Financial Times Best Books of 2022: Economics The startling picture of how China’s revolution
in finance and technology is changing both Wall Street and the way individuals manage their
personal finances. The future of finance – the way Wall Street operates and how individuals
manage their money - is on the verge of upheaval. And the force underlying the change comes
from China where finance and technology are being merged into a system with consequences that
resonate far beyond China’s border. The changes of this global revolution in finance and
technology - fintech - will be as powerful as those wrought in social media retailing and
advertising by giants such as Amazon Facebook Google and Twitter which have overturned how
we shop and communicate. China reinvented money with lightning speed transforming a backward
antiquated cash-based finance system into one centered on super-apps created by technology
giants Alibaba and Tencent. More powerful than anything available outside of China they allow
their billion users to pay borrow invest buy goods and services travel chat (and far more)
all fused together in one mobile phone application. Think Facebook Google Twitter Goldman
Sachs Amazon J.P. Morgan Chase all rolled into one app. We in the West need to understand
China’s cashless revolution for reasons ranging from the macroeconomic to issues of personal
liberty: The cutting edge of finance is now in China forcing major financial firms in the
United States and the West to figure out how not to be left behind.. China’s cashless
revolution is also a harbinger of our future if we let the genie out of the bottle and allow
big tech to become big finance. As money goes digital and central banks around the world
consider launching digital currencies we may have both immense convenience and a frightening
concentration of power that could violate our privacy stifle competition increase financial
risk and give big firms or the government more control over our financial lives. And once
this genie is out of the bottle the struggle to put it back in may be impossible.
