FOLLOW THE MONEY!
"Money Makes the World Go Around" by Barbara Garson, Penguin, New York, 2002.
Reviewed by Nicola Bullard

My first encounter with Barbara Garson is described on page 314 of her new book "Money Makes the World Go Around." Here's what she wrote:

"Is PTT for sale?" I scribbled during an IMF session called "Global Integration" and passed the note to an Australian economist based in Thailand.

"Yes," she wrote back. "Most of its assets are scheduled for auction."

That brief exchange took place during an IMF World Bank annual meeting in the heady post Asian financial crisis days. The "Australian economist is me" except I am not an economist.

Apart from this slight inaccuracy, and the fact that I exit the narrative as abruptly as I enter, the rest of Garson's book is great. She sets out to "follow the money," tracking her investments (the publisher's advance for this book) through a small local bank and the international behemoth Chase. Both paths are fascinating and take us to places we would never visit on our own:
the ForEx trading room of Chase, the planning offices of a multi-billion dollar petro-chemical refinery in Southern Thailand, and a union meeting in the living room of a sacked Sunbeam worker in Portland, Tennessee, USA.

In fact, the book is so good I felt humbled: after six weeks in Thailand Garson has a better feel for the country than I have after six years and her grip on financial investments, capital markets and the language of the City is sure and lucid. What's more, she is an excellent writer with an interest in both the big and the little picture. This was brilliantly demonstrated in her book of several years ago "All the Livelong Day" which recounts with empathy and humour the true-life work stories of hundreds of working class Americans trapped in tedious, dangerous, insecure and poorly paid jobs. The humanity of Garson is that she cares whether these people still have their jobs in recession-struck USA and because she is genuinely interested in the fate of the people she interviewed in Thailand post financial crisis. They are not statistics, they are real people with quirky personalities, ambitions and sad stories.

Apart from the deceptively plain writing, and the curiosity and wit that drive the story along, Garson approaches her subjects with an open-mindedness which disarms and charms everyone she meets. She finds everything interesting, she asks all the dumb questions most of us would never dare, she chats with the bosses and finds out about their lives and their kids, just as she chats with the Malaysian fisherman or the Tennessee factory worker and lets them describe their lives in the world of hyper capitalism.

The book is not without moral force and a political spin. One of the nastiest villains we encounter is "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap, the doyen of downsizing, who writes books with titles like Mean Business. During his stint at Sunbeam, Dunlap virtually clear-felled the company, destroying thousands of jobs and lives. He even managed to lose his shareholders a big pile of money. It was the company's third restructuring in a decade, and, as Garson says, "How many times can you squeeze a lemon?" (By the way, Arthur Andersen -- the corporate auditor embroiled in the Enron meltdown -- also faces SEC investigation for its role in Dunlap's butchery of Sunbeam and has paid $110 million to settle Sunbeam investors' damage suits.)

But there are also heroes: the ace welder from Thailand who works in Singapore saving money for the future, a feisty young woman from Isarn (North Eastern Thailand) who escapes the sewing sweatshop and strikes out with her own noodle shop, stoical factory workers from small town Southern USA sacked after 25 years without notice and Mangrove Action Network activists hammering out strategies in Lower Manhattan.

Amid all these earthy and amusing stories Garson explains with utter clarity how the international financial markets work, the driving force of "shareholder value" and the growing dis-articulation between workers and capital, profit and productivity. Indeed, by pulling on the threads that connect the shrimp farmer from Songkla to the New York matrons at the mutual fund shareholder meeting, she unravels many mysteries.

Garson (who was once the Socialist Party's vice-presidential candidate) is firmly on the side of the people and she builds a picture, frame by frame, of how the globalised economy effects people. She puts the "real" back into the economy.

It's a page-turner, extremely informative and a subtle political tract: a fine combination. What's more, it is funny and wonderfully written. "Money Makes the World Go Around" is published by Penguin (US$14) and will come out in paperback on 5 February.

* Nicola Bullard works with Focus on the Global South in Bangkok and received a review copy of the book from the publishers.

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http://focusweb.org [3] Focus on the Global South is an autonomous programme of policy research and action of the Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute (CUSRI) based in Bangkok. Amid all these earthy and amusing stories Garson explains with utter clarity how the international financial markets work, the driving force of "shareholder value" and the growing dis-articulation between workers and capital, profit and productivity. Indeed, by pulling on the threads that connect the shrimp farmer from Songkla to the New York matrons at the mutual fund shareholder meeting, she unravels many mysteries.

Garson (who was once the Socialist Party's vice-presidential candidate) is firmly on the side of the people and she builds a picture, frame by frame, of how the globalised economy effects people. She puts the "real" back into the economy.

It's a page-turner, extremely informative and a subtle political tract: a fine combination. What's more, it is funny and wonderfully written.