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How to Speak Money
How to Speak Money is a funny, clear and brilliantly entertaining guide to the world of finance by John Lanchester, bestselling author of Capital and Whoops!
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Money is our global language. Yet so few of us can speak it. The language of the economic elite can be complex, jargon-filled and completely baffling. Above all, the language of money is the language of power – power in the hands of the same economic elite.
Now John Lanchester, bestselling author of Capital and Whoops! sets out to decode the world of finance for all of us, explaining everything from high-frequency trading and the World Bank to the difference between bullshit and nonsense.
As funny as it is devastating, How To Speak Money is a primer and a polemic. It’s a reference book you’ll find yourself reading in one sitting. And it gives you everything you need to demystify the world of high finance – the world that dominates how we all live now.
A hugely enjoyable book... It's true: anything's understandable if you have a fun teacher. ... Lanchester, award-winning novelist apart, is a kind of brainy Everyman, a brilliant communicator.
What makes this such an entertaining and informative read if that it spells out why you should be able to speak money... witty, provocative and engaging.
One of the great explainers of the financial crisis and its aftermath.
I have read and re-read John Lanchester's wonderful book on economics. It's a dazzling, most wonderful book and it really excites me - it is so witty and so clear and so original - a most extraordinary book!
'It works - for three reasons. First, Lanchester is a fine writer. His prose is clear and precise, and that helps a lot when the subject matter is challenging. Second, he peps up the list with humour. ... Third, he gets the balance right: the book is neither too technical nor too patronising.
John Lanchester continues his mission to explain the world of finance to the uninitiated with this insightful and often funny book on the language the money people use ... If, as Lanchester says, arguments about the economy are going to dominate the social and political landscape over the next decade, we should all aim to become more financially literate. His book is an invaluable primer.
John Lanchester has written five novels, The Debt to Pleasure, Mr Phillips, Fragrant Harbour, Capital and The Wall, and three works of non-fiction: Family Romance, a memoir; Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay, about the global financial crisis; and How to Speak Money, a primer in popular economics. His books have won the Hawthornden Prize, the…
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