Money Mischief

Episodes in Monetary History

By: Milton Friedman

Narrated by: Nadia May

What kind of mischief can result from misunderstanding the monetary system? The work of 2 obscure Scottish chemists destroyed the presidential prospects of William Jennings Bryan, as well as Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to appease a few senators from the American West who helped communism triumph in China, are just 2 such mishaps cited in this important work by Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.

This accessible work also provides an in-depth discussion on the creation of value: from stones to feathers to gold; the central role of monetary theory and how it can act to ignite or deepen inflation; and what the present monetary system means for both the domestic and global economy.

©1992 Milton Friedman (P)1992 Blackstone Audiobooks

Great read

I would love to hear his thoughts about BRICS
and Bitcoin. Chapter 9&10 we’re probably my favorite of this book.

Content good, grating narrator’s voice

Friedman does not discuss Wicksell’s natural rate of interest or George’s fructification theory and natural productivity as the basis for interest. Inflation is a method of appropriation to government of productivity gains which belong to the community.

The narrator’s voice was grating in the extreme.

Know the subject , not a casual read

What did you love best about Money Mischief?

Great examples with historical fact. A scary subject when Perot ran for President. Tragic now in the 2012 elections. Do we never learn?

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

Someone always has to pay. There aint no such thing as a free lunch. TANSTAAFL, the Preident should have this on his desk

Any additional comments?

Not understanding this subject, dooms us all.

So Much to Learn

Enjoy the knowledge building, historical understanding and relevance to the people's of the world who must contend with decisions that are beyond their control. Much to learn.

Good book for a PhD candidate!

This book is full of information, it's just tough to understand everything unless you have a background in economics. Needed more case studies, and examples in me opinion.

Great story bad narrator

The voice of the narrator was difficult to get past, it took away from the story.

Narrator was distracting

Any additional comments?

The narrator I found to be very distracting. Her accent combined with higher pitched inflections was often painful to listen to. Not to mention she read it quite fast in parts. Since this is essentially a technical book, going quickly thru areas that may require more thought to absorb the content causes issue and rewinding quite often. Overall, I thought the book was great. Milton Friedman often reduces a complex topic down to a much more understandable and enjoyable learning task. I was disappointed by the choice to leave a chapter out though simply because they felt it was "too technical" for the listener.

Too dense, and not nearly engaging enough

It is best to listen to this with a pen in hand because it jumps from year to year, country to country, focusing more on factual accounts rather than on a cohesive story, which would otherwise make the book more memorable... more for reference than relaxed listening.

Explaining causes of inflation

Interesting recap of the money and inflation history. I liked the story how Wyoming silver mining interests may have facilitated the take-over of China by communists.

Bad Narrator...

The overall book is decent. The narrator's voice is too high pitched it's extremely difficult to listen to.