A die hard Republican naturally starts examining world finance on Wall Street. The nature of the market is sized up, and some of its players' attitudes knocked down. Despite personal theories which we all nurture about the nature of businessmen, the idea of some people actually being happy in such a greedy, overworked rabble is pause for thought in itself. It is here that the nature of high finance and all its huge financial ramifications becomes frighteningly exposed. Propagating the idea that nobody really understands economic theory may be an old generalisation, but it is rare to find such a well-proven destruction.
Informed simplicity can work astonishingly well, as is the case here.
Examples of good and bad capitalist and communist countries are explored, with particular details noted with the satirist's eye for poignancy. The fact that a copy of Cuba's national economic review can only be bought for dollars is a case in point. Countries are broken down into working parts or, more accurately, different aspects of unworkable systems. For example, O'Rourke criticises Sweden heavily, despite many of Sweden's major policies sounding utilitarian by comparison to the USA's or ours. What was interesting is that I went to Sweden first, and had I gone to Sweden last, I'd have been less critical of the Swedes.