How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes

185
T H E   H U T   R U T
The other senators searched for the 
meaning of his metaphor. Perhaps 
none existed. 
“Well, sir, the problem is quite 
simple,” said Hank Plankton, the 
new head fi sh accountant. 
“Hut prices are falling, 
so citizens don’t feel as 
wealthy as they did before. 
As a result, they have stopped spending. If we can push hut 
prices back up, people will start spending again.” 
“Cool, Plankie, I knew this was gonna be a breeze,” said 
Bass. “How we gonna do that? Do we have someone in 
charge of that?  Sounds like a cool job. Maybe I’ll appoint 
one of my biggest donors.”  
“Well, sir, it’s not quite that simple,” said Plankton. 
“We can’t just mandate that hut prices go back up. 
As you know, we have kept Finnie and Fishy 
lending. Unfortunately, that alone is not 
enough. For some reason the people 
don’t want to borrow. Perhaps the loan 
application is still too complicated. 
But for now, we need to push interest 
rates lower and then give people more 
tax breaks to buy huts. That should 
create a lot of demand for 
loans, which should stop hut 
prices from falling and get hut 
builders busy again.” 

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