YMMV / Making Money

• Genius Bonus:
  • According to Moist, the Royal Bank doesn't have even nearly enough gold to actually back up all of their money, and the chief cashier says that the arrangement of promising the money's worth of gold hinges on no one ever trying to collect on that promise — which happens to be the very reason why the gold standard failed in real life.
  • Vetinari's argument of Quia Ego Sic Dico ("Because I say so") is probably bound to go over the head of most people. Without ready access to a source of information on Latin, it could easily be mistaken for just another ridiculous law that Mr Slant is so fond of quoting.
  • The Glooper is inspired by a real hydraulic computer at the London School of Economics, MONIAC, now on display at the London Science Museum. It doesn't, however, control the British economy. Probably.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • One of the book's themes is Moist's economic argument that relying on gold as a standard is a bad idea. Almost immediately after the book was published, Britain crashed into recession and Prime Minister Gordon Brown was heavily criticised for selling off the country's gold reserves several years before, which would now be worth more than eight times as much. While Moist never argued against keeping gold around for additional capital, he did talk about selling it to the dwarves. Selling off the gold too early turns out to be exactly what the villains had done — although in their case this was actual embezzlement.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the previous book, Miss Maccalariat insists on only female golems being allowed to clean the ladies' room (despite the fact that they are sexless), and to placate her, one of them is given a dress and dubbed "Gladys." In this book, Gladys is accepted by everyone as being female and hangs out with the other counter girls, just because she wears a dress and calls herself Gladys. Years later, when transphobes tried claiming that the now-deceased Terry Pratchett would of course join their moral panic about "men in dresses sneaking into women's bathrooms," this little detail seems to be a highly specific refutation of their claim.^note Among the many others, of course, such as Rhianna Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, and numerous trans fans who met him saying quite firmly that he supported trans people.
• Moral Event Horizon: It's one line, and easy to miss, but Cosmo Lavish has someone killed over a hat.
• Nausea Fuel: Cosmo's finger after the too-small signet ring cuts off circulation. It winds up gangrenous, infested with "wiggling things," and growing mushrooms. It's nausea fuel in-universe, too; the stench of it when the glove is removed makes a bystander throw up.
• Stealth Pun: This one is a bit... involved. When Cribbins' dine-chewers fail for the last time, a spring pierces his cheek, leaving a bloodstain. For Cribbins to think he could out-gambit Moist truly is a bit of bloody cheek on his part.