The Money Changers

At almost $2 trillion per day in trades, currency markets vitally link the world together. Yet few people understand how they work and why they are prone to instability and bouts of panic. The Money Changers takes the reader behind the scenes on a tour of the places, the machines, the circuitry and the people involved in moving world money.

This journey begins as a traveler removes foreign currency from an ATM in Istanbul. Robert Williams guides us from the periphery of the market into its neural centers in financial hubs such as London and New York. Currency traders, market analysts, money managers and payment systems architects show their workplaces and reveal their day-to-day experiences in this unpredictable and rapidly evolving world.

The experts interviewed may use unfamiliar terms, but the logical progression of the chapters and participants’ stories told in workplace settings bring abstract concepts down to earth. After completing the tour, the reader will have a clear picture of the geographical and structural organization of global currency markets and the people who run them. This vision of a volatile, evolving structure will provide a useful framework for deciphering the complex causes of yet unforeseen financial events.

Robert G. Williams is Voehringer Professor of Economics at Guilford College, where he has taught courses on globalization, finance, trade, and development for more than twenty years.