Product Description

Will the sun set on the greatest currency in the history of the world?

For decades the dollar has been the undisputed champ. It’s not only the currency of America but much of the world as well, the fuel of global prosperity. As the superengine of the world’s only superpower, it’s accepted everywhere. When an Asian company trades with South America, those transactions are done in dollars, the currency of international business.

But for how much longer? Economists fear America is digging a hole with an economy based on massive borrowing and huge deficits that cloud the dollar’s future. Will the buck be eclipsed by the euro or even China’s renminbi? Should Americans worry when the value of the mighty U.S. dollar sinks to par with the Canadian “loonie”?

Craig Karmin’s in-depth “biography” of the dollar explores these issues. It also examines the green-back’s history, allure, and unique role as a catalyst for globalization, and how the American buck became so almighty that $ became perhaps the most powerful symbol on earth.

Biography of the Dollar explores every aspect of its subject: the power of the Federal Reserve, the inner sanctums of foreign central banks that stockpile the currency, and the little-known circles of foreign exchange traders that determine a currency’s worth. It traces the dollar’s ascendancy, including one incredibly important duck-hunting trip and the world-changing Bretton Woods Conference.

With its watermark, color-shifting inks, and a presidential portrait that glows under ultraviolet light, the dollar has obsessed foreign governments, some of which have tried to counterfeit it. Even Saddam Hussein, who insisted on being paid in euros for oil, had $750,000 in hundred-dollar bills when captured. Yet if a worldwide currency has enabled a global economy to flourish, it’s also allowed the United States to owe unbelievable, shocking amounts of money—paying hundreds of millions of dollars every single day just in interest on foreign debt; that’s raised concerns that the dollar standard may not be sustainable.


Any threat to the dollar’s privileged status would do much more than hurt American pride. It would mean U.S. companies and citizens would not be able to borrow at the low rates they have become accustomed to. The dollar’s demise would impact the rest of the world, too, boosting the costs of trade and investment if no other currency was able to play the same crucial role. Ultimately the dollar system may weaken, but it should endure—a while longer, at least; it’s in few people’s interest to see it fail, and there is still no credible alternative.

Biography of the Dollar is must reading for anyone who wants to understand what truly makes the world go ’round—and whether it will continue to spin the way we want it to.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408736 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-26
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this colorful but sometimes superficial survey of the history and present role of the U.S. dollar, Wall Street Journal reporter Karmin tackles the complex dynamics that have placed American currency at the top of the global economy and the forces that now threaten its position there. In six loosely linked chapters—one offers a peek inside a currency-trading hedge fund, while another takes readers to Ecuador, which in 2000 abandoned its own currency and adopted the dollar as its only legal tender—Karmin examines the dollar's unprecedented role as the first truly global currency that is trusted and accepted around the world, a phenomenon based on little more than faith in the U.S. government and the idea of America. The book is studded with interesting trivia, especially in a chapter about the Department of Engraving and Printing, which produces $529 million in banknotes every day and once printed counterfeit Cuban pesos as part of a government plan to destabilize Castro's regime, but Karmin occasionally sacrifices depth and explication in order to maintain the book's fast pace and glib tone. It's a fun read, but doesn't add up to more than the sum of its disparate parts. (Feb. 26)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"For decades the dollar has reigned supreme, so much so that many take it as part of the natural order. But we're in an era of rapid change and the dollar is not immune. Craig Karmin's Biography of the Dollar is an indispensable guide to understanding the way both the U.S. and the world economies work and the dollar's role in keeping the economic skids greased. Karmin's great skill is his ability to take what in lesser hands would seem like complex and opaque ideas and make them transparent, understandable and relevant, whether you are an entrepreneur, work in a Fortune 500 company or simply trying to understand what in the world is going on."
—Ram Charan, author of Know-How and co-author of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

"After 50 pages, I was able to hold my own discussing currency trading with a vice president at JP Morgan Chase. This is an incredible book that should be required reading for anyone whose future depends on understanding how the dollar is valued and manipulated. Whether you work in finance, travel internationally, or simply haven't been taught why the dollar rises or falls in relation to other currencies, read Biography of the Dollar now—or suffer the consequences."
—Timothy Ferriss, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek


From the Hardcover edition.

