The structure of any human society is a typical pyramidal one, with a critical minority of people gradually moving up through the social structure due to their own intelligence and diligence, and in some cases through violence and fraud. When they have sufficient financial power and influence, they will in turn consolidate and expand their vested interests by changing the rules of the game and creating a ruling elite with interlocking interests. If the power pyramid structure of Eastern societies is based on regimes, the Western pyramid of domination is a chain of very hidden debts that hold the various strata of society firmly together. In Western societies, creditors have dominant power and debtors are in a dominated position, and the main function of the state apparatus is to protect and reinforce the reliability of this chain. In the West, whoever is the biggest creditor is the ultimate lawmaker of the game, and central banks, controlled by international bankers since the 19th century, are undoubtedly the biggest creditors of society as a whole, with the rest of society, including governments, being their debtors. From this perspective, the West today is actually a financial powerhouse controlling government decisions. This book will comprehensively describe the formation, development, exclusion, conflict, alliance and checks and balances of the major financial power groups in Europe and the United States over a period of 300 years, systematically analyze the operation and decision-making mechanism of the dominant forces behind the scenes in the world today, and for the first time unveil the mystery of the "international banking family club" that rules the world.

In 1971, President Nixon imposed national price controls and took the United States off the gold standard, an extreme measure intended to end an ongoing currency war that had destroyed faith in the U.S. dollar. Today we are engaged in a new currency war, and this time the consequences will be far worse than those that confronted Nixon. Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics. At best, they offer the sorry spectacle of countries' stealing growth from their trading partners. At worst, they degenerate into sequential bouts of inflation, recession, retaliation, and sometimes actual violence. Left unchecked, the next currency war could lead to a crisis worse than the panic of 2008. Currency wars have happened before-twice in the last century alone-and they always end badly. Time and again, paper currencies have collapsed, assets have been frozen, gold has been confiscated, and capital controls have been imposed. And the next crash is overdue. Recent headlines about the debasement of the dollar, bailouts in Greece and Ireland, and Chinese currency manipulation are all indicators of the growing conflict. As James Rickards argues in Currency Wars, this is more than just a concern for economists and investors. The United States is facing serious threats to its national security, from clandestine gold purchases by China to the hidden agendas of sovereign wealth funds. Greater than any single threat is the very real danger of the collapse of the dollar itself. Baffling to many observers is the rank failure of economists to foresee or prevent the economic catastrophes of recent years. Not only have their theories failed to prevent calamity, they are making the currency wars worse. The U. S. Federal Reserve has engaged in the greatest gamble in the history of finance, a sustained effort to stimulate the economy by printing money on a trillion-dollar scale. Its solutions present hidden new dangers while resolving none of the current dilemmas. While the outcome of the new currency war is not yet certain, some version of the worst-case scenario is almost inevitable if U.S. and world economic leaders fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. Rickards untangles the web of failed paradigms, wishful thinking, and arrogance driving current public policy and points the way toward a more informed and effective course of action.

People's ability to think is often paralyzed in the face of overwhelming information and a myriad of opinions. Critical data is drowned out by noise data, important details are confused by minutiae, deeper pathologies are confused by superficial pathologies, core reasoning is tied up in trivial logic, analysis loses its bearings and judgment goes astray. Ultimately, the illusion displaces the truth. This is particularly true in the economic sphere. Five years after the end of the financial crisis in 2008, views on the future course of the world economy are still divided. Has the U.S. quantitative easing been effective or not? Is the global currency overshoot a blessing or a curse? Are financial markets becoming safer, or more dangerous? Has the economic recovery been steady or short-lived? In short, is the world gradually moving away from the last recession, or is it accelerating its slide to the next crisis? All the activities that mankind has ever engaged in have always revolved around two most basic tasks, one of which is the creation of wealth and the other is the distribution of wealth, from which all other activities are derived. Whether creating wealth or distributing it, human greed has been the source of their ultimate energy since the beginning. The "good in greed" drives technological advances that save energy, reduce time, reduce intensity, and increase pleasure, resulting in a continuous increase in productivity and more prosperous wealth creation. However, the insatiable greed of greed can inspire trickery, speculation, fraud, quick gains and extravagance, which in turn stifle productivity progress, lead to a distorted distribution of wealth and reduce the economic vitality of society.

