An exploration of the meaning and significance of money in the 21st century, by "CBS MarketWatch" columnist Thomas Kostigen. Using candid interviews with prominent economic, financial and spiritual leaders, American families, prison inmates, welfare mothers and lottery winners to illustrate his observations, he investigates how money is made, acquired and desired in today's society and seeks to identify its value beyond its commercial and financial meaning. With psychological and financial insight, Kostigen ponders the questions at the forefront of our consciousness: where does our appetite for money come from? How much is needed for survival? How integral is it to identity? Can it really buy happiness? The author traces money's meaning through key financial institutions and inventions, through the homes and workspaces of average Americans, and into the temples of the various world religions. Interview candidates include Yale economics professor Martin Shubik; Dee Hock, founder of Visa; Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz; developer Donald Trump; and Rabbi Burt Visotszky.