What does Arthur hailey have to do with the current Financial Meltdown?

In the midst of the Global Financial Meltdown - when everyone including me, is busy giving seminars on why the world is going through this terrible crisis, comparable only to the great depression of 1930s - one finds some time free (if that is some solace). Yeah !! I actually could sit down to blog means I am relatively free.


And no this post is not yet another harangue on the global meltdown. Enough has been written said and commented on it. This post is on something more interesting. It is about the uncanny clarity with which Arthur Hailey wrote about this current meltdown almost three decades ago. Amazing? Let me explain.



I have been a fan of Arthur Hailey novels since I started reading novels. Like most readers, I have found his novels so deeply reserached one of the industries that one is able to understand the intricacies of the indstry as he takes you through the fictional plots of his story.



So during a recent train journey, when I happened to see a title which I had not read till now - I instantly picked it up. "The Money Changers" was published way back in 1975 (so tells me its first few pages) and as I read through its engrossing 430+ pages - I was amazed to find that the novels seems to be talking about the same fundamentals - economic and financial - that I have been proudly presenting to my audience as the analysis of the current global financial meltdown. One wonders - was hailey foresighted or that old cliched saying is the ultimate wisdom - "History actually & eventually repeats itself".


The novel ofcourse does NOT talk about the subprime mortgage crisis - it wasn't invented then. But the fundamental logic in the novel has flattering resemblence to the current times.

Sorry !! I wanted to bring some excerpts from the novel - but that seems to have hanged my post ad infinitum - so simply pick a copy and read it - you will find it worth the effort.