SUPERMONEY

by Adam Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 16, 1972

Less focused or controlled but no less attractive or intelligent than Smith's bestselling The Money Game (which zeroed in on market behavior), this collection of essays roams over matters economic from the rise of Supercurrency (capitalized wealth) to the great liquidity crunch of 1970 to some of the casualties (the Great Winfield; Irwin the Professor; Seymour the Head) to Smith's own embarrassing bubble -- an amusing recounting of ""How My Swiss Bank Blew $40 Million and Went Broke"" in which ill-advised cocoa investments, a set of cooked books, and a bank executive charged with Verdacht der ungetreuen Geschaftsfuhrung (Suspicion of Untrue Management) brought Smith's efforts at generating Supercurrency in Europe to grief. Ja, it's not good. But why? What's happening to the money market? As nearly as he can pinpoint it, the Protestant ethic seems to be eroding, "". . .even in Switzerland nobody really lives in fear of God, Calvin or Zwingli any more."" Smith hastens to ""the apogee of American industrialism,"" the GM Vega plant in Lordstown (Ohio) for confirmation that ""the era of purposiveness, with its inherent dictum of sacrifice is winding down, however slowly."" At the Harvard Business School (""the West Point of capitalism"") he finds the same greening process at work -- graffiti like JOHN HANCOCK WAS A REVOLUTIONARY, NOT AN OBSCENE LIFE INSURANCE SALESMAN. Smith is not so much unhappy as cautionary about this, warning the money men that ""revolutions do not come neatly across a desk."" -- so keep an eye on that counterculture klatch which might in the long run change the whole game around. Excerpts will appear in upcoming issues of The Atlantic and New Yorker magazines; also it's a Literary Guild dual selection.

Pub Date: Oct. 16, 1972

ISBN: 0471786314

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION