Money

From the Author

Why I wrote a beautiful book about an ugly topic: On Sunday, August 13, 1961, I found myself staring into the muzzle of a Soviet soldier's submachine gun. I was on a tour bus in the Soviet sector of Berlin the afternoon the communists slammed the border shut and began building their infamous Berlin Wall. I almost didn't get out of there. Thirty-seven years later, after much reading about world events, I condensed my thoughts in Money, which I call "a stunningly beautiful coffee table book – about a very ugly matter."

First the beauty. Money, (hardback, 325 pages) has 48 pages of full color photos, and most are enlargements of U.S. and colonial paper currencies going back to 1690. I believe Money is the world's first exposure to large color reproductions of U.S. paper currency. You'll see, up close and personal, 109 color images, including gold certificates, silver certificates, a fifty-cent bill from Abraham Lincoln's time, and even a real $3 bill. Everyone loves the artistic designs and marvelous engraving on the older U.S. bills.

"Coffee table" means Money is big, 8-1/2 x 11-1/2 inches, it's indexed, and it has 16 appendices packed with documentary information. The shipping weight for one copy is 4 pounds.

As to ugly, Money is about bankers, politicians, and theft by fraud. I tell people, "It blows the whistle on how the world's most powerful crime syndicate pulled off history's largest crime." You'll read about colossal financial fraud, fractional-reserve banking, the fact that there's zero precious metal backing U.S. paper currency today, "legalized" crime, and judicial "verbicide." You'll also learn the characteristics of con games, ripoffs, and scams, even those perpetrated by society's elite. It's a no-punches-pulled exposé – of fraud, and murder, and treason.

Money documents its arguments. I included photocopied material from Encyclopedia Britannica (1997, 1911, and 1768 eds.), the Oxford English Dictionary (1997 ed., 6 pages), and an entire appendix full of money-related definitions from Black's Law Dictionary (1991, 1951, and 1891 eds.), Bouvier's Law Dictionary (1870 ed.), West's Words and Phrases (1957 and 1907 eds.), and even Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language.

I also included detailed etymologies of the most important monetary terms: money, dollar, pay, tender, bill, usury, inflation, etc., and added a nifty glossary of money-related words and phrases. When you know where the words come from, in Latin and Greek, for example, you'll be able to spot verbal trickery in legal documents, laws, scams, and political speeches.

I wanted Money to go to work for you the day you receive it, so I wrote it in a casual, conversational style. It's easy to read, and is lightly sprinkled with humor.

Finally, I think Money will help you know what's ahead for your investments, and how to preserve your capital – and your freedom.

Money: Ye shall have honest weights and measures: There's never been another book like it.