Quite a neat read if you want to learn a bit of the French Revolution along the way learning about this nearly-forgotten man who rubbed shoulder with just about everyone important in that time, did some of the first "secret agent" ops, and invented a whole bunch of new ways to look at information (inflation indices, bar charts, pie charts - he was the first). * Ran a land deal to get folks to move from France to what would become Ohio to settle the frontier, collapsed (lol) but corresponded with Jefferson, Washington, Gouvernor Morris, etc. * Forged French *assignats* to collapse the revolutionaries' currency on behalf of British gov't, secretly (not even the entire Pitt administration knew!) * Worked early career as a draftsman for Boulton & Watt (yes, of the steam engine!) * Was literally at the storming of the Bastille * Made an argument for government paying off journalists "to guide public opinion" (Operation Mockingbird, not a new idea!) * Wrote foreward for new editions of Adam Smith's *The Wealth of Nations* * Theorized that nations decline & fall when they lose their energetic momentum and risk taking, and when special interest lobby government for protection and favor instead of acting to create wealth