How Money Works

Worth every penny. It’s an easy way to learn about money. This books talks about micro and macroeconomics. With a ton of practical pictures. Should be in every high school.

amazing read

Great title, easy way to know more about finances and how commerce in general works.

I ordered this for my granddaughters to start their journey to financial literacy. I scanned the book and it appears to cover too much background, such as "the origin of money." Once you get past that, it explains pretty well how things work.

As someone who majored in finance and is very passionate about it, I learned nothing from this book. However, I didn't purchase it to learn, but to educate. I love teaching others about finance, and this is the perfect display book to leave on a coffee table. The rich, bold graphics are both visually appealing and quickly digestible. When people have questions about a topic in my field, I can show them in two quick pages much of the gist of what they need to know (versus an hour of me rambling!). I was delighted to see the book didn't shy away from some of the 'meatier' topics like the Time Value of Money (via the formula for compound interest) or the Capital Asset Pricing Model (via the efficient frontier). Every course I took during my undergraduate degree was essentially summed up in every two page section. If you majored in finance, you won't learn anything here, but this book isn't for you! If you majored in anything else, pick up this book. As someone who dedicates his professional career to this subject, I assure you it is full of all the topics you'll need to know about my field. Two small areas for improvement are the Time Value of Money and the physical cover of the book. While the formula for computing the future value (FV) of a sum is given in relation to debt, I felt this didn't go deep enough on the topic. I would have enjoyed seeing this crucial topic of present and future values given its own two page vignette, showing the flip side of how compound interest can work in an investor's favor. The second area of improvement is the physical front cover of the book. The silver outline around the piggy bank and coins scratches off like it was a lottery ticket. This leaves the cover looking easily disheveled. I recommend keeping the book open to a topic you like if you are going to display it (mine is open to the start of the Personal Finance section, personally).

My son is really enjoying this book! It’s clear and simple and provided a great foundation for understanding how money works.

Damm good price ... I paid $11 for it .. great introduction book to the history of money and financial & business terms from past to present . Retail , prooerty , banks & stocks etc . Lots of charts and examples ..

ANDREW YANG AND UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME In my Amazon review of Andrew Yang's The War On Normal People, I commented that his book explained why some Americans have much more wealth than others. One of his management strategies was Universal Basic Income (UBI). But where would the UBI money come from? QUANTITATIVE EASING How Money Works describes a strategy called Quantitative Easing (QE): "QE involves the creation of new money – usually in the form of electronic currency – which the central bank then uses to buy government bonds or bonds from investors such as banks or pension funds.” (page 124) These commercial banks then loan this new money to people and businesses at low interest rates. Theoretically, this infusion of cash to those in need stimulates the economy by increasing the supply and liquidity of money (i.e., businesses and people spend rather than save). The book cites possible problems with QE: 1) the economy may not respond as expected, 2) inflation may occur, and 3) banks may hoard the money instead of lending as intended. (page 125) How Money Works notes a case study: “The UK began a QE program in early 2009, after interest rates were cut to almost zero. Most of the new money has been used to purchase government debt. The effects of QE depends on what sellers do with the money they receive from selling assets, and what banks do with the additional liquidity they obtain. The Bank of England believes QE has boosted growth, but at the cost of higher inflation and increasing inequality of wealth, as prices rise." (page 125) THOUGHT EXPERIMENT (i.e., daydream) Experimental evidence suggests that people in need tend to spend their UBIs on necessities such as food, rent and utilities. If so, the main issue may be where the UBI money comes from, not how responsibly the money is spent. Again, I’m more of a biologist than economist. But what would happen if the central bank distributes its new money directly to people in need (or as UBI) instead of having them borrow from commercial banks and pay interest? What would happen if new money begins circulating through the economy from the bottom (trickle up economy) instead of through commercial banks? In my Amazon review of Napoleon Hill’s Law of Success (1925 manuscript version), I wrote, “Ideally, people come before money. Perhaps like self-government, money should be of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Good infographics!

Muito interessante!!

My kid loved the book

How Money Works is clear, understandable, and very informative. Liking it each time I read more in it.

I have been a fan of the DK books for some time now, years ago I took great pleasure in reading their encyclopedic books about battle or weapons, then I enjoyed their more recent books on History, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Business, Economics and even Crime (I get a feeling that they are going keep producing these and varying the themes as much as they can), these form a kind of complete knowledge library taken all together. Those and these are full of visuals, I am not sure if it is accurate to describe it as using infograms or not but there are illustrations resembling flow charts, there are pie charts, bar charts, other sorts of clever illustrations which correspond to plays on words or common analogies, ie to circulation in the body, lifting weights, fishing in a boat. Something I would say is that I have heard the DK range described as childrens books or at least books for young adults, I dont know why this is at all, these are seriously comprehensive books, I was very impressed with this book (I remember reading for a financial transactions costing and pricing class module and business in the economy module in a general national vocational qualification in my teens and I think this book is more comprehensive than the complete reading lists and lectures I undertook at that time) and its depth and breadth on the topic. Maybe the association came up because of the illustrations but I am not sure that that should mean it is automatically aimed at younger readers, readers of all age groups could benefit from the information here in. I would love to have been able to read this and understand it at a younger age but I am glad that I have to opportunity now in my thirties to do so. The first in this range that I was aware of was How The Body worked, which I thought was a really good general guide to anatomy and even health, I then knew this would be a good book too on the strength of that book but I think this book is probably the best in the series I have read so far and easily ranks alongside the other series of books on Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology or Film. The contents are great, laid out very clearly in the first pages of the book: Money Basics: The evolution of money; Profit-Making and Financial Institutions: Corporate Accounting; Financial Instruments; Financial Markets; Financial Institutions; Government Finance and Public Money: The money supply; Managing State Finance; Attempting Control; Why Governments Fail Financially; Personal Finance: Worth, Wealth, and Income; Investments For Income; Wealth-Building Investments; Managing Investments; Pensions and retirement; Debt; Money in the Digital Age; Money in the UK; Index and Acknowledgements. The index is very good about allows for speedy browsing to select texts if you are a student looking for precise information or citations but also if you are looking for something in particular and it does not stand out from the contents alone (though the contents employ subheadings so they pretty much cover everything). The section on Money In The UK, has perhaps the least amount of illustrations and uses a lot of text, it is broken up by bolded headings, dialogue boxes and subheadings, within this section are covered The London Stock Exchange and FTSE Index; Companies House and corporate accounting; The Bank of England and the UK economy; The UK tax system; National Insurance and indirect taxes; Personal tax; Mortgages and credit cards; Pensions. So, all in all pretty comprehensive. As I said before I think this book should get a general or wide readership, in fact, just about anyone who wants to get a good understanding of finance and economics. I am aware that the book does deal with why governments fail, through hyperinflation or debt default, but does not by the same token investigate failures in financial institutions or banking, this would not be sufficient grounds to become a detractor or be critical of its content, however, as it may be covered elsewhere in one of the others in the series or be a question of politics instead.