Money: Ascent/Descent
Apr. 25th, 2009 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraI’m reading Niall Fergusson’s The Ascent of Money.
I should say: I’m moving my eyes rhythmically from left to right over the pages in Niall Fergusson’s The Ascent of Money. Though beautifully conceived and executed, very little in the book above the subject -> verb -> object level is actually penetrating my skull. I suppose this brands me as a Marxist at heart: I have a hard time seeing money as anything other than commodified labor.
Fergusson, on the other hand, sees money as a distillation of the trust that exists between borrower and lender. This is why it transcends its physical incarnation as gold or paper or phosphors on a led screen. It’s an abstraction of an abstraction.
The difficulty I have with this reasoning is that in the end, for me at least, abstractions are always delusions of a sort – collectively and consensually held delusions, to be sure (which would make them illusions, I suppose) but that emperor strutting down the catwalk? I can see his weewee. Ron Paul can see it too!
If money only exists as an abstraction, then it should be very easy to rectify the current financial crisis. It is simply a matter of recontexturalizing the conditions that led up to it.
But, of course, it’s not that easy. And it’s that difficulty as much as anything else that leads me to deduce that money is something other than what Fergusson describes and that there are finite limits to it – which, again, could not be true if it were merely an abstraction.
Anyway, good book. I highly recommend it.
###
Money has been much on my mind lately. I don’t have any. I don’t have any prospects of getting any. This is what happens when you are insufficiently prepared for the burden of risk you once took on.
A middle aged woman is invisible anyway, but a poor middle aged woman is just the most marginal of the marginal. I’m trying to keep myself from getting too upset about it – if I become hysterical, I will be even less functional and effective than I am now. And I need to complete my taxes and bankruptcy filing before I throw my lot in with the circus.
I suppose my life is valuable as a cautionary tale of sorts for my children. Two generations before mine, among my grandfather’s brothers there was my disbarred and disgraced Great Uncle Herbert – a Harvard law school graduate, no less! – and my bankrupt Great Uncle Rip. Max, Robin – learn from Mommy DiLucchio’s bad example!
It’s not as though my troubles are particularly unique.
I don’t see any way out of them though.
And that disturbs me. When you lose hope, your life becomes an indeterminate sentence.
I’m not sure whether I’m completely exhausted or I really have lost hope.
I should say: I’m moving my eyes rhythmically from left to right over the pages in Niall Fergusson’s The Ascent of Money. Though beautifully conceived and executed, very little in the book above the subject -> verb -> object level is actually penetrating my skull. I suppose this brands me as a Marxist at heart: I have a hard time seeing money as anything other than commodified labor.
Fergusson, on the other hand, sees money as a distillation of the trust that exists between borrower and lender. This is why it transcends its physical incarnation as gold or paper or phosphors on a led screen. It’s an abstraction of an abstraction.
The difficulty I have with this reasoning is that in the end, for me at least, abstractions are always delusions of a sort – collectively and consensually held delusions, to be sure (which would make them illusions, I suppose) but that emperor strutting down the catwalk? I can see his weewee. Ron Paul can see it too!
If money only exists as an abstraction, then it should be very easy to rectify the current financial crisis. It is simply a matter of recontexturalizing the conditions that led up to it.
But, of course, it’s not that easy. And it’s that difficulty as much as anything else that leads me to deduce that money is something other than what Fergusson describes and that there are finite limits to it – which, again, could not be true if it were merely an abstraction.
Anyway, good book. I highly recommend it.
Money has been much on my mind lately. I don’t have any. I don’t have any prospects of getting any. This is what happens when you are insufficiently prepared for the burden of risk you once took on.
A middle aged woman is invisible anyway, but a poor middle aged woman is just the most marginal of the marginal. I’m trying to keep myself from getting too upset about it – if I become hysterical, I will be even less functional and effective than I am now. And I need to complete my taxes and bankruptcy filing before I throw my lot in with the circus.
I suppose my life is valuable as a cautionary tale of sorts for my children. Two generations before mine, among my grandfather’s brothers there was my disbarred and disgraced Great Uncle Herbert – a Harvard law school graduate, no less! – and my bankrupt Great Uncle Rip. Max, Robin – learn from Mommy DiLucchio’s bad example!
It’s not as though my troubles are particularly unique.
I don’t see any way out of them though.
And that disturbs me. When you lose hope, your life becomes an indeterminate sentence.
I’m not sure whether I’m completely exhausted or I really have lost hope.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 06:54 pm (UTC)That's what I keep telling myself anyway.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 07:28 pm (UTC)Fergusson's book is excellent, and money is an abstraction of an abstract concept created now by fiat.
Oh well, at least you're only out of an abstract concept:)
A good friend of mine lost everything in the market a few months ago. He was a 30 year trader, and made a good living. Poof, it all went in one day, all $75 million dollars.
My hedge fund buddy lost $300 Million in one day and managed a spectacular comeback. It took him 4 years, but he has more money than ever. What's most important is that he has his self respect and happiness.
Self respect and happiness trump money every time.
Expect something in the mail anytime.
Take Care,
Jeff
no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-26 10:35 am (UTC)the problem is that money is an abstract that we've all agreed to believe in on some level - so when we don't have it people can ignore us/put us aside/etc
i am looking forward to the day when money is no longer the governing aspect (albeit hallucinatory) of humanity and intelligence, the ability to adapt, the strength of those of us who struggle to be/do good is the thing humans value
of course i'm probably a bit jaded as my ugly divorce pushes me toward bankrupcy as i can't pay his bills and he refuses to... but i took the risk so i'll suffer the consequences
no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 01:05 am (UTC)That's a horrible situation and so hard -- that somebody you loved could play you like that. I'm sorry.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 01:05 am (UTC)