Thriller about political economy
I stumbled upon Beatrice Gerard’s Hunting for Sparrows when looking for some light reading for the weekend. It’s a thriller, but it underlines two different philosophies of economic development.
There is action and the rest, of course, and a good dose of, what shall I call it, eroticism, but what struck my attention was the debate between Supply Side Economics and, if not Keynesian, pre-Supply Side Economics.
At the core of the argument is whether you can make money in a market without consumers. I haven’t read any fiction books lately that attempted to discuss politics and economics in the context of entertainment (aside for the Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, which is more interesting if you are actually interested in Swedish politics).
I would say that, Hunting for Sparrows is about economics in the same way the Millennium Trilogy is about Swedish politics (I got really into it, but I am sure that’s just me). My wife is reading in and she insists I am a total nerd, and that it is about womanhood and sisterhood. What can I say, to each it’s own.
All in all, I found it a good discussion about how to sustain economic development and the risk of Supply Side Economics (that oh, so well we have started to appreciate after 30 years of glory), in the context of a fun to read thriller.
Since Thrillers and economics are normally separated (unless it’s a thriller about corporate corruption), I wonder if this is something new, or the beginning of a new phenomenon that is bringing to the forefront of the popular discussion themes that were normally reserved to specialized groups. I wouldn’t be surprised, taking into account the emergence of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has brought forward many subjects that used to be limited to polite political conversation about the role of Wall Street in the development and destruction of capital.
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