David A. Westbrook argues that we live in "e;the city of gold"e;--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.

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

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.