Confidence Games : Money and Markets in a World without Redemption (Religion and Postmodernism Series)

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Summary: How Wall Street became Main Street and what comes next...
Review: Having read-or having attempted to read-a few of Mark C. Taylor's recent books, I was delighted to discover that this one, "Confidence Games" was both entirely different and more of the same. Where his always lucidly written, often provocative and sometimes esoteric reviews of contemporary science, art, architecture and fashion have often left me grasping for a conclusion, this book, "Confidence Games" delivers-BIG.

If writing about the meaning of it all were a physical sport, I would hazard that this fleet-footed journey from the birth of money to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center is Taylor's marathon: a long, fast ride that covers as much ground as an old school Hollywood epic without the tin-eared dialogue.

Throughout, Taylor deftly summarizes insights from celebrated economic and cultural thinkers of the last several centuries without getting bogged down in the dense foliage of history, all the while reminding readers that what paths may look today like a straight line are almost always a zig zag.

What can you expect to get from this book? For many, it will be a pithy introduction to the incredibly complex financial world we have inherited. Others will likely nod their head as Taylor provides intriguing evidence for the parallels and connections between high finance and high art, God and Mammon, computers and contemporary culture.

Like the best music, this book finds a deep groove early on and smoothly segues from pleasant chords to surprising riffs, never missing a beat even as the drummer gets wicked. This is clearly not summer or beach reading. But, given the often-cited consensus that 9/11 changed everything, a book like "Confidence Games" gives readers an unabashedly pleasurable opportunity to struggle with the very complicated questions that define the world in which we have found ourselves.

Taylor's tenacity in pursuing "the meaning of it all" through the lens of money and markets provides us with the rare opportunity to see the big picture in sharp focus.

Disclosure: Over a decade ago, I was a student of Mr. Taylor's and continue to correspond with the author on current affairs.