Critique of `Money Makes the World Go Around`

Money Makes the World Go Round ' by Barbara Garson

If used as a textbook in international political economy , the book Money Makes the World Go Round ' written by Barbara Garson is an outstanding book that illustrates the reality of how interrelated the modern economy has grown to be , and does so more concretely and evidently than textbooks can . In this book , Garson emphasizes that it is the restless flow of investment capital that distributes the gains and advantages of the free market , democracy , and the mass media to our progressively more bless

world . Simultaneously , Garson bewails the poverty and suffering visited upon the less fortunate billion individuals who bob like corks on the rising and falling economic deluge

The exposure that directs Garson to these assumptions makes for a picaresque account , meandering from the canyons of Wall Street to the oil refineries and shrimp farms of Southeast Asia , to a Maine factory town , and to then to the backwoods of Tennessee . Personally , I think that Garson 's casual , from time to time loopy writing style might annoy certain readers . Nevertheless her voice is so determinedly good-natured and her intelligence so apparent that towards the end of this probing capitalist 's Baedeker the reader can 't help but trust Garson 's calm judgments

Garson 's journey started when she formulated an extraordinary strategy to discover just how 'one world ' we actually are . Garson had obtained a the said amount , and then went after the money . A certain investment was placed in a privately owned small-town bank , which Garson thought would demonstrate 'decent ' banking ethics , free from the pressure to illustrate quarterly earnings increases . For almost the first half of the book , Garson tracks this money--or , relatively , money that may well have been hers but was in principle unfeasible to recognize as such . The day Garson deposited her money , the bank transmitted 1 million or so to Chase Manhattan Corp , now J .P . Morgan Chase ( HYPERLINK "http /host .businessweek .com /businessweek /corporate_snapshot .html ?Symbo l JPM Timespan 260 " \t "_top " JPM , its correspondent bank , to help fulfill a federal funds reserve condition . In doing this mission , Garson intends to work out what Chase would do with the money and trace those it consequently touched

Logically , there 's no way to identify which fraction of any funds in fact belonged to Garson . Nevertheless it doesn 't matter . The hypotheticals Garson turns up with are just as appealing as the verifiable facts in this book . With commendable firmness , Garson bangs on plenty of doors at Chase , and ultimately several do open . During the time of her study , the bank was distributing letters of credit and loans right and left to entrepreneurs and multinationals in Southeast Asia and some of these Garson visit them

Thus , Garson flies to Map Ta Phut , Thailand , to observe a new oil refinery that is being in part -as Garson thinks-- funded by her money While in Thailand , she discovers a jellyfish exporter and several shrimp farmers . Garson hypothesizes that...