Money Makes the World Go Around

Book excerpt: Part detective story and part anti-globalism manifesto, this primer on todayrsquo;s dizzying world economy is an eye-opening gallop through the international marketplace of money, fueled by ldquo;honest, useful outragerdquo; (San Francisco Chronicle.) Barbara Garson begins simply by depositing a modest sum in a one-branch bank. With a second sum, she buys shares in an aggressive mutual fund. From these points of departure, she tracks her moneyrsquo;s every stop as it races around the globe. Along the way she talks to people who touch use and are used by her money. From downsized steelworkers in Tennessee to shrimp farmers in Malaysia, from the men building an oil refinery in Thailand to the migrant workers and street vendors who work on the project. Few of the people Garson meets think a lot about the abstract flow of capital, but by the time the tour is over, the real mechanisms of corporate globalization have become clear. This is urgent reading for all who are committed to making a better world.