Viking, N.Y., 2001. Down the Up Escalator: How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession, Doubleday, N.Y., 2013. These books address complex phenomena of capitalism through dramatic anecdotes and interviews. Each describes a historical turning point through the voices of a range of people who may or may not fully grasp the changes happening in their own lives. In Money Makes the World Go Around, Garson explicates the global economy by depositing her book advance in a one branch small town bank, and then following that money's theoretical path around the world. At one point, her money was invested in Suez, the French company that owned Johannesburg's water system. When protesters were arrested for opposing price increases and water shut offs, Garson organized a "shareholders" demonstration on their behalf in front of the South African consulate in New York City. Garson insists that activism is essential to her writing. But her plays and non-fiction feature layered characters and plot twists that are often irrelevant or even inimical to liberal and socialist tenets. Indeed, Money Makes the World Go Around was largely ignored by the anti-globalization movement within which Garson was active, while a The Wall Street Journal review said "Ms. Garson recounts her travels with a disarmingly balanced combination of amazement and social concern" and Business Week said "...her voice is so persistently good-natured and her intelligence so obvious that by the end of this curious capitalist's Baedeker you can't help but trust her gentle judgments." Her latest book, Down the Up Escalator: How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession, is concerned with the effects of the Great Recession "reshaping people's lives and prospects". Kirkus Reviews admires Garson's "brutal clarity" and calls it a "skillful presentation that lifts the veil". George Packer, writing in The New Yorker, says of Garson, "she's written several books of social reportage about work and money, and this steady engagement over many decades has honed an appealing voice: wry, modest, realistic...like a sympathetic but slightly critical friend, ready with a hug and unable not to give advice." Garson is the author of over 150 articles in publications including Harper's, The New York Times, McCalls, Newsweek, Geo, The Village Voice, Ms, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post, The Australian, Newsday, Modern Maturity, Mother Jones, The Arizona Republic, The Guardian, The Nation, Il Posto, Znet