Finances and Us

A coin, a bill, a credit card may seem like very practical things. Tools, nothing more. However, they function thanks to one of mankind’s greatest inventions: cooperation between tens of thousands or millions of people who do not know each other and yet trust that they are transmitting something abstract, called “value”.
In our time, money is one of the bases for the organization of societies and countries. Nevertheless, everything to do with it increasingly appears complex, uncontrollable and even mysterious. The proliferation of “financial instruments”, “speculative markets”, “banking institutions” and dozens of acronyms create a language that makes us feel ignorant or annoyed.
The reality is that money is inseparable from work, natural resources, innovations, everyday needs, what we learn to consume and the functioning of institutions.
This new volume of the “Knowing and Thinking” collection seeks to teach in a clear and entertaining way this world that is an essential part of our daily lives.

Key points

• It provides practical guidance on how to make a weekly and monthly budget to organize savings, control income and expenses.
• Teachers and parents can use it to discuss with their children the basics of managing a bank account, the necessary requirements and ways to protect themselves from hacks and scams.
• It contains a guide that explains the types of taxes that exist, the concepts of evasion and avoidance, and the debate over their use and legitimacy.
• It answers questions such as What is “market power?”, What are destructive price wars between companies? or How are collusions organized? with short stories as examples and a touch of humor.
• It puts into context the news and conversations about GDP, what it is, the various ways it can be measured, and the surprising fact that it does not include women’s domestic work.