In an era where billionaires are celebrated like modern prophets and stock market movements dominate news cycles, Paul Vigna’s “The Almightier” arrives as both historical revelation and cultural wake-up call. The veteran Wall Street Journal reporter, previously known for his cryptocurrency expertise in “The Age of Cryptocurrency” and “The Truth Machine,” ventures into far more ambitious territory with this sweeping examination of humanity’s relationship with money across five thousand years.
The Central Thesis: Money as Religion
Vigna’s core argument is as provocative as it is meticulously researched: we have gradually replaced traditional religion with the worship of money, transforming greed from a deadly sin into society’s highest virtue. This isn’t merely metaphorical criticism—Vigna traces the literal historical evolution from ancient Mesopotamian temples that served as the world’s first banks to today’s Wall Street, where Gordon Gekko’s “greed is good” philosophy represents the culmination of a six-century intellectual journey that began with a forgotten Renaissance text.
The book’s strength lies in its ambitious scope and Vigna’s ability to connect disparate historical dots into a coherent narrative. Starting with Kushim, arguably history’s first recorded accountant in ancient Uruk, Vigna demonstrates how money has always been intertwined with the sacred. In Mesopotamia, debts were literally owed to gods through temple systems, making failure to repay not just economically damaging but spiritually sinful.
Historical Detective Work: Uncovering Poggio Bracciolini
Perhaps the book’s most fascinating discovery is Vigna’s excavation of Poggio Bracciolini’s “De avaritia” (1428), a work so obscure that Vigna himself struggled to find an English translation. This Renaissance dialogue represents what Vigna calls “the fault line for greed in society”—the moment when Western thought began its shift from condemning avarice to cautiously embracing it.
Bracciolini’s character Antonio argues that “avarice, sometimes, is beneficial,” claiming that society would grind to a halt if people stopped working for money. Vigna masterfully traces how this seed of thought grew through Calvinist theology, Adam Smith’s economic philosophy, and eventually flowered into modern capitalism’s foundational beliefs.
The detective work here is impressive, and Vigna’s excitement at discovering these connections is infectious. His ability to link a 15th-century papal secretary’s musings to Oliver Stone’s 1987 film “Wall Street” feels less like academic stretching and more like archaeological revelation.
The Medici Model: Ancient Blueprints for Modern Business
Vigna’s analysis of Cosimo de’ Medici reads like a business school case study, revealing how the Renaissance banker pioneered corporate structures we take for granted today. The Medici Bank’s decentralized ownership model, risk management through separate legal entities, and strategic philanthropy (“magnificence”) established templates that modern titans like Stephen Schwarzman and George Soros still follow.
This historical grounding gives weight to Vigna’s contemporary observations. When he notes that the same dynamics that drove Cosimo’s political influence through strategic donations mirror today’s political giving patterns, the comparison feels earned rather than forced.
Strengths: Narrative Coherence and Research Depth
Vigna’s journalistic background serves him well in synthesizing complex historical and economic concepts into accessible prose. His writing style mirrors his subject matter’s evolution—starting with the ritualistic formality of ancient temple records and gradually modernizing into the clipped efficiency of financial journalism. This stylistic choice subtly reinforces his thesis about money’s pervasive influence on human communication.
“The Almightier” by Paul Vigna excels at revealing hidden connections. Vigna’s explanation of how Protestant work ethic emerged from theological attempts to reconcile money-making with Christian virtue illuminates contemporary American attitudes toward wealth and poverty. His tracing of debt jubilee traditions from ancient Mesopotamia through biblical times to his proposed modern solution creates a compelling through-line that spans millennia.
Critical Weaknesses: Ambitious Scope Meets Practical Limitations
While Vigna’s sweeping historical narrative impresses, it occasionally sacrifices nuance for dramatic effect. His characterization of money as humanity’s new religion, while provocative, sometimes oversimplifies complex social and economic forces. Traditional religions offered comprehensive worldviews, community structures, and moral frameworks that money, as Vigna himself acknowledges, cannot provide.
The book’s treatment of non-Western monetary traditions feels superficial. While Vigna mentions Islamic banking and Eastern philosophical approaches to wealth, these receive cursory attention compared to his deep dive into European and American developments. This Western-centric focus undermines his claims about universal human behavior regarding money.
