All the Financial Knowledge They Never Taught You at School

Reviewed by Diario de un Inversor · UpdatedJune 13, 2026

Our review

María Vega takes on a specific journalistic mission in this book: filling the gap the education system leaves on economics and money. The result is an everyday macroeconomics manual that explains in plain language how public debt works, what central banks actually do, why prices rise, and how exchange rates are formed — assuming no prior knowledge. The book's strength lies in its ability to connect apparently abstract phenomena with concrete consequences in the reader's pocket: a rising interest rate becomes a growing mortgage payment, not a central bank chart. The journalistic approach has a cost: the analytical depth is shallower than books written by economists, and readers with economics training will notice the simplifications. But for its target audience — the curious citizen without technical background — the book offers a conceptual map that makes daily economic news more legible. Published in 2023, one of the most active years in European Union monetary policy in decades.

Key takeaways

• Inflation is not an abstract phenomenon: it reduces the real purchasing power of savings that do not generate returns above it.
• Central banks do not directly control goods prices — they control the cost of money, which influences everything else indirectly.
• Public debt does not work like private debt: states that issue in their own currency have mechanisms that individuals do not.
• Understanding how the financial system works is a prerequisite for making informed financial decisions as both a citizen and a saver.

Fact

Published in 2023, the year the European Central Bank raised interest rates at the fastest pace in its history, reaching 4.5% — the highest level since the euro was created.