How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes

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W
hen the senators convened, Greenfi n told them 
that there was nothing more he could do: the bank was 
simply out of fi sh. Some senators suggested that they 
tell the truth to the islanders. Those proposals died in 
committee. Lindy searched for better answers. 
He asked the island’s brilliant economist Ben Barnacle to 
take over at the bank. 
“No problem, sir,” said Barnacle. “The situation is 
that the citizens are losing confi dence. If we can start 
spending more of our Fish Reserve Notes now, that 
will restore confi dence and then the citizens will start 
spending again. If I have to, I’ll drop the Fish Reserve 
Notes from palm trees.” 
Some of the senators were a bit confused. Although none 
of them had Barnacle’s economic training, some had the 
feeling that the problems stemmed from spending too 
much to begin with. Buddy Goldfi sh tried to talk some 
sense, but no one would listen. 
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