Money (49 page)

This book is a work of synthesis, obviously—and as such, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the many brilliant scholars and practioners on whose research and ideas it draws. In addition, I would like to thank especially several of them who were exceptionally generous with their time and knowledge in commenting on or discussing with me chapter drafts. My very sincere thanks in this regard to Richard Seaford, Antoin Murphy, James Macdonald, Hannah Dawson, Edward Skidelsky, Arthur Edwards, Wendy Carlin, Simon Wren-Lewis, Colin Mayer, Andy Haldane, Richard Harrison, Gregory Thwaites, John Kay, Perry Mehrling, Robert Skidelsky, and Mark Bearn. Ben Tobias provided invaluable help with research. Needless to say, any errors or infelicities that remain are mine.

The practical business of writing the book was greatly helped by the Centre for Global Studies in London, which hosted me as a research associate in the first half of 2012. My sincere thanks to Olga Bogomazova and to the Centre for so generously providing the ideal environment in which to work.

I owe special thanks to two people—Ha-Joon Chang and Robert Skidelsky—who encouraged me actually to write this book rather than just to talk about writing it. Likewise, Will Goodlad, Joy de Menil, Philip Delves Broughton, Nicole Aragi, Tim Moore, Barnaby Martin, Joanna Kavenna, Anna Webber, Rory Stewart, and Aleksandar Hemon all provided masterful and greatly appreciated practical advice and encouragement. As for my agent, Natasha Fairweather, she is simply in a class of her own. I cannot thank her and the rest of the team at A. P. Watt—Linda Shaughnessy, Lucy Smith, and Donald Winchester—enough.

I have been incredibly fortunate to have had two exemplary editors in Stuart Williams at The Bodley Head and Andrew Miller at Knopf. Of course, this book would never have seen the light of day without their support and meticulous attention. But even if it had, it would have been much worse—and also much longer. I am enormously grateful to both of them, and to the rest of The Bodley Head team in London and the Alfred A. Knopf team in New York.

Finally and most importantly, I must thank my daughters for putting up with my absence; and above all my wife, Kristina—without whom neither this book, nor many other much more important things, would exist. Thank you, my darling, for everything.

Felix Martin was educated in Britain, Italy and the United States and holds degrees in classics, international relations and economics, including a doctorate in economics from Oxford University. He worked for the World Bank and for the European Stability Initiative think tank, and is currently a partner in the fixed income division at Liontrust Asset Management plc. He lives in London.

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