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

by Barbara Garson

A seasoned business writer offers her witty, insightful perspective on the world of money when she invests her publisher's advance and tracks its movements through the worldwide economy. 12,500 first printing.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Finance

342 pages, Hardcover

First published February 12, 2001

About the author

Barbara Garson is an American playwright, author and social activist, perhaps best known for the play MacBird. Garson attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a B.A. specializing in Classical History in 1964. She was active in the Free Speech Movement, as the editor of The Free Speech Movement Newsletter, which was printed on an offset press that she herself had restored. She was one of 800 arrested on December 2, 1964 at a sit-in at Sproul Hall, Berkeley, following the "Machine Speech" by Mario Savio. In 1968, Garson had a child, Juliet, and in 1969 she went to work at The Shelter Half, an anti-war GI coffee house near Fort Lewis Army base in Tacoma, Washington. In the early 1970s, she moved to Manhattan, publishing short, humorous essays and theater reviews primarily for The Village Voice as well as plays.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a financial generalist (the author) who deposits a portion of her book advance in a small bank in upstate NY, and then literally follows it around the world as it is used to finance a large Thai oil refinery as part of large loan syndicated through Chase. She then follows the economic impacts of the oil refinery project (i.e. the jobs that the Vietnamese day workers got on the construction team, the food vendors who gather outside of the construction site serving said day laborers during lunch hour, to the families of those food vendors, etc.) This follow-the-falling domino approach to telling the story of financial globalization makes for some good reading as Garson travels throughout New York and Asia reporting on the economic impacts, both positive and negative, of the cheaper, faster-moving credit.

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has an interesting premise. A journalist decides to find out what happens to the money she deposits in a small town bank. She wants to follow the money around the world. The problem is that money is fungible. A dollar deposited in a bank is co-mingled with dollars deposited by thousands of others. So it is impossible to track the specific funds she deposits. The result is a seemingly random wander through the world of finance. It roams from upstate New York to southeast Asia. While parts are interesting, as a whole it does not fit together. I lost interest halfway through.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Providing that the reader understands that Garson's perspective is that of a conscientious socialist new to investing, I think that this book has much valuable insight to offer upon the subject of how money flows and affects people in all levels of our now global market. I personally thought that this was a fascinating read.

[Neliza Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, the author seems very naive. It's not until the last couple of chapters that she finally wakes up, and by then it feels almost contrived.
It is, however, a better explanation of the global economy than say, COMMON CENTS, which is just high-school level economics-class propaganda.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Money Makes the World Go Around brings us across the market and the globe to help bring economic principles to life. Succinct and very readable, this makes a great introduction to economics.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think Eat, Pray, Love for economists. *shudder*