What Books Are There on Monetary History?
QUESTION: Sir,
My son is studying US History this year in 8th grade. You have a lot on your plate and appreciate what you have been doing for us. What is the best book on the monetary history of the US?
Keep up the hood work and see you in November.
DK
ANSWER: Although I was friends with Milton Friedman and have respect for many others, they still come up shy of getting on point. The reason I say that is we tend to find domestic trends always analyzed in terms of domestic culprits. Politics is dominated by this view that if you vote for someone, they will do X, Y, and Z to make your life fantastic. The problem is that we are all in this together. You cannot reverse the trend of a single nation against the global trend of events. For example, World War I and World War II are solely responsible for the American miracle.
In 1896, J.P. Morgan arranged a gold loan to bail out the United States from bankruptcy. No matter how bad the trend, those responsible will never admit they are the cause. The champion of the Silver Democrats was William Jennings Bryan. You can listen to his speech against the gold standard in our history of Panics – 1896.
We plan on publishing a book on this subject that covers the rise of America from bankruptcy until the formation of Bretton Woods and the dollar becoming the reserve currency of the world. I have directly quoted the contemporary newspapers and sources so you can read what I read. They say history is written by the victor. To a large extent, this is very true. I am keenly aware of that problem and this book is written painstakingly from the viewpoint of a citizen of the world. This is the most comprehensive account of the world monetary history in motion. I will announce when it is ready. For now, it is in the final stages since I am finishing writing it.
