Re: Economic meltdowns in SF

On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:19:22 -0700 (PDT), Mark_Reichert@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>I know I should be avoiding reality here, but given the implications
>of Bear Stearns if the other investment banks are just as ridiculously
>leveraged, I was wondering what SF stories have which SF stories have
>had economic bad times as background and which have actually dealt
>with the economics as subject material.
>
>Persistance of Vision had the hero wandering around the country during
>such times.  One of Niven's stories had a guy brought up wealthy
>having lost everything, but I can't find anything on-line to verify
>which title it is in.

I read a less than novel length story, and I can't remember who it was
by, but the title is Spirals and the narrator (Corky?) talks about his
old comrade (Jack?) who lost all of his money (that he had stashed as
diamonds) when someone came up with a method to make perfect
artificial diamonds and his stash lost all of its value.
-- 
"Why is it, Scott, that we always have to respect their cultural context?
 Why is it that they never seem to respect ours?"
   President John P. Ryan in Executive Orders