Book excerpt: VALUE GIVEN, VALUE RECEIVED, the second volume of the three-part Blind Vision series, is a critical extension of the fundamentals Curtis Greco presented in We Hold These Truths... the introductory volume of this series. Using the language and subject of economics and his own history, this book grapples not only with the question, "What is freedom?" it also explores freedom's natural extension - a citizen's personal industry. Greco brings a fierce urgency to his thesis that far from being dreadfully tedious or boring, economics and money are, in reality, intensely personal and relevant issues. Among the subjects covered are simple economics, monetary policy, the practice of money (including the dangers of a fiat money system), prospects and proposals for the future, and a lively discussion of the virtues of an old-fashioned gold/silver standard. As in We Hold These Truths..., every position Greco advances draws from the fundamental principles upon which America was founded.