Economics expert Stewart Cowley distils the complexities of modern-day money and our relationship with it, explaining how you can use economics to your advantage and that understanding economics can improve your life. Along the way you will discover how the statistics that govern our world are based on guesswork, why stock markets are like a wandering drunken man, what you need to live like a millionaire, and why cooking has made man the dominant species on the planet. Where is all the money? How does a country go bust? Should I get paid in Bitcoin? Wherever you go, whatever you do, however you live your life, money plays a role. Getting it, keeping it, and making more out of it has been one of man's major preoccupations for the past five thousand years. From buying a sandwich to earning a wage, going on holiday to playing the lottery, how money and economics governs our world is fascinating. And it's just about to get more curious; the arrival of modern banking, crowd funding, investments at the touch of a smartphone, and virtual currencies means, for many of us, it is even more complex.

Author Biography

Stewart Cowley is a regular columnist in the UK. He is a regular guest on BBC's Newsnight, Radio 4 and SKY News. Having worked in finance in New York and London since the 1980s, Stewart is now passionate about reporting on economics.