The Capitalist's Bible

July 15, 2009
Morgenson, the "New York Times" Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, has produced a timely and informative primer. Alluding to the current economic recession, she stresses that "getting wise to the ways of world financial markets]has never been more crucial than it is right now." To help educate readers to that end, she provides a thorough overview of capitalismits essential tenets, names of chief theorists, historical background, as well as describing its mechanisms and institutions. Not only chronicling capitalist success stories like the explosive growth of the American middle class, she also examines capitalist disasters such as the Great Depression, evaluating the legacies of both growth and failure in an evenhanded way. She also performs the exemplary task of dissecting the advanced economic jargon, explaining how its application impacts people's lives. She rightly claims the "21st century has seen capitalism become the dominant economic system worldwide." Nowhere is this evolution more apparent than in modern-day Russia or China. Unfortunately her choice in presenting a selection of profiles of various countries in the chapter "Capitalism Around the World" seems both arbitrary and perfunctory, offering minimal critical insight on how capitalism has transformed these countries. Yet this remains a minor shortcoming. VERDICT Morgenson's book is essential for all who want to improve their capitalism literacy.Richard Drezen, Brooklyn, NY

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