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Look Inside Money and Empire

Money and Empire
Charles P. Kindleberger and the Dollar System

Part of Studies in New Economic Thinking

Author: Perry Mehrling, Boston University

Date Published: September 2022
availability: Available
format: Hardback
isbn: 9781009158572

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About the Authors

Charles Kindleberger ranks as one of the twentieth century's best known and most influential international economists. This book traces the evolution of his thinking in the context of a 'key-currency' approach to the rise of the dollar system, here revealed as the indispensable framework for global economic development since World War II. Unlike most of his colleagues, Kindleberger was deeply interested in history, and his economics brimmed with real people and institutional details. His research at the New York Fed and BIS during the Great Depression, his wartime intelligence work, and his role in administering the Marshall Plan gave him deep insight into how the international financial system really operated. A biography of both the dollar and a man, this book is also the story of the development of ideas about how money works. It throws revealing light on the underlying economic forces and political obstacles shaping our globalized world.
- Provides a history of international finance as a set of evolving institutions and evolving theories about how the system works
- Provides a practitioner's eye view of central banking (1936–1942), war and reconstruction (1942–1948), contrasting with the more common top-down history
- Provides a key-currency account of the rise of the dollar system, contrasting with the more common myth of multilateralism at Bretton Woods
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Reviews & endorsements
'The discipline of economics is balanced, somewhat unsteadily, between two legs, with the skill of the historian on one side and of the mathematical modeler on the other. In the second half of the 20th century, the tide flowed strongly to elevate the second leg and to diminish the first. In this delightful biography of Charlie Kindleberger, a charming and loveable man, Perry Mehrling shows how Charlie, in his chosen role, as an international monetary economist, fought against that tide, often unsuccessfully. Perry writes so beautifully that one would only need a smattering of economics to enjoy the tale; while if one is interested in the history of economic thought in international monetary economics, then this book is, of course, a must read.' Charles Goodhart, Centre for Economic Policy Research
'Like many legendary session players who never quite topped the charts, in his day Charles Kindleberger was revered by those hip enough to know great work when they saw it. So roll over Friedman and Samuelson. As Perry Merhling's erudite biography makes clear, to understand the urgent, real-world economic problems of our time, set aside the pop hits of yesterday (and today), and reach for Charlie's enduring, classic contributions.' Jonathan Kirshner, Boston College
'As a 'literary' economist, Charlie Kindleberger thought he was professionally behind the times. As an economic historian, however, he studied financial crises before that became fashionable, and he practiced experience-based learning well before modern economists rediscovered it. Mehrling's study shows that Kindleberger in fact was ahead of, not behind, his times. This is a fine biography of both a great twentieth-century economist and the U.S. dollar as the world's premier reserve currency during Kindleberger's long career.' Richard Sylla, Professor Emeritus of Economics, New York University
'Perry Mehrling's elegantly written biography of the MIT economist Charles Poor Kindleberger illuminates the relationship between money and the global structure of economic and political power.' Herman Mark Schwartz, phenomenalworld.org
'Mehrling's book … gives such a meticulous and so elegant analysis of Kindleberger's work that it paints with clear and precise strokes the life, works, and activities of a man who could be said to have lived as many as three different lives: first as a politician, able to influence the process of shaping American policy, then as an economist expert on the international monetary system, and finally as a great economic historian. All this always keeping the functioning and history of money as a central point.' Albertina Nania, History of Economic Thought and Policy
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Product details
- Date Published: September 2022
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781009158572
- length: 310 pages
- dimensions: 235 x 158 x 19 mm
- weight: 0.63kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Intellectual Formation, 1910–1948
1. Golden boy
2. Columbia
3. Hot money
4. A good war
Part II. International Economist, 1948–1976
5. Tech
6. The dollar system
7. Among economists
Part III. Historical Economist, 1976–2003
8. Independence
9. Chef d'oeuvre
10. Leadership.
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Author
Perry Mehrling, Boston University
Perry Mehrling is Professor of International Political Economy at Boston University.