One Trillion Dollars
Page 76
Then I have to thank many other people who have supported me during my research — I hope I don’t forget anyone.
I am indebted to Timothy Stahl for providing information about everyday life and legal regulations in the United States, Robin Benatti and Nirbija Fuchs for relevant information about Italy. Thomas Braatz, Manfred Orlowski and Dirk Berger from Leipzig explained to me in detail everything I wanted to know about life in the GDR — the former East Germany — including the Monday Demonstrations and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ralf Wagner, professor of economics in Berlin, patiently answered my questions on a number of difficult questions, especially about money creation — but I would like to emphasize that he is in no way responsible for the use I made of this information.
I also want to thank my friends Thomas Thiemeyer and David Kenlock who read the novel in draft form, and for their suggestions, criticism, and encouragement. David Kenlock convinced me to start the novel the way it now stands — and to delete over a hundred pages of it!
I also wish to thank the staff of the Public Library of Kornwestheim for their generous interpretation of the term “book must be returned by,” as well as the operators of the online archive of the newspaper DIE WELT (www.welt.de), which was an invaluable help to me.
It was impossible to avoid including real personages in this work, and sometimes I had to put words in their mouths that they have never actually said. Victims of this outrage, used widely by many writers, include in particular the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan; I hope he will forgive me. The building at 40 Wall Street is, as far as I know, really owned by Donald Trump (whom I made disappear a little prematurely in my novel The Jesus Video; sorry, Mr. Trump).
My views of the world economy, the monetary system, and the interdependence of corporations are based on the following
sources:
Edward Lehmann, Dynamik des Geldes — Dynamics of Money (Zurich, 1998).
Johann Günther König, Alle Macht den Konzernen — All Power to the Corporations (Reinbek 1999).
Rüdiger Liedke, Spezial: Konzerne — Special: Corporations (Reinbeck 1995).
Vance Packard, Die Ultra-Reichen — The Ultra-Rich (Düsseldorf 1990).
Joel Kotkin, Stämme der Macht. Der Erfolg weltweiter Clans in Wirtschaft und Politik — Tribes of Power: The Success of Worldwide Clans in Business and Politics (Hamburg 1996).
Hans Christoph Binswanger, Geld und Natur. Das wirtschaftliche Wachstum im Spannungsfeld zwischen Ökonomie und Ökologie — Money and Nature: Economic Growth and Tensions Between Economics and Ecology (Stuttgart 1991).
Margrit Kennedy, Geld ohne Zinsen und Inflation — Money Without Interest and Inflation (Munich 1990).
Anthony Sampson, Globalmacht Geld — Global Power Money (Hamburg 1990).
The magazine Der Blaue Reiter, Journal of Philosophy, gave me some important impulses in edition 11, published in Stuttgart in January 2000; the topic was devoted to money.
I learned the essence of the political importance of raw materials in Die strategischen Rohstoffe — Strategic Raw Materials (Wuppertal 1988) by Dieter Eich and Karl Hübner as well as in Zum Beispiel Erdöl — For Example Crude Oil (Göttingen 1991) by Ekkehard Launer.
Full details of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are based either on its homepage (www.imf.org) or the book IWF und Weltbank — IMF and World Bank (Göttingen 1999) by Uwe Hoering
A compendium of global economic data I found at www.ntu.edu.sg/library/statdata.htm.
Financial information about Exxon I found at www.exxon.com, which publicizes the company’s annual reports. The story of John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil Trust and its dismemberment into the oil companies known today can be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Essential details to money’s role in history I found in Allgemeine Münzkunde und Geldgeschichte des Mittelalters und der neueren Zeit — General Numismatics and Monetary History of the Middle-Ages and the Modern Period (Oldenburg 1976, reprint of 1926) by A. Luschin von Ebengreuth, in Geschichte des privaten Lebens — History of Private Life (Frankfurt 1991) by Philippe Ariès and Roger Chartier and in Ernst Samhaber’s, Das Geld. Eine Kulturgeschichte — Money: A Cultural History (Munich 1964).
