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The Book

"SMART & STREET SMART"
Ha-Joon Chang
Professor, Cambridge University

 "WILL DO A WORLD OF GOOD"
Bill McKibben
Founder, 350.org

"CAN'T REMEMBER THE LAST TIME A BOOK ON FINANCE KEPT ME UP TILL 4"
Mari Bastashevski 
Intrepid photographer of arms dealers

 "One of the most helpful, thoughtful, lucid & evocative treatments of the contemporary world of finance I've ever read"
Max Haiven
Author of Cultures of Financialization
Update 2015: For those of you who are short on cash, a pirated version of the book has appeared

The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money is a friendly guide to taking on the world's most powerful system. It sets up a framework to illuminate the financial sector based on anthropology, gonzo exploration, and the hacker ethos, and helps the reader develop a diverse DIY toolbox to undertake their own adventures in guerilla finance and activist entrepreneurialism.

Part 1 (Exploring) covers the major financial players, concepts and instruments. Part 2 (Jamming) explores innovative forms of financial activism, from disrupting investment into fossil fuels to building your own hedge funds of dissent. Part 3 (Building) showcases the growing alternative finance movement - including peer-to-peer systems, alternative currencies, and co-operative economies - and shows how you can get involved in building a democratic financial system.

It's published by the fantastic Pluto Press, and you can order paperbacks and e-books below. Alternative currencies also accepted.

As for me, I'm a campaigner, former derivatives broker, and general economic explorer. I’ve been involved in various financial campaigns (for groups such as MoveYourMoneyUK, World Development Movement & ActionAid) and I’m a Fellow of the Finance Innovation Lab. I’ve written for publications like The Guardian, Wired, New Scientist, The New Internationalist, and The Ecologist, and I’ve appeared on the BBC, Arte TV & the Keiser Report. I'm currently in the process of setting up the London School for Financial Activism. For more about me, see my G+ profile here, and my LinkedIn profile here.

WHAT MY ENDORSERS ARE SAYING


"This book provides a unique inside-out look at our financial system, based on the author's unusual personal adventure. It not only provides us with a user-friendly guide to the complex maze of modern finance but also tells us how to utilise and subvert it for social purposes in innovative ways. Smart and street-smart."

Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism



"This is an imaginative, even exuberant exploration of the daunting world of finance - it will unleash a generation of activists, and do a world of good."

Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy, and founder of 350.org




“Money is power, but so too is knowledge. Tinkering with regulation will not change the world, but empowered citizens just might. Brett Scott’s entertaining and informative book is brimming with good ideas on how we can engage and change global finance on our own terms.”

Tony Greenham, Head of Finance and Business at The New Economics Foundation




HOW TO ORDER

With conventional currencies...
  1. Order directly from my publishers Pluto Press (US & Australia sites too)
  2. If you're in the UK, and want to order from an indy bookstore, here's Hive, or LocalBookShops, or WordPower. Also check out Guardian Bookstore.
  3. If you're in the US, and want to order from an indy bookstore, check out Indiebound
  4. In South Africa: Loot and Kalahari
  5. Australia/NZ: A&R, Booktopia, Palgrave McMillan, Bookworld, MightyApe (NZ)
  6. Sweden: Bokus
  7. Ebooks: See Pluto Press site, or check your local Nook, Kobo or Kindle store

Get a signed copy by paying with an alternative currency!
  1. If you'd like to pay-by-text using Brixton Pounds let me know (my contact details are found in the right hand panel) and I'll give you my Brixon Pound ID
  2. If you'd like to pay using Bitcoin, ping me an email (see side panel)
  3. If you'd like to pay using Dogecoin, ping me an email (see side panel)
  4. If you'd like to propose another alternative currency you'd like to pay with, I'll consider barter proposals, community currencies, other crypto-currencies (e.g. Litecoin), timebanking credits, and goodness knows what else.

COMMENTS FROM READERS

You can check out some of the Amazon UK reviews here, and here are a selection on tweets from people who've read the book. Please do send your own thoughts too!