Some vivid passages in this compact book depict a world in which "location no longer matters in finance," thanks to new technology and deregulation. But in his closer and well-informed analysis, the chief economist of the American Express Bank describes a more complex process in which some differences among countries and markets continue to shape the dynamics of banking and finance. Often O'Brien provides a broader and subtler view than most people who write about globalization by noting such points as the way integration changes identities, how alterations of financial markets change the function of money and why competition policy will become increasingly important (and difficult).