Includes bibliographical references (p. 423-432) and index.; Good money is stable money : how people make a living through monetary cooperation -- Hard money and soft money : currencies and economies around the world--from the seventh century BC to the twenty-first century AD -- Supply, demand, and the value of currency : how the value and quantity of money are regulated by central banks -- Inflation, deflation, and floating currencies : the effects of monetary distortion on the economy -- The gold standard : the most effective means of creating a currency of stable value -- Taxes : economic miracle to economic disaster, and the art of statesmanship -- Money in America : from colonial silver and paper to the turmoil of 1929 -- A history of central banking : from ancient Egypt and Rome to the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve -- The 1930s : a failure of monetary and fiscal policy causes a capitalist collapse -- The Bretton Woods gold standard : the postwar golden age and the beginning of monetary chaos -- Reagan and Volcker : monetarism fails, but the tax cuts succeed--and the 1980s boom -- The Greenspan years : the 1987 stock market crash, a recession, recovery, and monetary deflation -- Japan's success and failure : tax cuts, a golden yen, and the greatest monetary deflation in history -- The Asia crisis of the late 1990s : worldwide currency turmoil and economic disaster caused by a mismanaged U.S. dollar -- Russia, China, Mexico, and Yugoslavia : the Communist gold standards and hyperinflationary collapse -- A return to hard currencies : good money is a cornerstone of good government.;