Money, by its very nature, is a claim to wealth, and people hold money, the equivalent of a receipt for holding wealth. What is wealth? What form of wealth is used to issue money as collateral determines the nature of the currency. The most widely accepted form of wealth is currency. Wealth, but also currency, is the fruit of human labour. The commodity property of the commons is, in essence, the property of labour. Over the 5,000 years of human civilization, more than 2,000 commodities have taken on the role of currency, and the market has evolved to phase out other currencies, eventually choosing gold and silver as the ultimate representatives of wealth. No matter what region, no matter what civilization, no matter what religion, gold and silver formed the currency as the most widely accepted form of wealth. The gold and silver at this time is both the claim to wealth and the wealth itself. Even though people have gradually forgotten the gold behind the paper money receipts in the long process of being brainwashed, gold, after all, restricts the over-issuance of receipts, because when there are too many receipts, sooner or later people will be interested in the gold that these receipts can claim. Bankers, as the rule makers of the money game, did not like gold as collateral for paper money, either because it was not enough to satisfy the inflation of paper money desires, or because it did not generate interest income. The idea that bankers would prefer to replace gold with an asset that would never run out and would be viable is a tempting one, and after 1971, the demonetization of gold was in fact an unequal treaty unilaterally imposed on others by the rule-makers of the money game. Thus, we were introduced to an entirely new form of money: sovereign credit money.

This book will follow the main line of world reserve currency hegemony, starting with the deliberate overthrow of the pound sterling hegemony by the US dollar, showing how the US monetary strategy masters have gradually eroded the pound sterling power, squeezed the pound sterling's international reserve currency status and trade settlement pricing power, and how the pound sterling power has counterattacked the US dollar through the "imperial preference system", and returned the US dollar to its original "isolationist" form. The fierce struggle between the dollar and the pound created a vacuum of world financial power in the 1930s that exacerbated the Great Depression worldwide. The Second World War provided a historic opportunity for the dollar to eradicate the pound, and the Atlantic Charter and the Lend-Lease Act were all sharp scalpels in Roosevelt's hands, aimed at dismembering the British Empire's pound. Eventually, the United States established a "Bretton Woods dynasty" with a dollar-based system as regent by "holding gold hostage to the vassals". The basis of interest in the "China-America" economic marriage is fracturing and disintegrating. America's tolerance for China's booming economy was originally based on the model of Chinese production, American enjoyment, Chinese savings, American consumption. China's future economic transformation will inevitably require a shift in the main resources of the national economy from being tilted towards overseas markets to being tilted towards domestic markets, thereby reducing savings exports to the United States. This process would change the basic U.S. position of continuing to tolerate China's economic growth.

