In The Price of Time, Edward Chancellor has given us a colorful and provocative review of the history, theory, and the profound effects of interest rates, the price that links the present and the future, which he argues is “the most important price of all.” The history runs from Hammurabi’s Code which in 1750 BC was “largely concerned with the regulation of interest,” and from the first debt cancellation, which was proclaimed by a ruler in ancient Mesopotamia, all the way to our world of pure fiat currencies, the recent Everything Bubble (now deflating) including cryptocurrencies (now crashing), and the effective cancellation of government debt by inflation and negative interest rates.The intellectual and political debates run from the Old Testament to Aristotle to John Locke and John Law,
Read More »2024-04-05