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9781590517185

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Praise for Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food [An] energetic, wide-ranging work of investigative journalism...this is neither dry argumentative soup nor antiglobalization polemic, and the villains aren't black and white; Kaufman's tone is subtly ironic without being snarky--a nice addition to Michael Pollan. --Publishers Weekly A revealing view into commodity markets and food pricing. --Kirkus Reviews Kaufman makes a convincing and terrifying case that the same merchant bankers who destroyed our housing market--and economy--five years ago are at it again. This time their target is the world's food supply. --Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland

In this unusual and original book, Frederick Kaufman tells the history of money in its double guise as a medium of exchange and a symbol of value. In its first form it strives for fixity, but as a symbol of our fluctuating hopes, fears, and desires, fixity perpetually eludes it. Being a measure of our freedom to dream, money can never be given a fixed value in a free society. Required bedtime reading for central bank governors tasked with 'controlling the money supply.' --Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at Warwick University and coauthor of How Much Is Enough? Fascinating. An irreverent, grand, and captivating history tour of money: what it is and what it does to each and all of us. --George Papaconstantinou, former finance minister of Greece and author of Game Over: The Inside Story of the Greek Crisis With well-deserved authority and a pleasing narrative flair, Frederick Kaufman explores the origins of money--why we have it, where it came from, and what it means today. If you ever wondered why people are willing to accept a funny-looking piece of paper in exchange for a richly marbled New York strip steak, this is the book for you. --William D. Cohan, New York Times bestselling author of House of Cards and The Last Tycoons In The Money Plot, Frederick Kaufman offers a startling thesis--that money is a metaphor, a fiction--and makes it plausible by brilliantly interweaving economics, literary theory, anthropology, and political history. Distilling vast erudition into wonderfully readable prose, Kaufman gives us an important book that brims with fresh insights into the ways that money, from ancient times to today, has been a floating symbol with no stable meaning. --David S. Reynolds, winner of the Bancroft Prize for American History and author of Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times A tantalizing analysis of how the lifeblood of the market came into being, and how it can make or break the capitalist system. You will never grasp the true meaning of money, now and into the future, without reading this book. --Mauro F. Guillen, author of 2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything Praise for Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food [An] energetic, wide-ranging work of investigative journalism...this is neither dry argumentative soup nor antiglobalization polemic, and the villains aren't black and white; Kaufman's tone is subtly ironic without being snarky--a nice addition to Michael Pollan. --Publishers Weekly A revealing view into commodity markets and food pricing. --Kirkus Reviews Kaufman makes a convincing and terrifying case that the same merchant bankers who destroyed our housing market--and economy--five years ago are at it again. This time their target is the world's food supply. --Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland

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Frederick Kaufman, an English professor by training and profession, has for the past decade focused his attention on the fiction that is money. His unorthodox insights into the ways of Wall Street have resulted in numerous magazine articles for publications ranging from Scientific American to Wired to Foreign Policy to Harper's, as well as television appearances on NBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business Network, and Democracy Now!, and invitations to lecture in both the United States and Europe, including an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations. This is his fourth book.

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