Bankers and speculators build castles in the air but when they come crashing down ordinary people have to pick up the tab. How we''ve made such a mess of our money system is explained, from the earliest banks right through to "collateralized debt obligations." The author suggests the framework for a fairer financial world: the practical ideas, required regulations, and real-life examples.

Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a consultant to a number of UN agencies. His books include Workers without Frontiers: The Impact of Globalization on International Migration and the No-Nonsense Guide to International Migration.

An incisive introduction to global finance—where money comes from, the current mechanisms, and the need for control and reform. It traces the origins of money as a source of exchange and a store of value and the many weird forms it now takes—visible and invisible.

The guide sets recent events into context, indicating how the flows of money directed by an unaccountable elite increasingly shape economic, political, and social activity.

Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a consultant to a number of UN agencies. He is author of the No-Nonsense Guide to International Migration.

Virtually any commodity can move around the world to satisfy demand, but human beings have far less freedom. Many would-be migrants are forced to risk life and limb traveling illegally. Yet most rich countries are short of workers, have shrinking populations, and need more immigrants. This is a timely guide to a major issue that is never far from the political headlines.

Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a consultant to a number of UN agencies. He has written two books on migration for the International Labor Organization.

Bankers and speculators build castles in the air but when they come crashing down ordinary people have to pick up the tab. How we''ve made such a mess of our money system is explained, from the earliest banks right through to "collateralized debt obligations." The author suggests the framework for a fairer financial world: the practical ideas, required regulations, and real-life examples.

Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a consultant to a number of UN agencies. His books include Workers without Frontiers: The Impact of Globalization on International Migration and the No-Nonsense Guide to International Migration.

An incisive introduction to global finance—where money comes from, the current mechanisms, and the need for control and reform. It traces the origins of money as a source of exchange and a store of value and the many weird forms it now takes—visible and invisible.

The guide sets recent events into context, indicating how the flows of money directed by an unaccountable elite increasingly shape economic, political, and social activity.

Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a consultant to a number of UN agencies. He is author of the No-Nonsense Guide to International Migration.

Virtually any commodity can move around the world to satisfy demand, but human beings have far less freedom. Many would-be migrants are forced to risk life and limb traveling illegally. Yet most rich countries are short of workers, have shrinking populations, and need more immigrants. This is a timely guide to a major issue that is never far from the political headlines.

Peter Stalker is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a consultant to a number of UN agencies. He has written two books on migration for the International Labor Organization.