The story many have told can lead one to believe in the existence of a united Jewish people: rich, powerful, placed under centralized command and responsible for establishing a worldwide power strategy through money. Such a belief would merge with the fantasies that have spread across every century from Trajan to Constantine, from Matthew to Luther, from Marlow to Voltaire, from the Protocol of the Elders of Zion to Mein Kampf, to all that which is propagated today via the anonymity of the Internet. This is the story ripe to be challenged and retold.

Herein lies the history of the relationship between the Jewish people, money and the world at large. The author is well aware of the subversive nature of this subject. It is a topic that has unleashed so many controversies and brought about so many massacres as to have become a veritable taboo, a topic that must not be evoked under any circumstance for fear of provoking some age-old catastrophe. Today, no one dares write on this topic, as if centuries of study have served no purpose other than to fuel book burning. It remains nevertheless in the best interest of modern mankind to understand how those who discovered monotheism also founded the ethics of capitalism, how some became its primary brokers and leading bankers, while others its most unrelenting enemy. In this book the author tackles the facts and the lies of the history of the relationship between the Jewish people, money and the world at large. "It seems essential that our world, and Jewish people themselves, face a part of their history that they may not care for but of which they have every reason to be proud."

JACQUES ATTALI is an eminent economic advisor and was recently nominated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy as the head of the Commission to promote French economic growth. From 1981 to 1991 he was special advisor to François Mitterrand and in 1990 he became the first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, EBRD. Currently he is chairman of A&A, an international consultancy company and the founder and president of PlaNet Finance, an international non-profit organization that uses the Internet to combat poverty concentrating on the microfinance sector.

The Economic History of the Jewish People by Jacques Attali is set to be as controversial as it is well documented and thoroughly researched by one of the foremost financial authorities of Europe, the Head of the Commission to Promote Economic Growth in France. Attali has written numerous books and knows this subject thoroughly. He has tackled it from the standpoint of history, myth, and dirty stories, proving some and dispelling others with facts. He has traced the economic experiences, leadership, and fall of the Jewish people from 2,000 years BC until present upheavals of economy worldwide. The book is fascinating for anyone interested in history, finance, or the Jewish people. It is an eye-opener in some instances and shows the influence, admitted or behind-the-scenes, which the Jewish people have had on the entire history of our world through the ages and how they have been rewarded or persecuted along the way for their use of any kind of tender (legal or illegal) around the world for 4,000 years. Really interesting and so very well written.   -- Bonnie Neely, Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer, May 2010