Cover of “The Enchanter's Wand: The Volatile Partnership at the Heart of Global Finance”

The Enchanter's Wand:The Volatile Partnership at the Heart of Global Finance

by Ramaa Vasudevan

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    224 pages / 12 January 2027 / 9781804296530

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A deep dive into the public-private partnership at the heart of the global capitalism, and how states use debt to enrich finance while impoverishing the rest of us.

This is how the financial system actually works: public debt becomes the engine of private wealth, and the more countries borrow, the richer Wall Street gets. Marx called it the enchanter's wand. In this book, economist Ramaa Vasudevan, reveals this hidden architecture: how finance, empire, and geopolitics interlock. How public debt mediates and enforces financial power both domestically and internationally. How debt creates order for some and chaos for others—and how this system is designed to do exactly that.

Reviews

  • In this engaging study, Ramaa Vasudevan gets to the heart of a paradox: Global finance depends on the state for its survival, yet every bailout leaves it more powerful and the state more constrained. The Enchanter’s Wand is essential reading.

    BHASKAR SUNKARA, COAUTHOR OF THE BLUEPRINT

  • A sweeping account of the entanglements between finance and the state that lie at the heart of American dollar power. Anyone serious about confronting the major obstacles to human flourishing should read this book.

    MICHAEL A. McCARTHY, AUTHOR OF THE MASTER’S TOOLS