Trust: Money, Markets and Society

by Geoffrey Hosking

Mutual trust is an essential element of a globalized economy, and a market economy without trust leads only to further disaster. If we want to ensure future stability, Geoffrey Hosking argues that we must first understand the characteristics of this trust relationship—and to that end he provides tools to seek out where socio-economic trust has been misplaced and where it can be strengthened positively for the future. Social and economic trust in the United Kingdom and the United States waned in the 1990s and exploded into a major crisis of economic distrust in the form of the credit crunch that began in 2007. The crisis, argues Hosking in Trust , was the result of a bubble of trust misplaced in financial markets and state welfare systems by individuals, companies, and governments alike. He carefully and approachably explains that the roots of this crisis go back more than three centuries, but its symptoms greatly intensified as governments deregulated financial markets in the 1980s. “Among the most enlightening and informative accounts of what has already been one of the most amazing peaceful revolutions in modern times.”— New York Times Book Review , on Hosking’s The Awakening of the Soviet Union “The most useful and reliable guide to the chaos of the current Soviet Union. . . . Hosking’s grasp of the overall picture of the Soviet Union and of its history is solid and uncluttered.”— Economist on Hosking’s The Awakening of the Soviet Union

92 pages, Hardcover

First published December 15, 2010

About the author

Geoffrey Alan Hosking is a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union and formerly Leverhulme Research Professor of Russian History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College, London.