Under the gold standard, nations didn’t compete, much less war, over their currency values. The precious metal kept the peace. But the age of paper money is different. It turned currency into a wicked killing fields, as governments fight over the spoils of trade. It has led to competitive devaluations, artificiality, moral hazard, and unrelenting lies. These are the new cold wars. They could lead to hot wars.

In either case, cold or hot, these wars affect us all. The debasement of the dollar, bailouts in Greece and Ireland, dollar imperialism, and Chinese currency manipulation are unmistakable signs. Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics.

Left unchecked, the new currency wars could lead to a crisis worse than the panic of 2008. Drawing on a mix of economic history, network science, and sociology, this book provides a rich account of the threats to prosperity and security from dollar devaluation to collapse in the European periphery, failed states in Africa, Chinese neomercantilism, Russian belligerance, and the current scramble for gold.

James Rickards, an expert who has worked at the highest levels of both finance and national security, explains everything we need to know about this growing global standoff. He takes readers around the world and behind closed doors to explain complex financial and political currents with absorbing firsthand anecdotes.

They promised us peace. But fiat money gave us a new world of conflict.

Time and again, paper currencies have collapsed, assets have been frozen, gold has been confiscated, and capital controls have been imposed. And the next crash is overdue. The U. S. Federal Reserve has engaged in the greatest gamble in the history of finance, a sustained effort to stimulate the economy by printing money on a trillion-dollar scale. Its solutions present hidden new dangers while resolving none of the current dilemmas.

While the outcome of the new currency war is not yet certain, some version of the worst-case scenario is almost inevitable if U.S. and world economic leaders fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. Rickards untangles the web of failed paradigms, wishful thinking, and arrogance driving current public policy and points the way toward a more informed and effective course of action.