Page 79 - Spring2009

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: is a much bigger problem with this book and it’s
Investing as if Food, Farms, not in what it says, but in what it doesn’t say.
and Fertility Mattered There is really nothing in there about sustainable
By Woody Tasch money. Here is what I mean by that.
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008 World War I should have ended after about
six months because all combatants would have
“The nation that destroys its soil destroys run out of money by that point. That didn’t hap-
itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt made that very pen because they simply started creating fiat
astute observation about seventy years ago. Slow money out of thin air, in other words, spending
Money starts off by establishing the fact that any money they didn’t have. The U.S. (and most of
economy that tries to force food production to the world) has been creating money out of thin
exceed soil capacity is doomed to failure. This air for most of the 20th century.
is certainly a good point. This has been done before, and it has never
Several pages later Tasch questions the idea worked in the long run. It didn’t work for the Ro-
that all growth is good. All growth is not good. mans two thousand years ago, or for the Germans
For example, economic growth that results from after WWI, or for Argentina later in the twentieth
increasing demands for medical care is not good century, or for Zimbabwe as I write this. This
because it means that we are getting sicker. In the currency always inflates until it is worthless,
short run it may seem good to those in the medi- the economy crashes, and things in general turn
cal system who stand to benefit. In the long run, very unpleasant.
however, they will run out of patients to kill—I If all Americans understood this chain of
mean treat. events then maybe they wouldn’t be so com-
Another example is increasing food produc- placent as we threw huge amounts of money
tion at the expense of our most critical resource: at our failing banks. Unfortunately many don’t
soil. The prevailing American attitude is that all understand the repercussions of such behavior, All growth is
growth is good, and the bigger the better. Again, so a book like this has a responsibility to address not good. For
I think Tasch is right to disagree with this prem- them. example,
ise. He also makes a good argument about what Nations resort to fiat money to increase
destructive devils we are. We work very hard production (of weapons most often) to levels that economic
at killing weeds, bugs, microbes, varmints and can’t be sustained in the long run. That kind of growth that
quite often each other. unsustainable production has spilled over into results from
Up to that point, he’s doing reasonably well. agriculture and the results could be even more
He goes on to list a number of businesses and devastating than a prolonged war. I think most increasing
pursuits that we should be engaged in rather than people have noticed the economy is melting demands for
destroying the environment. I agree with most down but they don’t seem to really understand medical care
but disagree with some. why. When it comes time to pick up the pieces
There are long stretches of seemingly aim- and start over, if we don’t want to make the same is not good
less rambling through most of the last half of mistakes again of overworking our soil and other because it
the book and an outline of a new kind of stock resources (including human labor), whatever else means that
exchange that invests in a slower-paced, sustain- we do, we need to go back to real money. Slow
able economy. I’m not convinced that starting Money ignores this elephant in the room, so the we are
another stock exchange is our solution, but there thumb is down. Review by Tim Boyd getting sicker.

SPRING 2009 Wise Traditions 77