Greaber had some good followup commentary in a blog post on the subject. I think his book is important not just in terms of setting the history of money/debt straight but also in exposing flaws in methodology which gave rise to our misguided thoughts on money. I had a few comments on the subject on my blog a while back:
The long and short of it is our idea of money preceding debt flows from a willingness to engage in thought experiments about transactions rather than examine the historical record.
Greaber had some good followup commentary in a blog post on the subject. I think his book is important not just in terms of setting the history of money/debt straight but also in exposing flaws in methodology which gave rise to our misguided thoughts on money. I had a few comments on the subject on my blog a while back:
http://www.backsidesmack.com/2011/09/anthropology-and-the-secular-myths-of-economics/
The long and short of it is our idea of money preceding debt flows from a willingness to engage in thought experiments about transactions rather than examine the historical record.
Communism is a myth. A very dangerous one.
@Jean-Lou
Please see my post “Where does innovation come from?” which is my review of the “Rational Optimism”.
I would suggest reading “Rational Optimism” (Matt Ridley): the very topic of this blogpost is discussed in this book.