cover image The Death of Money: How the Electronic Economy Has Destabilized the World's Markets and Created Financial Chaos

The Death of Money: How the Electronic Economy Has Destabilized the World's Markets and Created Financial Chaos

Joel Kurtzman. Simon & Schuster, $21.5 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-68799-1

The most arresting, and alarming, aspect of this remarkable study is its warning of economic and social cataclysm should the intricate, fragile electronic information network linking international financial markets, banks and corporations collapse. With billions of dollars leaping across oceans in seconds, notes New York Times financial writer Kurtzman, the wealth of nations is denominated by squiggles pulsating on cables that could fracture, transmitted by satellites a meteor could shatter, or could be subjected to computer breakdowns or ``virus'' invasions. The electronic economy itself, Kurtzman stresses, is so attenuated by debt and equity instruments sold internationally and routinely leveraged as options or indexes that instant trading for immediate profit has replaced industrial production and sound currency as measures of value. The message is this well-organized, lucidly written book should not be ignored. To be adapted for a public television series. (Apr.)