"This work, written by some of the world's finest scholars on the topic, breaks new ground by demonstrating how finance is anchored in the social structure of the United States in profound and often unique ways. This takes the book far beyond routine assessments of how a dominant political and economic power translates its superiority into financial clout; compared to Europe, let alone the rest of the world, American capitalism also connects a wide variety of interests directly into the financial system. If Gramsci once said that in the United States hegemony grows directly in the factory, this collection demonstrates that it is also directly translated into hegemony in the global financial system. Are we now witness to its demise? At a time of profound financial disturbance, no student of global political economy can afford to ignore this eminent collection." -- Kees van der Pijl, Professor of International Relations, University of Sussex, UK, and author of Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq