J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev, "Against Money" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

Money is everywhere in our daily lives. It lurks in the swipe of a

card at the grocery store, in looming student-loan debts, in the prices

of things we want, and in our subconscious navigation of the modern

world. In this revelatory book, economists Mason and Jayadev explain how

and why money is so deeply misunderstood by the world it dominates—as

well as the dangerous social implications of this misunderstanding. Against Money (University of Chicago Press, 2026) tackles

the most dearly held “truths” of economics, arguing that the world of

money has never been an impartial representation of the world of things.

Instead, its existence in different forms—debt, capital, liquidity, and

interest—increasingly shapes events in the real world rather than just

reflecting them. Sometimes money enables new forms of cooperation; more

often it facilitates domination. Human existence is not just facilitated