On September 21, 1999 an earthquake that registered 7.6 rocked Taiwan. Despite the death toll of 2,400, the quake barely registered in the consciousness of most Americans.

Watching the news would lead even the most cosmopolitan American observer to conclude that people in this country were more interested in North Carolina. Hurricane Floyd dropped more than 28 inches of rain there the week before.

Yet the shock wave from the quake was felt within days. Xilinx, a highly-specialized American semiconductor designer and manufacturer, lost two of its factories that day in Taiwan. Soon, thousands of assembly-line workers located from California to Texas, were furlogued.

The chain reaction did not stop there. Wall Street traders began to place the Taiwanese natural disaster in its proper prospective. Shares of Dell, Apple and Hewlett-Packard began to tumble.

By Christmas, American shoppers were scurrying to avoid the shortages of laptop computers, Barbie cash registers and Furby dolls.

In short a disaster that only 10 years prior would have been a localized disaster, cascaded into a worldwide crisis. The Taiwanese earthquake had elevated itself into a symbol of how closely connected the world has become. Perhaps, more important, Barry Lynn, a fellow at the New American Foundation in Washington, D. C. illustrates how that out-sourced world faces different risks.

Lynn argues today’s worldwide economy is an improvisation that creates and distributes wealth in ways beyond the control of its designers.

In this well-written and well-researched monograph is an at times angry look at globalization. It offers a departure from the now familiar argument that interconnected, worldwide capitalism is good. In its place, the author offers a subtle and often scary look at a risk-laden system beyond any government's control.

Lynn’s arguments promise to add clarity to this nation’s growing global debate. ( )

This book explains how the consolidation of power within the supply chain of major global corporations is impacting the economy. It smartly points out that there is no such thing as a global economy by how we imagine it, rather that there is a corporate economy where goods are traded by major corporations across international boundaries. What does it mean to have power centralized in a system that meets the needs of global populations? What if something catastrophic happens to this system? ( )