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Rated Debt: The First 5,000 Years 8/10

Very contrarian history of money from an anthropological point of view. Busting the barter myth was quite an eye opener for me. I liked the broad perspective covering civilizations of almost all continents with same patterns emerging across millennia.<br/><br/>The the makes a convincing argument that the nature of currency as exchange vehicle devoid of intrinsic value is strongly associated with state army. Apparently, history shows that when empires and their currencies fail, the human economy goes on based on credit of natural goods.<br/><br/>In accordance with the title, the book explores the history of money and debt, but doesn't try to predict its future.

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Published 2026-02-15 10:03 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere