Greenback Planet

How the Dollar Conquered the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It

Business & Finance, Economics, Money & Monetary Policy, Economic History, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book Greenback Planet by H. W. Brands, University of Texas Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: H. W. Brands ISBN: 9780292739338
Publisher: University of Texas Press Publication: December 15, 2009
Imprint: University of Texas Press Language: English
Author: H. W. Brands
ISBN: 9780292739338
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication: December 15, 2009
Imprint: University of Texas Press
Language: English

The world runs on the U.S. dollar. From Washington to Beijing, governments, businesses, and individuals rely on the dollar to conduct commerce and invest profitably and safely—even after the global financial meltdown in 2008 revealed the potentially catastrophic cost of the dollar's hegemony. But how did the greenback achieve this planetary dominance a mere century and a half after President Lincoln issued the first currency backed only by the credit—and credibility—of the federal government?

In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power—and the enormous risks—of the dollar's worldwide reign.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The world runs on the U.S. dollar. From Washington to Beijing, governments, businesses, and individuals rely on the dollar to conduct commerce and invest profitably and safely—even after the global financial meltdown in 2008 revealed the potentially catastrophic cost of the dollar's hegemony. But how did the greenback achieve this planetary dominance a mere century and a half after President Lincoln issued the first currency backed only by the credit—and credibility—of the federal government?

In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power—and the enormous risks—of the dollar's worldwide reign.

More books from University of Texas Press

Cover of the book Archaeology, Volcanism, and Remote Sensing in the Arenal Region, Costa Rica by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book The Feminization of Quest-Romance by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book El Narcotraficante by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book Pericles on Stage by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book Kitchenspace by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book This Land Was Mexican Once by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book A Political History of the Texas Republic, 1836-1845 by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book Brann and the Iconoclast by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book Women, Gender, and the Palace Households in Ottoman Tunisia by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book Warriors and Scholars by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book Islamism and Modernism by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book Around the World with LBJ by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book The Provisional Austrian Regime in Lombardy–Venetia, 1814–1815 by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book Negotiating for the Past by H. W. Brands
Cover of the book The Port of Houston by H. W. Brands
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy