"Ann Pettifor’s The Production of Money, is a work in three parts. It provides an explanation of how money and credit are created in modern economies and of some of the problems that helped foment the financial crisis. The author, an economist, then sets out her views on how these problems should be fixed, including introducing controls on international capital flows. Finally, and less obviously from the title, the book strays into a critique of fiscal austerity. [...] One of her objectives is to 'simplify key concepts in relation to money, finance and economics, and to make them accessible to a much wider audience'. [...] Money creation is a complex and intangible concept in a world where it is no longer backed by gold bars held by the central bank, and Pettifor provides the most accessible and thorough explanation I have seen. [...] She strikes a revolutionary tone when setting out the problem. But many of the remedies Pettifor recommends are, as she acknowledges, fairly mainstream: monitoring the evolution of credit relative to national income, limiting loan-to-value mortgage ratios more strictly, imposing stronger regulation on banks and issuing government debt at low interest rates across the maturity spectrum. [...] This book will help the public 'develop a much greater understanding' of how banking and financial systems work. However, its confrontational style — criticising financial market players, most economists, politicians and ideas from other left-leaning economists — may put some readers off before they get to the meat of the argument. The characterisations of these groups’ views are selective and her criticisms are at times not well supported by the evidence she presents."

"At its core, the book’s guiding questions are: How does money currently facilitate a despotic regime of finance and how can it facilitate, as a fiat currency, socially beneficial activity to set us on a better path toward Just Transition and equality? [...] This is a perfect book for the layperson (and latent activist) because it demystifies the currently authoritarian function of central and commercial banks in our world and how they have a stranglehold over our collective ability to address the massive global crises we face. Even more importantly, it presents a winning narrative about how we can begin to tackle financial oligarchy, climate chaos, inequality, and sexism precisely by framing a realistic horizon of dramatically better life conditions for ordinary people. [...] Even though The Production of Money weaves in discussion about climate change and transition it doesn’t leave the reader with a list of immediate calls to action. The book, however, is a great resource for the climate movement because it explains the workings of global capitalism, the key driver of the crisis."

"The general thrust of Pettifor’s argument is that the ‘production of money’ by banks is of vital importance to a well-functioning economy but one that has been poorly controlled, allowing its benefits to be accompanied by great harms. I believe this to be correct and that many of her proposed solutions are eminently sensible. Yet I believe that some important aspects of the problem are partially obscured by some errors of detail in her account."