Customer Reviews

Money Makes the World Go Around: One Investor Tracks Her Cash Through the Global Economy, from Brooklyn to Bangkok and Back

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Having taught economics for over 30 years, I am still amazed that many students think that when they deposit their savings in a bank, the money doesn't just sit there. Now I can refer them to Barbara Garson's book, so that they can learn just where those dollars go. Although the book is virtually jargon-free, her lucid explanations of the inner workings of international finance would satisfy even the most traditional economist. My only problem reading the book is that I find it so entertaining that I tend to forget that it is a very serious treatise on international finance. In the forthcoming sixth edition of my principles of economics text, I expect to very liberally quote from "Money Makes the World Go Round."

As a fairly intelligent individual who has never taken an economics course, I've been trying to make sense of the world of investing on my own. The author takes us on her own journey to do the same, and in the process we come to meet the faces and the people behind the whole process. She goes about it with a very open-minded, down to earth approach, and for the most part, doesn't draw a lot of her own conclusions. Rather, she lets you come to your own. At last, some information on investing that is more than just numbers and returns. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking for where to invest their money, or is just trying to understand how "money makes the world go around." After having read the book, now I can go to the Reuters newswires and have an understanding of just what is behind the latest news announcements, what they mean in real terms for real people. The book has made me think twice about what it means to be chasing the high returns, and what implications that may have on the lives of others. I found this book to be very heart opening, and my compassion for the world is immense.

Buy the book because you'll feel good that she's investing the profits.

The power of this book is that it critiques the global financial system without demonizing the individuals involved. It's a lesson that the "anti-globalists" should take to heart. We can protest all we want outside of WTO meetings but things won't change until we get more caring and fair rabble rousers a la Garson inside of the global financial institutions. Get a start on that insider career by reading this book.

Barbara Garson's look at globalization manages to be thoughtful and breezy at the same time. Garson, a leftwing activist and writer, decided to follow her own money - specifically, her book advance - as it coursed through the global economy from a small-town bank to mighty Chase Manhattan and points beyond. Her odyssey took her to a rowdy shareholder meeting in New York to an oil project in Thailand to small towns in America devastated by corporate "restructurings.'' Although she has a clear political point of view, she is unfailingly open-minded and fair about the people she meets and writes about - with the possible and understandable exception of "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap. Her writing is more nuanced than her just-folks style sometimes suggests. She gently hints at the claustrophobic atmosphere in small town America by describing the demise of a pizzeria that failed to do business with the local bank (a bank she otherwise writes about with considerable warmth). Garson also has a gift for explaining complicated stuff. I was especially enlightened by her account of the origins of Eurodollars and her description of how oil refining works. Sometimes her loosey-goosey style can get annoying. I occasionally wished she'd be more specific, especially on financial terms. Several times she referred to 20% profits without saying what she meant - return on equity? Increase in stock price? Something to do with dividends? Garson's call for a more humane form of globalization is hard to argue with - though the specifics are debatable. For this reader (of somewhat confused politics) one conclusion emerged crystal clear from Garson's description of working poor parents scrimping on medical treatment for themselves and their kids: America's refusal to enact universal health coverage is shameful and wrong.

Some books set out to accomplish the impossible and come admirably close. Barbara Garson's volume is a prime example. Can you deposit money in a little rural bank and really trace its spread across the global monetary system? How do you know that a multi-million dollar loan to, say, shrimp exporters in Thailand, really has anything to do with the actual dollars you deposited? But that's not the point of this book. The author embarks on a whirlwind, worldwide tour of the global financial juggernaut, and shows how money falls like a drop in a pond and emits waves of disruption that seemingly spread out forever. Garson concludes that deregulation needs to be reigned in, a reasonable anticipation of the Enron mess. We from getAbstract highly recommend her book to business people and consumers who want a better feel for what the "global economic order" is all about, why people are protesting at each meeting of the WTO and whether you should be steamed as well.

The book was in excellent condition and shipped very fast. I would do business with seller again.

* At first, I thought when we deposit our money into our bank account, the value of the money just stay the same but after reading this book, it has totally change my opinion on this subject.
* Although the percentage we get from our bank account is not that much, but at least the money is flowing and the advantage is given to us as the consumers.
* Spending or leaving our money inside our bank account may not be a good idea. We better spend the money on something that will invest for our future like mutual funds or something.

I bougth this book thinking iwill find some quick answers about the money but the only thing i found was that this book is for people who has a lot of time or people in vacation who want to read something about the money in a nice story, but if you are the people that want quickly answers about the money, i recommend to you a book named ECONOMIC EXPLAINED Autor: Rober Heilbroner and Lester Thurow.

Where do you think the book advanced payment coming from? THe book only tells half of the story.