Making Markets and Making Money

First studied by Swiss economist Jean-Charles Léonard Sismonde de Sismondi in 1819, Making Markets and Making Money: Strategy and Monetary Exchange examines the strategic aspects of monetary exchange—specifically, of making markets. Economist Bernard C. Beaudreau, author of Mass Production, the Stock Market Crash, and The Great Depression: The Macroeconomics of Electrification, examines the strategic aspects of making markets using basic game theory. Drawing from the archaeological and historical records, Beaudreau documents the prevalence of coordination failures in trade in general, and monetary exchange in particular. He argues, convincingly, that the ability to execute trades (make markets) has been, is, and will continue to be a more important economic problem that scarcity itself.