Price of Time
by Edward Chancellor · first published 2022
75% recommend13% neutral13% critical
Why HN recommends it
Traces the history of interest rates, money and debt, with chapters of evidence on how monetary policy and bubbles repeat. The writing is clear and well researched, suited to anyone interested in financial history.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Another book in this vein is The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest by Edward Chancellor if anyone is looking for one.
on “Observations on Credit and Lending Practices in Ur III Mesopotamia (2004) [pdf]” ↗Re-read Blindsight and Echopraxia by Watts, dark dystopia about the singularity. Differently Morphous and Existentially Challenged by Yahtzee Croshow, a lot of magic comedy. The Price of Time by Chancellor, about how the current financial everything bubble came to exist and how it's always the same story. The World for Sale by Blas, about the history of commodities traders in the past century.…
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?” ↗Price of Time by Chancellor. Out of the new books I read, will be a classic of financial history. It isn't technical, it isn't a complete critique of QE but it is the most understandable, fully-explained critique...also…
on “Ask HN: Best books read in 2022” ↗I feel like Graeber's book is another (left leaning) fad to glom on to, like Piketty's book some years back. I found this book, The Price of Time by Edward Chancellor [1], very useful for understanding the development of money and debt over history. It's so detailed and clearly extensively researched. [1]: https://www.harvard.com/book/the_price_of_time/
on “How I think about debt” ↗I hear you, he's the most vocal at the moment, but low interest rates have been popular among many policymakers and intellectuals throughout the history of monetary policy. _The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest_ by Edward Chancellor goes in depth on this, a really interesting read.
on “Wholesale prices rose 0.9% in July, more than expected” ↗I love reading salty HN comments. Debt (credit) is and will be a crucial part of any functioning economy and society. It's been around for millennia [0] [0]The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest is a wonderful book on subject.
on “How to Become a Debt Buyer” ↗I'm listening to the audiobook "The Price of Time" right now and it gives chapter after chapter of empirical evidence. Friedman was absolutely not the first economist to notice the connection between monetary supply and inflation. Locke wrote against…
on “Profit-Price Spiral: Excess Profits Fuelling Inflation, Not Wages” ↗It's strange that you would trust a fund manager like Edward Chancellor over a trained anthropologist like Graeber on historical research. The price of time looks a at a small sliver of debt through the eye of interest rates and their impacts. Chancellor's axe to grind is clear, that manipulation of interest rates by central governments has led to economic…
on “How I think about debt” ↗Thanks I came across Walter Bagehot in the book Price of Time which looks at interest rates and money throughout history. It turns out that interest rates are still manipulated by banks and governments whether it's gold or something else. The difference is that…
on “WTF Happened in 1971? (2019)” ↗