Sampson, Anthony. The Money Lenders: Bankers and a World in Turmoil.
New York: Viking Press, 1982. 336 pages.
In 1978, Willy Brandt invited British journalist Anthony Sampson
to become an advisor to the Brandt Commission on North-South relations.
"Listening to the discussions and helping to write the final report,
I became more aware that the future of many developing countries was
interlocked with the problems of the big banks," Sampson explains. The
result was this book, which is as good as it gets on international banking
from a liberal perspective. As the author of The Sovereign State of ITT,
The Seven Sisters, and The Arms Bazaar -- all excellent books on various
aspects of transnational big business -- Anthony Sampson is one of the
few journalists qualified to tackle this complex topic.
This is a history of banking, particularly since World War II with
Bretton Woods, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and then
evolving into Eurodollars, the end of the gold standard, OPEC, and Third
World debt. In the end Sampson tries to wrap it up in the social-democratic
package that motivated Willy Brandt, which might be described as "better
world management for the sake of peace, justice, and jobs." In other words,
more international regulation is needed to achieve better stability. Because
by the last chapter it's clear that no one has a clue, and the whole system
is balanced on "the dangerous edge."
ISBN 0-670-21106-0
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