Money Meltdown: Restoring Order to the Global Currency System

First, the only reason I did not give this 5 stars is because I think the book could have been more concise. I don't fault Ms Shelton for this as much as I do her editor. That said, her points are well made. She starts off with the "Legacy of Bretton Woods". Then discusses (at length) both what conditions were like in many of the countries at the time as well as what went wrong and why Nixon finally removed this country from the modified gold standard of Bretton Woods (by the way, Paul Volker was heavily involved with this decision according to Shelton.) I for one appreciated the well documented, scholarly history lesson. The 4th chapter titled "Theory vs Reality" discusses 4 currency theories: dirty float, pegged rates, hard currency and private currency. She discusses strengths and weaknesses of all the systems. The book concludes with recommendations. She covers both what she thinks is the best monetary system and how to implement it. I won't tell you what she suggests. But I'll say this - the book was last updated in 1998, and given what has happened (I'm writing this in Nov. 2008) since that time, it's too bad the powers that be, didn't listen to this lady.