New Money: How Payment Became Social Media

In this intriguing if somewhat superficial account, Swartz (coeditor, Paid: Tales of Dongles, Checks, and Other Money Stuff), a University of Virginia media studies professor, examines the rise of new financial technologies as reflectors of the user’s personal taste and values. She surveys a plethora of new technologies, including Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Bitcoin, as well as frequent flyer and consumer rewards programs, and notes that Starbucks CEO Howard Schulz has referenced the coffee chain’s 30,000 locations worldwide, early and widespread adoption of mobile payments, and $1.2 billion already loaded onto Starbucks consumer accounts as evidence that his company could create its own currency. Business analysts predict the creation of many such private “lifestyle” currencies in the future, according to Swartz, who theorizes that a plurality of currencies will mean a plurality of identities (“new bodies, new states, new skins”) for consumers to choose from. Left unexplored are how such new forms of money would coexist with sovereign currencies, and whether or not their proliferation would complicate the role of central bankers in the vital macroeconomic functions of limiting unemployment and preventing inflation. This eye-opening introduction to digital finance raises more questions than it answers. (Aug.)