While reading The Wealth of Shadows—Graham Moore’s excellent historical novel about pre-World War II global finance—I couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of unease regarding the current state of international economics. Set just before the United States enters World War II, the book follows the adventures of a plucky group of Treasury Department employees unofficially working to undermine the German economy while officially maintaining the US position of neutrality. Two figures outside of the US loom large in the narrative—Hjalmar Schacht in Germany and John Maynard Keynes in England