David A. Westbrook argues that we live in "the city of gold"--a global, cosmopolitan polity where politics are done through markets, and where global capital markets, not states, have become the dominant force in our social life.

David A. Westbrook is currently an associate professor of Law at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York, and is a former corporate lawyer.

Acknowledgments Introduction Part One: Desire's Constitution I. Conception II. Money as Communication III. Finance and the War Against Time IV. Urban Renewal V. Governance Part Two: Constitutional Critique VI. Alienation VII. Inauthenticity VIII. Identity, Tense Part Three: Exhausted Philosophies IX. The Reformation of Economics X. After Economic Justice XI. The Disenchantment of Liberalism Part Four: Towards a Metropolitan Political Economy XII. True Markets XIII. Orderly Markets XIV. Beyond the Market: Authority and Identity Conclusion: The Possibility of Affection