Rethinking Money and Capital by Swapnil Pawar (Book Review: 4.25*/5)

  

28^th Book of 2022

 

I have actually never read books on economics though I have read many books on personal financial management. I recently picked a book named “Rethinking Money and Capital” written by Swapnil Pawar which is of around 365-pages. It also has a tagline which specifies the subject covered in this non-fiction book- “New Economics for QE, Stimulus, Negative Interest, and Cryptocurrencies”. Author has tried his best to explain some concepts in easier language to ensure that every reader reaps benefits out of it. There are some parts which are really easy to understand whereas there are few terms and concepts which are difficult to comprehend. I believe people from economics background would love deep-diving into the concepts that author tried explaining but for a layman like me, the book will be effective only in sections.

 

Author discusses nation’s economy in detail and tries to elaborate on what all aspects impact it – either positively or negatively. Swapnil tries to make us understand how things actually works from a nation or world point of view. The concept of supply and demand is thrown a light upon through which how money is not a resource like other constraints like land and minerals is proven. The role of both- businesses and government is specified in various chapters in order to make us clear about who can drive what and how. I liked the way author explains inflation and factors resulting to it and what remedy can be taken against it.

 

The book talks about the improvement needed in both- developing and emerged economies. The chapter on Savings and Investment is my favourite as it spoke about concepts I knew prior and getting to learn it from an economist’s perspective made it more interesting. It was very new for me to know about how investments are funded and the whole procedure of it. While giving examples or talking about the whole evolution of few theories, the way Pawar explains the whole curve starting from 17^th century is interesting to read. It’s like knowing our history from financial aspect too along with reading a throughout economics book.

 

There is a very good example where author tries to explain the value of Rs. 100 currency note against Rs. 100 meal. Reading it made me change my whole perspective towards having money as savings with me or valuables purchased from it. The difference between expenditure policy and fiscal policy is written almost in a way that you’ll feel as if you are reading some research paper on the topic. It’s so apt and resourceful. Author uses the concept of Money multiplier model to help us understand the concept which many financial influencers speak upon i.e. compounding effect of money. Similarly, Swapnil elaborates on what he means by modern money and that’s another new term and perspective I got to read about.

 

The whole loan system and how bank makes money out of it vs how we can look at the credit system from customer point of view is thrown light upon in the last few pages. I really liked the way author has divided even the chapters into sections and further, sections into sub-sections. Within the sub-sections, there are bullet points which makes it evident on the kind of determined knowledge and research author has invested his time in. Overall, this book is great for economics experts but little overwhelming for laymen. I will still give it 4.25* out of 5 for its focused detail on the topic and doing justice with it.

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Thanks!

 

WRITING BUDDHA