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Finance is the circulatory system of any country, as well as of the global economy. A smoothly functioning system is central to national growth and prosperity, to international trade, international economic growth and development, and to fewer global crashes than otherwise would take place. But few financial systems can operate in a vacuum; given porous borders, they are always linked to, and influenced by, other national systems. Thus, they are truly borderless. They are therefore the very definition of globalization. The global financial system allows the world to grow faster because it channels savings—excess money—into places where the money is needed, to facilitate trade, for example, or to build roads, ports, bridges, or new companies. Global finance is also precarious because problems in one part of the world can spread like a contagious disease. Mayer Amschel Rothschild was one of the great pioneers of figuring out how to expand the possibilities of global finance and also how to deal with the consequences of the periodic crises that it spawns. The
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Jeffrey E. Garten (From Silk to Silicon: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives)