How changing the way we pay changes everything: The Pay Off out in 2021
If money is power, payments are a superpower.
Elliott & Thompson is delighted to announce its forthcoming publication of The Pay Off, a brilliantly engaging and accessible exploration of how money moves and where global financial power really lies.
How we pay is so fundamental that it underpins everything – from trade to taxation, stocks and savings to salaries, pensions and pocket money. Rich or poor, criminal, communist or capitalist, we all rely on the same payments system, day in, day out. That system sits between us and not just economic meltdown, but a total breakdown in law and order. Why then do we know so little about how it really works?
Gottfried Leibbrandt and Natasha de Terán shine a light on the hidden workings of the humble payment and in so doing reveal how payments affect every part of our lives – from the data pools that grow each time we pay to the national customs that underpin our payment habits; cyber disruption; and the tensions and ties between countries seeking to harness the power of payments for good and ill.
Director Olivia Bays acquired world rights direct from the authors. She said: ‘Gottfried and Natasha wear their considerable expertise lightly in this authoritative, accessible and entertaining deep dive into the way money moves (or doesn’t) and the global forces shaping the way we pay. Perfect for fans of Tim Marshall, David Graeber and Michael Lewis, The Pay Off is intelligent non-fiction for the reader who wants to better understand the world we live in.’
About the Authors
Gottfried Leibbrandt is the former CEO of SWIFT, the cross-border payments network. Prior to that, he was a partner with McKinsey & Company. He holds degrees from Vrije Universteit Amsterdam, Maastricht University, and Stanford Business School.
Natasha de Terán is a former journalist, specialising in financial regulation and market structures. She has written for publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Times, Financial Times, Risk, Week, and Money Week. She was the head of corporate affairs at SWIFT from 2012 to 2019.