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Mad Money | 
| Author: Susan Strange
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Category: Book
New (2) Used (3) from £9.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 334188
Media: Paperback
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0719052378
Dewey Decimal Number: 337
EAN: 9780719052378
ASIN: 0719052378
Publication Date: September 17, 1998
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| Customer Reviews:
 Crime and no punishment June 2, 2008
This book is still remarkably very actual. It is a follow-up on Susan Strange's previous book `Casino Capitalism', which analyzed the financial situation in the 1970s and 1980s.
no international legislation
Susan Strange remarks astutely that there is still no international legislation to fight (and certainly not to solve) an eventual global financial crisis. More, she makes of the international bureaucracies (IMF, BIS, BIRD, OECD) cynically (not as profoundly as J. Stiglitz) a laughing stock.
Prophetically, she observes an explosion of the derivatives market, because banks have to take more and more risks to stay profitable.
For sure, the world needs sound international authorities. The nation States cannot `manage mad international money, yet its leaders are instinctively reluctant to entrust that job to unelected, unaccountable (and often arrogant and myopic) bureaucrats.'
Ultimately, the choice between Keynesianism and monetarism is a political one: `more equity and stability or maximization of wealth creation, quantity or quality of economic growth.'
Aid, drugs, tax havens
Aid for developing countries has minimal or no effect. As an example she cites Bangladesh: `after years of generous foreign grants the economic situation was worse than before. The political and social consequences had been highly corrupting.'
She pleaded for the legalization of drugs, but didn't understand that secret services use drugs money to finance illegal activities (Peter Dale Scott, Gary Webb).
Tax havens are not attacked, notwithstanding the fact that their only goal is `to minimize liability for corporate taxation and their use by heads of State to rob their own people.'
Crime pays
`Robber barons, pirates, thieves and confidence tricksters all ended up wanting to become pillars of society. They married their sons and daughters in the aristocracy. Three generations on and no one knew or cared about how they had got there.'
Susan Strange's book should have been a must read for all economists all over the world.
It is still essential literature for all those wanting to understand the world we live in.
 A challenging critique of capitalism and foreign policy September 20, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Strange comes from a critical stance of the history of modern capitalism and the relationships between states. She traces the history of the liberlalisation of capital and the financial markets and 'free capital'. she looks at the roots of US domination of Europe after WW2 and the increasing strength and influence of the dollar. Strange looks critically at how it has become increasingly difficult for nation states to control investment and currency movements within their own borders and analyses the impacts of the global economy. Strange is always thoughtful and presents both sides of the argument with clarity and fairness. The reader is able to get a grasp of the comlexity of international relations and how the international markets shape foreign policy in the developed West and the developing word. She is never polemical but is able to point out the shortcomings of the current financial system and its impact on nation states and the populations, with reasoned argument. The weight of history si explores as are the consequences of the 'global economy'.
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