Review
"For decades the dollar has reigned supreme, so much so that many take it as part of the natural order. But we're in an era of rapid change and the dollar is not immune. Craig Karmin's Biography of the Dollar is an indispensable guide to understanding the way both the U.S. and the world economies work and the dollar's role in keeping the economic skids greased. Karmin's great skill is his ability to take what in lesser hands would seem like complex and opaque ideas and make them transparent, understandable and relevant, whether you are an entrepreneur, work in a Fortune 500 company or simply trying to understand what in the world is going on."
—Ram Charan, author of Know-How and co-author of Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

"After 50 pages, I was able to hold my own discussing currency trading with a vice president at JP Morgan Chase. This is an incredible book that should be required reading for anyone whose future depends on understanding how the dollar is valued and manipulated. Whether you work in finance, travel internationally, or simply haven't been taught why the dollar rises or falls in relation to other currencies, read Biography of the Dollar now—or suffer the consequences."
—Timothy Ferriss, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek

Customer Reviews

Everyone American Needs to Read This Book! (or One Like It)
Craig Karmin's new book, "Biography of the Dollar," explores a world that most of us in America take for granted - the world of currency. So, what's so important about the currency? My answer to that is simple- everything.

A free-flowing, stable currency is what makes all trade possible- both domestically and internationally. A lack of confidence in the underlying value of a currency can bring entire economies to a screeching halt. The results can be devastating- life savings are wiped out, hyperinflation can take root, debt is defaulted on, investment dries up. It can take decades for economies to recover.

If you're like me, you probably haven't given much thought to these issues. Because, as Americans, they seem to be such remote possibilities. But are they . . . ?

Karmin's book does an excellent job of informing the reader of how the US Dollar is created, distributed and used not only in the United States; but, throughout the world. Karmin covers many aspects of the Greenback- from printing (it costs 5.7 cents to print one) to foreign government's hoarding (60% of the dollars in circulation are overseas) to lending and interest rates (thank China, not the fed, for keeping US consumer borrowing rates low).

Karmin also brings to light the intense pressure that the Dollar is under every day from seemingly all sides:

-the U.S. Government's unwillingness to balance the budget,
-Asian and Middle Eastern countries growing less interested with "subsidizing" the value of the Dollar,
-the solidifying of the Euro as an alternative global currency, and
-the U.S. consumer's never-ending desire to "borrow-and-buy" their way through life

All of these factors have already played out to a certain degree in the declining value of the Dollar over the past couple years. Will the trend continue and how far will it go? Those questions are explored as well.

I highly recommend that anyone read this book- it is an eye opener without getting technical (economist-types will miss their I-L-S-M diagrams)- and it poses all the right questions to get American's thinking about the implications for the future- whether that be as vital as national security or as trivial as the cost of a hotel room in Paris.

Excellent book
It is an excellent book to understand the dynamics of the currency markets and will give an insight to the ordinary people how policymakers have screwed an excellent arrangement of international trade currency fir their own benefits. It will encourage people to ask questions, what measures are being taken by the policymakers to correct this situation. A strong $ is not in the interest of US but also in the interst of other nations. However the shortsightedness on the part of politicians has weakened the $ to such an extent that it seems to be beyond repair now. However all is not yet lost and it is still possible to bring the USD to its full glory. The author has explained the whole thing in a very lucid language. I recommend this book to all.

A fun to read and quite instructive book on a tough subject
When I picked it up I was expecting a historical journey starting with the revolutionary period and ending in today. What I got was a high level overview of key events this century, mostly in the last fifty years. The author offers deep and quite instructive insights in the dollar from a trade and monetary policy points of view, showing their deep connections, which goes unnoticed by most. I'm curious about macro economics and monetary policy has been an area where I've not been able to absorb any meaningful material until I read this book. It offers interesting insights about how financial instruments, particularly money and bonds, play a role in government policy and the economy as a whole. The book is fun to read and quite instructive.