You guys just keep spending.") We didn't understand the end game: It's a suicide mission. (The male praying mantis gets eaten after copulating.) Whalen finishes with a few words of encouragement, but I am not convinced he believes them. To use Mauldin's term, we are going to muddle our butts off.

As usual, I went to Amazon to see what others had to say. Of course, there were strong reviews from Chris' friends (Rickards, Laggner, and probably a couple others). Looking at the weakest reviews, there were aspersions to his political ideology--don't read this if you love FDR--but I would say that Chris kept me on my heels with his ability to show layers of the onion. The typos were also omnipresent, which I personally care about but was not distracted by. Somebody demanded a fusillade of charts and data, but I enjoyed the reliance on prose often characteristic of the Austrians. Everybody who reviewed the book comments about Chris' intellectual firepower and analytical skills.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Forgive the writing, it is much needed historical perspective. 17 Jan. 2011
By a - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Whalen is, in my opinion, possibly the best banking analysts working in the US today, for the reasons mentioned in other reviews - his honesty, straight-forward presentation of fact and, oddly, his ability to present the frightening truth with a dose of friendly optimism that keeps average people from burying their heads in the sand.

The strong side of this book is the historical perspective, that our predicament is not nearly as new as we may wish to believe. He properly makes the case that the fight for soft/hard money, the extreme political/economic power of the national banking oligarchy and short-sighted/corrupt/destructive politicians as the norm, not the exception are all part of the long and rich history of America. This seems to me to be extremely important to those attempting to make sense of what is happening in America and across the globe today.

The writing is not the best. Its not 'entertaining', it could be better organized, have a stronger 'unified' line throughout the book, be less dependent on footnotes or glorify the author as an oracle. All valid criticism of a writer.

But, Whalen's not really a writer, he's an analyst - maybe now a financial historian. It seems to me that he did what he set out to do, to present to a wide audience how we got here, and not simply a case of the last 5-10 years like every other pop-financial writer out there who worked in an Ibank, or hung out with those who did.

I believe this is a very important book, with appropriately geeky zits. It is true to its author's approach to analysis. I am taking the lack of writer polish as a positive.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great History of our currency 3 May 2011
By Quarter Twain - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Chris Whalen is a national treasure. He writes from a base of knowledge that is rarely matched in both his understanding of American History and the currency that accompanied us on our journey. Without expressly saying so, I believe the book validates most Americans basic ignorance of the fact that when they have more money, they often believe they are better off even though they are merely holding more of an increasingly weaker currency. Politicians know this very well which is why they have for about a century always prescribed pumping the economy full of money to cure--or appear to--whatever ails the economy, and why the Paul Volckers of the world don't enter politics. I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking an understanding of where we are today, how we got here, and where we are likely to go.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Unbiased analysis of U.S. monetary history 1 May 2011
By Erez Davidi - Published on Amazon.com
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This book wasn't what was expected. I expected a book on the current financial crisis, however, this book is mainly about the U.S. monetary history. Rather than providing a broad review of U.S. economic history, Whalen focuses on events which he sees to be important in the evolution of debt and monetary policy in the U.S. Whalen does provide some insights into the Fed's inner workings and the gold standard. The best thing about Whalen's writing is that it's rather balanced, so this book is a good place to get an unbiased review of the monetary history of the U.S.

In conclusion, this book was found to be quite interesting. People who aren't well acquainted with U.S. economic history can gain quite a bit out of it. Too bad the author didn't write more than one chapter on the current, ongoing financial crisis.
Were these reviews helpful? Let us know

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

Look for similar items by category