What If Money Grew on Trees?

Book excerpt: Asking the big questions about economics. What if...? are the two words that sow the seeds for human speculation, experimentation, invention, evolution, revolution, and change. In an uncertain age, economists are asking, What if growth stopped growing?; scientists, What if light speed were overtaken?; and politicians, What if the third world became the first? What If Money Grew On Trees? challenges a team of scholars to put their minds to 50 speculations on economics, at a time when the banking system seems to be failing and the whole idea of capitalism is up for debate. Consider a world where gold is worthless, nobody makes anything, and the bulls and bears are locked out of the market, and en route accumulate the knowledge to debate the shape that our financial world might take in the future.