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Brendan Greeley

@bhgreeley.bsky.social

6.4K followers 3.4K following 910 posts

PhD candidate in the history of finance at Princeton. Working on early-modern Atlantic currencies. Writing a trade-press history of the dollar and a dissertation about the guinea. I used to be a journalist. I used to be a lot of things.

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · Aug 10

I just got a nice note from a stranger saying he'd pre-ordered my book, The Almighty Dollar. That is how I found out my book, The Almighty Dollar, is available for pre-order. Please pre-order my book, The Almighty Dollar. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634502...

The Almighty Dollar by Brendan Greeley: 9780593138885 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

In this ambitious and groundbreaking history of the dollar, financial journalist and economic scholar Brendan Greeley makes a new argument about the origins of our money—and the people and nations...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 23h

Also the tulips were beautiful to look at

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 23h

Lagarde going for the throat here: swap lines.

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 23h

Wow.

Christine Lagarde @president.ecb.europa.eu · 23h

The international role of the euro cannot be a secondary question.

It is central to Europe’s ability to turn the euro from a safe-haven currency into a truly global currency, and to turn our weaknesses into lasting benefits.

Read my speech link.europa.eu/fdWYqH

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Reposted by Brendan Greeley

Ariel Edwards-Levy @aedwardslevy.bsky.social · 1d

i'm disappointed in all of you

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 1d

I mean we’re right here and we can read

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 1d

Too niche? Too niche.

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 1d

Metallist, Chartalist, Schumpeter

Reposted by Brendan Greeley

Gabriel Flynn @gabrielflynn.bsky.social · 1d

pro writing tip: always start the day by addressing a minor administrative task so that you’re in a bad mood when you begin your actual work

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 1d

Metallist, Chartalist, Schumpeter

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 1d

Had another conversation with someone who asked whether I had used AI to write my book. I have a hard time conveying how offensive that question is. Not because they think I cheated, but because the question reveals that to them, my whole life’s never added that much value to begin with.

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Reposted by Brendan Greeley

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 2d

"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."

America is now one big bet on AI

It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy

www.ft.com

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 2d

Economists weren't dominant at the Fed until much later. Eccles was a banker and a business owner, but had had a conversion during the early Depression in Utah, watching his banks and his lumber yards come under pressure at the same time, which he diagnosed as what we now call a liquidity trap.

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 2d

I am writing a lecture about the great Marriner Eccles, father of the modern Fed, and Google Slides keeps correcting his name to "Marriner Ecclesiastes." Are you sure you know who this guy is? Yes, Google. I'm sure.

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 3d

I am 50. I started a PhD at 46, and my first book is coming out in May 2026. I am losing a delightful race with my daughters to see whether I can defend my dissertation before they graduate from high school.

Reposted by Brendan Greeley

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

So yeah, sure. That's the President of the United States on a silver dollar. But here's another way to think of it: that's the President of the United States on a Mexican dollar. /end www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin

The draft design of the coin, which was overseen by the Office of the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, features Trump’s profile on one side of the coin.

www.politico.com

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

Trying to figure out how to keep my 16 year old girls off of Instagram when it's now U.S. policy to let the tech companies do whatever they want feels like someone's pushing drugs on my kids and I can't even get the police to help.

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Reposted by Brendan Greeley

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

What could be more American than a silver dollar with a portrait of the President? Well, like a lot of things we enjoy here, the American silver dollar came from somewhere else. It didn't begin its life as a symbol of American pride, but of American dependence. /1 www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin

The draft design of the coin, which was overseen by the Office of the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, features Trump’s profile on one side of the coin.

www.politico.com

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

Yes absolutely!

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

Yep. This is from fascinating work by Petr Vorel, a Czech historian

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

I don't, sadly. The story of the Maria Theresa dollar is fascinating, but I had to tie together all the world's dollar lore somehow, and that was the dollar thread I never pulled on.

Reposted by Brendan Greeley

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 4d

Once again, they buried the lede, which is that He is once again breaking the law set by Congress.

Journalism, what is it, anyway?

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

Treasury Department considers minting a $1 Trump coin

The draft design of the coin, which was overseen by the Office of the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, features Trump’s profile on one side of the coin.

www.politico.com

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

By the end of the 18th century, most of the silver for the dollars circulating in America came from Zacatecas -- Mexico. This continued even after Mexican independence, when Mexican eagle silver dollars continued to flow from Veracruz through New Orleans into the US /11 ncmint.com/americas-fir...

America's FIRST "Silver Eagle" Dollar

National Collector’s Mint is a nationally recognized coin and collectibles company located in Purchase, NY. Founded in 1994, the company has grown from a small two-person operation to a company of mor...

ncmint.com

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

So the American silver dollar from the Mint Act of 1792 is a copy of a copy, a recognition that a Spanish coin with a German name already defined what money was for American merchants on the Atlantic coast. But here's the thing: by the 1790s, Potosí was no longer Spain's main source of silver /10

Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

When the Habsburgs began to realize in the middle of the 16th century how much silver they'd have in their new Latin and South American viceroyalties, they began minting that silver in more or less exact copies of the silver dollars already in circulation, adapting to existing markets for silver /9

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Brendan Greeley @bhgreeley.bsky.social · 4d

St. Joachimsthal was a legal exception. It didn't have to mint small change, just the large silver dividend payout coins for mining investors. Those coins spread, known as "joachimsthaler," "thaler," "daalder," and in English, "dollar." They became a standard for trade in the Baltic /8

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