Geography of Money

Benjamin J. Cohen is Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of many other books, including The Future of Money, In Whose Interest? International Banking and American Foreign Policy and Organizing the World's Money: The Political Economy of International Monetary Relations.

Cohen explosively challenges the conventional wisdom of our time.... Cohen's new road map provides a fresh explanation for the existence of... tensions between the currency interest groups, and more importantly, it indicates where the opportunities for cooperation are to be found.... The book is clearly written and tells a story well. The relatively minimal use of 'jargon' makes it eminently readable, even by those with no formal training in economics.(Monash MT Eliza Business Review) Cohen shows how the widespread use of the U.S. dollar outside its borders, the push for a common European currency, and growing cross-border competition worldwide require a new consideration of 'the role that money plays in today's world. He looks at the historical antecedents for monetary sovereignty and at the alternatives that might arise when currency domains are no longer defined by territorial frontiers, and he provides a complex analysis of the political and economic implications of any changes that might take place.(Booklist) I found The Geography of Money enjoyable and would recommend it to both general readers and economists, with the caveat to the former that its treatment of the topics is not the typical treatment of an economist.- Omotunde E.G. Johnson (Finance and Development) The Geography of Money ventures far beyond economics and concerns itself with much more than American public policy. It is a sustained engagement with the literature devoted to monetary relations from the disciplines of economics, politics, international relations, and geography, and it does so on a genuinely world scaled. For this alone it must be applauded.... An ambitious book.... Benjamin Cohen has provided a valuable service by alerting us to the need to sketch a new mental map of monetary geography.(International Affairs) This book is refreshing in its approach, which steadfastly refuses to see the globalization of finance as either cancer or panacea.... Scholars and policy makers will need a 'new mental map,' according to Cohen, if they are to understand money today, and this book is a good beginning. The excellent bibliography is the icing on the cake.(Choice) This original and exciting book by Benjamin Cohen is devoted to exposing the bankruptcy of orthodox views and to laying outh a new intellectual framework for the geography of money that directly addresses the new reality of cross-border currency flows and competition... Cohen synthesizes a vast literature... into eight meaty but readily comprehensible chapters that are nothing like the typical grim writing of the average exponent of the dismal science. By using relevant examples and telling anecdotes, Cohen makes the world of money positively explode with interest and meaning for anyone minimally concerned about current trends in the world economy.- John Agnew, UCLA (The Annals of the American Academy)