Money, Money, Money!

Every time Aunt Fé comes to visit, the rather ordinary daily life of the Federmann family is turned upside down. Elderly, jaunty Aunt Fé is a sly lady. She lead an adventurous life and wasn’t spared from inflation, inheritances and bankruptcies, has experienced poverty and squandering, exile and abundance. Now she is rich and lives alone in her villa next to Lake Geneva.

But what does Aunt Fé want from the Federmanns, her only relatives? One thing is for certain: she does not want to bore them. Which is why she invites the three Federmann-children to a luxury hotel. She pampers, baffles, and excites them. Finally they feel taken seriously and receive answers to questions such as: Where does money come from? Why is it never enough, even though we’re dealing with millions and billions of it? Why would a central bank incur debts by printing endless amounts of money? Why are the black economy, the black market, black money and working under the table so essential everywhere? And why ever is the management constantly showered with bonuses? Aunt Fé does away with the brokers’ nonsense. She explains the current operating system of greed and fear to the children matter-of-factly.

This is the right book at the right time: when phrases like Eurozone crisis, »Grexit«, bail-outs, quantitive easing, negative interest, and warnings of new financial bubbles building in the stock and property markets pop up everywhere, Enzensberger’s book deals with children’s questions on economy, starting from one basic question: What is money and where does it come from? This is not a theoretical treatise, but a novel with fascinating and vivid characters.

»perceptive, amusing, inspiring« Weltwoche

»Hans Magnus Enzensberger explains the essential in a funny way […] The praise of luxury is a pleasant affront to the hypocritical puritanical trend typical of our times; [praise that] he lets the cigar-smoking protagonist utter and that, in a way, continues seamlessly in the luxurious design of the book itself.« Nürnberger Nachrichten

»Enzensberger succeeds in igniting the reader’s enthusiasm for his witty critique of capitalism with humour as well as countless photos and diagrams, collage-like interspersed.« General-Anzeiger