InThe Futures, Emily Lambert, senior writer atForbesmagazine, tells us the rich and dramatic history of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the original (and eventually, largest) futures market. She details the emergence of the Merc as a kind of meeting place for gamblers and farmers and its subsequent transformation into a sophisticated electronic market where commodities are traded at lightening-fast speeds. Lambert also details the disastrous effects of Wall Street's adoption of the Merc's technological advances without the close-knit social bonds that had made Chicago work so well. Ultimately Lambert argues that, far from being mere parasites, speculators serve a useful economic and social function by smoothing prices and making commodities flow. The Chicago Merc, she explains, because of its cultural limits, can serve as a useful example for how exchanges ought to work and become a tonic for our current financial ills.