Book 29

Boggs: A Comedy of Values by Lawrence Weschler

Type: Non-fiction

My rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Why I chose it: I found this book mentioned either in a blog or an article in reference to money and what makes up money and how anyone attributes value to money. This is the story of an artist who draws pictures of money and, as part of his "art," attempts to exchange his money at face value for goods and/or services.

What I liked about it: There were several good comparisons between money and art throughout the book. Art is similar to money in that it has nothing backing it. It is merely the perception that money and art have value.

Although this book was written in 1999 there was a discussion that is very relevant today. On page 92, it is written "Experts calculated that almost half a trillion dollars in value had disappeared from the American economy overnight (sound familiar?) - but what had happened to it, one wondered. Where had it gone? One answer was that it hadn't gone anywhere; it wasn't now in some new place, where we would eventually be able to locate it if we just set our minds to it. Rather, it had in a sense never existed in the first place. There is always something dreamy about great speculative frenzies, and, inevitably, at some point the dreamers awake. It was simply, as many commentators now took to noting, morning again in America."