"The Internet of Money Volume Two: a collection of talks" is the spectacular sequel to the cult classic and best seller "The Internet of Money Volume One: a collection of talks" by Andreas M. Antonopoulos. Volume Two contains 11 more of his most inspiring and thought-provoking talks, including: Introduction to Bitcoin; Blockchain vs Bullshit; Fake News, Fake Money; Currency Wars; Bubble Boy and the Sewer Rat; Rocket Science and Ethereum's Killer App; and many more. Volume Two also includes an all-new frequently asked questions section! In 2013, Andreas M. Antonopoulos started publicly speaking about bitcoin and quickly became one of the world's most sought-after speakers in the industry. To date, he has delivered more than 75, TED-style talks in venues ranging from the Henry Ford Museum in the United States to packed-out Bitcoin Meetups around the world including Brazil, the Czech Republic, and New Zealand, and every talk is completely different. In these performances, Antonopoulos walks onto the stage and delivers a live, unscripted talk. Without a deck in sight, he unleashes his latest insights into the lightning-fast changes surrounding bitcoin. Combining the knowledge of one of the world's leading blockchain technologists, with cultural context, comedy, and the flair of a performance artist, Antonopoulos conveys an up-to-the-second understanding of bitcoin to live audiences worldwide. Many of these talks were so visionary, their content so educational, that they were curated and refined into a book form. On 7 September 2016, The Internet of Money Volume One was launched on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (the interview has since been viewed more than 300,000 times). With its genesis in the lived, human experience, The Internet of Moneyoffered something that was desperately needed: an explanation of the philosophy, economics, politics, poetics, and technologies of bitcoin and open blockchains set within a broad historical context and using clear, simple language that delighted general audiences and bitcoin enthusiasts alike. During its first year, Volume One quickly became a hit in the global crypto-currency community-appealing to audiences from fields as diverse as the arts, sciences, and humanities. As one reader wrote: "It provides a uniquely accessible take on a mind-bendingly abstract system." The Internet of Money Volume Two: a collection of talks builds on that momentum and offers readers an opportunity to experience more these inspiring and thought-provoking talks in print. It also includes a bonus question and answer section, where Andreas answers some of the most frequently asked questions from audience members during his worldwide tour. Volume Two is a sequel that rivals, even exceeds, the first, in content, scope, and vision. These talks are intellectual fire-starters you won't want to miss. Make this book part of your collection and see why Andreas M. Antonopoulos is considered the most powerful and engaging voice in crypto-currency and blockchain.

The next financial collapse will resemble nothing in history. . . . Deciding upon the best course to follow will require comprehending a minefield of risks, while poised at a crossroads, pondering the death of the dollar. The U.S. dollar has been the global reserve currency since the end of World War II. If the dollar fails, the entire international monetary system will fail with it. But optimists have always said, in essence, that confidence in the dollar will never truly be shaken, no matter how high our national debt or how dysfunctional our government. In the last few years, however, the risks have become too big to ignore. While Washington is gridlocked, our biggest rivals—China, Russia, and the oil-producing nations of the Middle East—are doing everything possible to end U.S. monetary hegemony. The potential results: Financial warfare. Deflation. Hyperinflation. Market collapse. Chaos. James Rickards, the acclaimed author of Currency Wars, shows why money itself is now at risk and what we can all do to protect ourselves. He explains the power of converting unreliable investments into real wealth: gold, land, fine art, and other long-term stores of value.

This book uses systemic thinking and applies it to the study of financial crises. It systematically presents how the systemic yoyo model, its thinking logic, and its methodology can be employed as a common playground and intuition to the study of money, international finance, and economic reforms. This book establishes theoretical backings for why some of the most employed interferences of the market and empirical experiences actually work. It has become urgent for economists and policy makers to understand how international speculative capital affects the economic security of various nations. By looking at the issues of monetary movement around the world, this book shows that there are clearly visible patterns behind the flows of capital, and that there are a uniform language and logic of reasoning that can be powerfully employed in the studies of international finance As shown in this book, many of the conclusions drawn on the basis of these visible patterns, language, and logic of thinking can be practically applied to produce tangible economic benefits. Currency Wars: Offense and Defense through Systemic Thinking is divided into six parts. The first part addresses issues related to systemic modeling of economic entities and processes and explains how a few policy changes can adjust the performance of the extremely complex economy. Part II of the book investigates the problem of how instabilities lead to opportunities for currency attacks, the positive and negative effects of foreign capital, and how international capital flows can cause disturbances of various degrees on a nation’s economic security. Part III examines how a currency war is initiated, why currency conflicts and wars are inevitable, and a specific way of how currency attacks can take place. In Part IV, the book shows how one nation can potential defend itself by manipulating exchange rate of its currency, how the nation under siege can protect itself against financial attacks by using strategies based on the technique of feedback, and develops a more general approach of self-defense. Part V focuses on issues related to the cleanup of the disastrous aftermath of currency attacks through using policies and reforms. Finally the book concludes in Part VI as it analyzes specific real-life cases and addresses the ultimate problem of whether or not currency wars can be avoided all together.

Recounts the events of the Bretton Woods accords, presents portaits of the two men at the center of the drama, and reveals Harry White's admiration for Soviet economic planning and communications with intelligence officers.