Hello & Introduction

This is the start of something I hope will continue for some time. I am going to try to write a short piece every week or two on a financial or economic principal. My hope is to give some ideas or concepts regarding these principles that could be used in story lines to give background data or story ideas. My training, background and work experience is in finance and economics. I have spent more than 20 years in public finance and an additional 13 years in utility or government settings.

I enjoy reading science and fantasy fiction and am very interested in the cultures and societies authors develop to support, add depth and create story lines in their books. I find that a story is much more interesting to me if the culture and society support and flow naturally within the story line. I think it adds real depth and color as well as points of potential conflict and action. It is not necessary to have extensive passages detailing this information but it is important for it to be consistent and plausible. I consider some of the finer authors in this area to be Frank Herbert and Dune, Issac Asimov and Foundation Trilogy, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle and The Mote in God's Eye or Ringworld series, L.E. Modesitt Jr. and The Saga of Recluse series, The Imager Portfolio series or Empress of Eternity (just one of several of his stand-alone science fiction books) or Brandon Sanderson and Mistborn series (again one of several examples). As always this list is not meant to be exhaustive but just a sampling of some older and some newer.

I believe that Dune represents a minimalist approach to a society while L.E. Modesitt Jr. and The Saga of Recluse is an example of a consistent richness in society as story lines are woven through its several volumes. In my mind Frank Herbert has one of the most successful societies that is not detailed. Herbert is able to give just enough clues that we as readers fill in the unwritten information and give it a richness far beyond its words. Herbert gives us the direction but we supply the color, smells and sounds. How many of you have practiced walking on sand or can smell the spice or the sietch with your mind's eye or senses. I think we can see a similar phenomenon in J.R.R. Tolkien's works. Again, it isn't necessarily what is described in detail but what is implied or hinted. As readers we are drawn into not only the story but the society and cultures. I think L.E. Modesitt Jr. uses a a little different approach in his series. The Saga of Recluse series have both society and culture richly developed. Here Modesitt weaves all the aspects of several societies and their interaction with one another. He weaves the conflicts and opportunities as cultural borders touch and interact. He maintains the various societies and cultures throughout the series as the stories flow through generations and times. It you want to know about different forms of government and how they may interact follow the societies in Modesitt's volumes. As an economist myself I find Modesitt's treatments fasinating and insightful.

My desire is to attempt to provide some background materials on financial and economic theories, hypothesies, ideas and concepts that may be useful in story lines, plots and background development. We will have to see if I am sucessful.