The news is now dominated by finance. Its complexity, the size of the sums at risk, the speed at which fortunes may be made or lost, the dance of stock markets and currencies, the rise of forces outside the authority of states—all of this attracts or alarms. What some people see as a win for efficiency and freedom is merely the deadly upheaval of capitalisms to others. The author's initial goal in this essay is to dispel worries based on ignorance and to pose pertinent issues with icy rigour. Why does money go about, and who benefits from it? What is a speculative bubble, how does one start, and who pays the price in the end? Why does globalisation come with rising inequalities? Are obligations for pension funds now applicable to businesses?

Have markets displaced states' whole economic power? There are several inquiries that the author responds to with analyses of exceptional lucidity. This is accomplished by utilising all the ramifications of a straightforward but subtle realisation: what finance deals in are always "promises," or rights to future riches that nothing can guarantee since the future is inherently unpredictable. A message that is stern but not devoid of optimism develops throughout this probe into the core of global finance. Globalisation does tend to provide more active growth occasionally, but it also creates a harsher, more unpredictable, and unequal society where those who are "competitive" are driven to isolate themselves from others. However, less unequal growth remains possible; it only depends on the return of political will, in forms that are, it is true, profoundly renewed.