To book gives an introduction into the functioning of monetary systems. It often requires no prior knowledge. The first three chapters contain a lot of historical information about the origins of money, that sometimes was understandable and sometimes not. Also, often the authors draw conclusions (which may be true but) which cannot possibly be understood by someone unfamiliar with the subject. Also, a lot of the book is not strictly descriptive but seems to pursue a political agenda strongly in favor of government spending; I found this inconvenient and unnecessary. The given references often link to papers and books by the authors themselves which I found a bit suspicious at times.

However chapter 4 and parts of chapter 6 were really helpful for me in describing who the contemporary money system in the UK works. I would not want to have missed those chapters. ( )