Book Review “Currency Wars”
The book is written by famous author James Rickards. He is a well-known figure in the financial market & when he speaks something, people actually listen to it. The book currency wars is an account of how it all this started. Why the world decided to move from gold standards to fiat after 100 years, how things have changed drastically. The author starts the book with a virtual war front to get the feel of how important currency war. After the virtual war, one thing is clear. If countries don’t pay enough attention to its others, things can get ugly.
There are many interesting parts in the books, especially the history of US abolishing Gold standards & how currency wars, pre & post-world war put us in a vulnerable position. It is astonishing to know how the US became a superpower because of its people. They loved spending & because of such a huge market, all other countries wanted to boost their economy that allowed US to dictate terms during 1900's.
Early money system was pegged to Gold. But after world war 1, the great depression & then world war II. There was an immediate requirement for some reliable monetary system that is accepted worldwide. This was perfect time for USD to show their dominance which they did & thereafter most of the stable currency was dollar & all other currencies started pegging against the dollar.
But, dollar dominance resulted in other countries indulging in currency war mainly China. As China developing economy required lot of business to thrive they manipulated their currency to keep it interesting for the world to invest in their country & this worked. For many years China was able to keep their currency stable. However, USA is still pushing to regulate Chinese yen for keeping themselves afloat or any immediate suffering.
Currency war is a game behind the war fields & it is ongoing. But, what is the future of this war, how the future will stand. If the existing monetary system fails, what are the available options for us to fall on? Is it Gold, SDR, Flexible Gold rates, or Bitcoin. There is lot to learn from this book & an eye-opener for sure. You can get the book from Amazon.
