Currency wars
by James Rickards · first published 2011
46% recommend54% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Covers two centuries of monetary history and currency policy, including the recent quantitative easing era, in a narrative style suited to general readers curious about economics.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In 1971, President Nixon imposed national price controls and took the United States off the gold standard, an extreme measure intended to end an ongoing currency war that had destroyed faith in the U.S. dollar. Today we are engaged in a new currency war, and this time the consequences will be far worse than those that confronted Nixon. Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics. At best, they offer the sorry spectacle of countries' stealing growth from their trading partners. At worst, they degenerate into sequential bouts of inflation,
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…year. I'm through 87 so far. Most of them have been non-fiction. Using this year to learn things outside of technology has been time very well spent for me. Here are some of my top books this year. - Currency Wars, James Rickards - The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein - What Technology Wants, Kevin Kelly - The Art Of Happiness, Dalai Lama - Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen - The Four Agreements, Miguel Ruiz…
on “Ask HN: book suggestions in non-tech fields (e.g. psychology, philosophy…)” ↗A good read on QE is Currency Wars by James Rickards. It isn't written as a dry traditional economic book while covering the monetary history of last 2 centuries. I suspect the book is not mentioned often being published in 2012 it predicted…
on “Americans Are Not Prepared for the Coming Mother of All Stock Market Crashes” ↗Who knows how it will play out. I read a fascinating book on the topic. The author is bullish on SDRs. http://www.amazon.com/Currency-Wars-Making-Global-Crisis/dp/...
on “The yuan is displacing the dollar as a key currency” ↗Begun, the currency wars have... A really good reference is "Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis" by James Rickards. I would re-read it but I gave away my copy. Rickards makes a lot of sense. If you don't want…
on “China Announces That It Is Going To Stop Stockpiling US Dollars” ↗…Bush administration, but got it some trouble for publicly speaking about how US government finances work. She claims that Dick Cheny tried to ruin her life. I also like James Rickards' two books "The Currency Wars" and "The Death of the Dollar."
on “Thoughtcrime” ↗Too many. As a liberal I still find conservatives Kevin D. Williams (The Smallest Minority, Independant Thinking in the Era of the Mob) and James Rikards (Currency Wars, Aftermath, etc.) to be interesting and useful. Then there is Thomas Piketty (Capital in the 21st Century), Douglas Rushkoff (Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus). Anyway, these few were enjoyably, but…
on “Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations” ↗Thanks, I just bought that for the Kindle for a few dollars. Another book in a similar vein is "The Currency Wars" which I really enjoyed, and then shared with my family. TLDR: the financial system is rigged to make the rich richer; getting off a fiat currency would in general (and long term) help 99% people. BTW,…
on “Bizarre Shadowy Paper-Based Payment System Being Rolled Out Worldwide” ↗I was reading James Rickard's new book "The Death of Money" (he also wrote "Currency Wars") today and he goes into a lot of detail on China's problems (investing in infrastructure that may not be used, not pushing consumer spending, etc.) - a recommended read. I have been taking a class on…
on “China's campaign to bulldoze mountains to build cities” ↗…serve the purpose of forcing the US dollar as the reserve currency rather that SDRs or even a partial gold standard (i.e., require a percentage, perhaps 10%, of money to be backed by gold). The books Currency Wars and The Death of Money make a pretty good case for this.
on “Use of Drones for Killings Risks a War Without End” ↗…little bit about the context before engaging into similar discussions. A few good starting points: Macronomics: http://www.amazon.com/Macroeconomics-3rd-Edition-Paul-Krugma... [2] http://www.amazon.com/Currency-Wars-Making-Global-Crisis-ebo... Also read about public debts what they are and how they did evolve. Finally, you're looking financial answers to a political problem. Strictly financially speaking, debt…
on “The defiant stand by Yanis Varoufakis in the E.U. economic negotiations” ↗…this unwritten pact include the USA, China, and the EU. It's so large you might almost think of it as WWIII, but being fought with monetary policy (mostly) instead of guns Indeed, there's a book called Currency Wars. Recommended.
on “Warned of a Crash, Startups in Silicon Valley Narrow Their Focus” ↗…we're seeing and why the $ and € don't fluctuate much (even though Europe is in such a mess) is both Europe and the US (and all the others) are devaluing their currency one after another. It's called Currency Wars: "Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics. At best, they offer the sorry spectacle of countries' stealing growth from their trading partners. At worst,…
on “Devaluation is austerity done right” ↗…body of society and engage in what economists call "rent seeking," or the accumulation of wealth through nonproductive means--postmodern finance being one example. Excerpt from: http://www.amazon.com/Currency-Wars-Making-Global-Crisis/dp/...
on “The Rent Hypothesis” ↗…https://www.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/1o2s6qp/yuan_has_s... 2 - https://www.economist.com/china/2025/09/10/china-is-ditching... ( https://archive.is/aNRmm ) 3 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006JAM3UU/ "Currency Wars" by James Rickards (2011) [4] - https://www.macrotrends.net/1437/sp500-to-gold-ratio-chart
on “De-dollarization: Is the US dollar losing its dominance?” ↗Correct, and all those currencies float. Guess in what direction? Down. Have a look at 'Currency Wars' and see how all country's drive down the value of their currency in order to export more easily. As they do, paying off debt becomes easier. However, for people that actually save money (or who are on…
on “Argentina bans dollar purchases for savings” ↗