The Jubilee Solution: Radical but Problematic
Vigna’s proposed solution—a global debt jubilee involving $300 trillion in newly printed money—represents both the book’s most daring insight and its weakest argument. While his historical precedent for debt cancellation is solid, the practical mechanics of implementing such a system globally strain credibility.
His dismissal of inflation concerns through managed expectations feels particularly unconvincing given recent experiences with monetary policy and inflation. The proposed global price controls accompanying the jubilee would require unprecedented international coordination that seems politically impossible.
However, Vigna’s underlying point about debt sustainability has merit. His statistics about developing nations spending significant portions of government revenue on debt service highlight real structural problems in the global financial system.
Contemporary Relevance and Cultural Analysis
Where “The Almightier” by Paul Vigna truly shines is in analyzing contemporary financial culture. Vigna’s observations about how money has become the primary measure of human worth, replacing traditional metrics of honor, virtue, or community contribution, ring painfully true. His connection between declining religious observance and rising financial anxiety provides a framework for understanding current social tensions.
The book’s timing feels particularly relevant as societies grapple with wealth inequality, political corruption, and environmental challenges that traditional economic thinking seems unable to address. Vigna’s argument that we need to “deconstruct that entire belief system” before tackling these problems offers a fresh perspective on seemingly intractable issues.
Writing Style and Accessibility
Vigna writes with the clarity of a seasoned journalist while maintaining the analytical depth expected in serious non-fiction. His use of contemporary references—from Taylor Swift to “The Walking Dead”—helps bridge historical concepts with modern experience without feeling forced or pandering.
The book’s structure, moving chronologically while building thematic arguments, creates natural momentum that carries readers through potentially dry historical material. Vigna’s personal asides about his research process add warmth without undermining scholarly credibility.
Similar Works and Literary Context
“The Almightier” by Paul Vigna fits within a growing genre of books examining money’s psychological and cultural impact, joining works like Yuval Noah Harari’s “Sapiens,” David Graeber’s “Debt: The First 5,000 Years,” and Kabir Sehgal’s “Coined.” However, Vigna’s focus on religion’s role in legitimizing greed offers a unique angle that distinguishes his work from these predecessors.
The book’s approach to economic history echoes Niall Ferguson’s “The Ascent of Money” while adopting a more critical stance toward capitalism’s development. Unlike dry academic treatments, Vigna maintains narrative engagement while building serious analytical arguments.
Verdict: Thought-Provoking Despite Flaws
“The Almightier” by Paul Vigna succeeds as both historical investigation and cultural criticism, even when its proposed solutions fall short of convincing. Vigna’s central insight—that we’ve unconsciously replaced religious faith with financial faith—provides a valuable framework for understanding modern society’s relationship with money.
The book’s greatest achievement lies in making visible what has become invisible: how thoroughly money shapes not just our economy but our values, relationships, and sense of self-worth. Whether readers accept Vigna’s proposed debt jubilee or not, they’ll likely finish the book viewing their daily financial interactions with new awareness.
Recommended Companion Reading
For readers interested in exploring these themes further, consider:
- “Debt: The First 5,000 Years” by David Graeber – A more anthropological approach to debt’s role in human societies
- “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” by Max Weber – The classic examination of religion’s role in economic development
- “The Age of Cryptocurrency” by Paul Vigna and Michael J. Casey – Vigna’s earlier work on digital money’s potential to transform finance
- “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari – Broader context on how shared myths shape human civilization
- “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith – To understand the philosophical foundations Vigna critiques
Final Assessment
“The Almightier” by Paul Vigna represents ambitious popular history at its best—well-researched, clearly written, and genuinely thought-provoking. While Vigna’s solutions may be debatable, his diagnosis of money’s outsized role in modern life feels both accurate and urgent. In an age when financial considerations seem to trump all other values, this book offers a necessary reminder that money, as Aristotle noted, exists by law rather than nature—and laws can be changed.
The book succeeds in its primary mission: making readers question assumptions about money that feel as natural as breathing. That alone makes it worth reading, even for those who ultimately reject Vigna’s more radical prescriptions for change.