2034th BLOG POST
28th
Book of 2022
I
have actually never read books on economics though I have read many books on
personal financial management. I recently picked a book named “Rethinking Money
and Capital” written by Swapnil Pawar which is of around 365-pages. It also has
a tagline which specifies the subject covered in this non-fiction book- “New
Economics for QE, Stimulus, Negative Interest, and Cryptocurrencies”. Author
has tried his best to explain some concepts in easier language to ensure that
every reader reaps benefits out of it. There are some parts which are really
easy to understand whereas there are few terms and concepts which are difficult
to comprehend. I believe people from economics background would love
deep-diving into the concepts that author tried explaining but for a layman
like me, the book will be effective only in sections.
Author
discusses nation’s economy in detail and tries to elaborate on what all aspects
impact it – either positively or negatively. Swapnil tries to make us
understand how things actually works from a nation or world point of view. The
concept of supply and demand is thrown a light upon through which how money is
not a resource like other constraints like land and minerals is proven. The
role of both- businesses and government is specified in various chapters in
order to make us clear about who can drive what and how. I liked the way author
explains inflation and factors resulting to it and what remedy can be taken
against it.
The
book talks about the improvement needed in both- developing and emerged
economies. The chapter on Savings and Investment is my favourite as it spoke
about concepts I knew prior and getting to learn it from an economist’s
perspective made it more interesting. It was very new for me to know about how
investments are funded and the whole procedure of it. While giving examples or talking
about the whole evolution of few theories, the way Pawar explains the whole
curve starting from 17th century is interesting to read. It’s like
knowing our history from financial aspect too along with reading a throughout
economics book.
There
is a very good example where author tries to explain the value of Rs. 100
currency note against Rs. 100 meal. Reading it made me change my whole
perspective towards having money as savings with me or valuables purchased from
it. The difference between expenditure policy and fiscal policy is written
almost in a way that you’ll feel as if you are reading some research paper on
the topic. It’s so apt and resourceful. Author uses the concept of Money multiplier
model to help us understand the concept which many financial influencers speak
upon i.e. compounding effect of money. Similarly, Swapnil elaborates on what he
means by modern money and that’s another new term and perspective I got to read
about.
The
whole loan system and how bank makes money out of it vs how we can look at the
credit system from customer point of view is thrown light upon in the last few
pages. I really liked the way author has divided even the chapters into sections
and further, sections into sub-sections. Within the sub-sections, there are
bullet points which makes it evident on the kind of determined knowledge and
research author has invested his time in. Overall, this book is great for
economics experts but little overwhelming for laymen. I will still give it
4.25* out of 5 for its focused detail on the topic and doing justice with it.
Thanks!
WRITING BUDDHA
