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Re:Stop Being Wrong About China Buying Our Bonds by yxhuvud on Friday October 18, 2013 @01:19PM (#6572541)
Back to bartering? There have never been a big scale bartering system as they always end up being debt based since that is a lot more convenient for all parts.

6000 Years of Debt is a book that can be recommended for information about that. It is not a very good description of the present, but it captures the past very nicely.

Re:Stop Being Wrong About China Buying Our Bonds by scott_s on Friday October 18, 2013 @03:20PM (#6573445)
I believe you mean "Debt: The First 5000 Years". I'm still reading it. It's good for understanding these ideas, but it spends a lot of time in the beginning in "the language of debt" and how it relates to religions. That is interesting in its own right, but not why I picked up the book.
Re:Stop Being Wrong About China Buying Our Bonds by nunb on Saturday October 19, 2013 @12:48AM (#6575375)
yeah, that religious part was a bit far-fetched. (As a hindu/brahmin I LOL'd).

I've read several different theories of money and I don't find the debt vs coincidence-of-wants bifurcation that Graeber alludes to such a big difference in practice.

He pretty much hangs his whole approach off of that, but the two can be reconciled quite easily in my mind.

I wish everyone would read David Graeber (first) and then Detlev Schlichter.

Re:Stop Being Wrong About China Buying Our Bonds by kamjam on Friday October 18, 2013 @02:17PM (#6573026)
That was my point.