The global financial crisis has been called a crisis for not only economies but economic knowledge and the discipline as a whole. We may be forgiven for wanting to take economists to task, but are they the only ones who must think carefully about the products of their research? This essay reviews two books written in response to recent economic turbulence: Farewell to Growth by Serge Latouche and The End of Finance by Massimo Amato and Luca Fantacci. The former is an impassioned plea for social change targeted at activists. The latter is a magisterial work of economic history that explores the roots of repeated economic collapses over previous centuries, questioning the nature of money and the importance of liquidity to market societies. Both books are interesting reads, but though Latouche's book would be very useful in classrooms, it is Amato and Fantacci's text that offers intriguing possibilities for sociologists of money, and raises troubling questions for economic sociologists more generally.
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