Money, magic and how to dismantle a financial bomb, reviewed

We look at this provocative book by David Orrell, which aims to cross quantum concepts with finance and money matters. See more about the book, and to buy a copy here.

Money, Magic and How to Dismantle a
Financial Bomb: Quantum Economics for the Real World By David Orrell

We have read and reviewed lots of fintech and finance books. We have also read and reviewed and smaller number of quantum related books too. You can see why someone might want to cross fertilise the concepts of one to bring insights and analysis to the other. Maybe money is like somewhere between magic and following deeply spooky odd laws of physics too. There is definitely a deep emersion into quantum related concepts, and there is also an overview of financial concepts too. However the area we struggled with was if one really applied to the other.

Each chapter began interestingly, quantum concepts are thought provoking, fun, counter intuitive and, having read a decent number of quantum books now, to some degree understandable. Similarly fintech books have their own grammar and logic to them too. Repeatedly though as the chapters progressed I found myself struggling to see how the quantum concepts were providing insights into the financial concepts the author wanted to discuss. Maybe we were not smart enough to get it, maybe it was not explained clearly enough, and maybe it is just a bit of a stretch to use quantum concepts to look at ‘the real world’.

The author has written several books aiming to blend these two concepts, so perhaps he is gradually pulling together a relatable narrative, which will bring insights and wisdom from this approach. For now however we’re just not quite sure it is completely working yet, for us at least.

More about the book

Money has many apparently magical properties. It can be created out of the void – and vanish without so much as a puff of smoke. It can flash through space. It can grow without limit. And it can blow up without warning.

David Orrell argues that the emerging discipline of quantum economics, of which he is at the forefront, is the key to shattering the illusions that prevent us from understanding money’s true nature. In this colourful tour of the history, philosophy and mathematics of money, Orrell demonstrates how everything makes much more sense when we replace our classical economic models with ones based on quantum probability – and reveals the explosive reality of what is left once the illusions are stripped away.

More about the author

DAVID ORRELL is a scientist and writer of books on science and economics. His books include Economyths: 11 Ways Economics Gets It Wrong and Quantum Economics: The New Science of Money, plus Behavioural Economics in the Hot Science series. He lives in Toronto.

See more book reviews here.