How real is money? What, exactly, is money? In this an easily readable, quick look at money, William Bernstein questions money itself and offers a concise, insightful examination of the problem of money, an abstract construct that has no more or less value than what we assign to it. He reminds us that we are the ones that give value to what we call "money"Money defies a concrete definition. It can be exchanged for goods and services but is neither. It takes the form of paper and metal but can be as ephemeral as numbers transferred from one computer to another. People spend lifetimes accruing numbers in stocks, savings, and investments. Those who "own" the most money are seen as successful; those who don't are condemned to lives of hardship. Bernstein strips the illusion away, using simple language for those of us who aren't economists. Is money truly essential for our society, and does it do more harm than good? Adam Smith, whose book "The Wealth of Nations" is the foundation for much of the economic theory that Americans believe we are following, said in that book; "All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.

" The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith.