1997; 372 pages, $25. Verso/W.W. Norton.
Grounded in the history of economic thought, icily angry, Henwood takes us into the thought processes of the people who play financial games. He argues cogently that these peoples' abstract fantasies increasingly rule the world. He makes the case that there is no reason whatsoever why they should. Not only does the financial world have no grounding in reality, no concern about real people or production, and no understanding of how the real world works, its daily actions aren't even important to capitalize real investments.
Henwood is especially attuned to power, and to the strange but overwhelming power that abstracted financial casino players exert upon us all without even quite meaning to.