As for books that cover the topic of humanity’s survival on this planet, I can only list the most important at this point:
Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, Erich Zahn, Peter Milling, Die Grenzen des Wachstums — The Limits of Growth (Stuttgart 1972).
Dennis Meadows, Donella Meadows, Das globale Gleichgewicht — The Global Balance (Stuttgart 1974).
Mihailo Mesarovic, Eduard Pestel, Menschheit am Wendepunkt — Humanity at the Turning Point (Stuttgart 1974).
The Global 2000 Report to the President (Washington, 1980).
Herbert Gruhl, Himmelfahrt ins Nichts. Der geplünderte Planet vor dem Ende — Ascension Into Nowhere. The Plundered Planet Before the Final End (Munich 1992).
On the subject of overpopulation, it was enlightening to read Heinrich von Loesch’s, Stehplatz für Milliarden? — Standing Room Only for Billions? (Stuttgart 1974).
The dynamics of the Gulf Stream and how it could collapse was described by Wolfgang Jeschke in the editorial to Science-Fiction-Jahrbuch 1998 — Science-Fiction Yearbook 1998 (Munich, 1997): However, this is not science fiction, but the summary of some of the theses from the book Der Schritt aus der Kälte — Klimakatastrophen und die Entwicklung der menschlichen Intelligenz — Stepping Out of the Cold; Climate Disasters and the Development of Human Intelligence (Munich 1997) by William H. Calvin.
Extensive details on the history of the Fuggers was described in Kauf dir einen Kaiser — Buy an Emperor (Munich 1978) by Günter Ogger. I found additional information from the brochure Die Fuggerei — The Fuggery, which may be purchased from the Museum der Fuggerei in Augsburg.
The scenes that take place on the Philippine island Panglawan are inspired by real events portrayed by the authors Günter and Peer Ederer in their non-fiction book Das Erbe der Egoisten — The Legacy of Egoists (Munich 1997). The Mexican rubbish collectors also exist in real life. Valuable sources for this were the books 18-mal Mexiko — 18 times Mexico (Munich 1986) by Alan Riding and from the article ”Vom Leben auf Mexikos Müllhalden” “Living in Mexico's Landfills" in the Stuttgarter Zeitung from October 16, 1996.
A major inspiration for the development of the path that McCaine took in the story was the book Hitler als Vorläufer — Hitler as Precursor (Munich 1998) by Carl Amery; the most obvious and at the same time blood-curdling analysis of National Socialism that I have ever read.
The ideas put forward by Lord Peter Rawburne in the story were initially my own. In one of the annually published reports by the World Watch Institute, explicitly that of 1996 (Zur Lage der Welt 1996 — State of the World 1996, Frankfurt 1996), I found an article by David Malin Roodman, "Using Market Mechanisms for Environmental Protection,” which I used after thoroughly revising it. For part of the argument, I have also leaned on the article by Günter Purwig, "Ohne korrekte Bilanz keine korrekte Ökonomie” “Without Proper Balance no Correct Economy" (published in the November 1997 issue of the magazine Der Dritte Weg — The Third Way, Treuchtlingen). The two articles and authors, however, have nothing to do with each other.
The conference at the hotel "Fairmont" in San Francisco did actually take place, not in 1998 but in September 1995. The host was at that time the former head of state of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. One of the few journalists who were allowed to participate in the meeting was DER SPIEGEL editor Hans Peter Martin, who then together with his colleague Harald Schumann wrote the bestseller Die Globalisierungsfalle — Der Angriff auf Demokratie und Wohlstand –The Globalization Trap: The Attack on Democracy and Prosperity (Reinbek 1996). The original statements can be found in the first chapter of this book.
Also informative on the subject of globalization were the corresponding articles in the issues 39/1996, p. 82 ff, and 25/1999, p. 121 ff, in the news magazine DER SPIEGEL.
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The ideas that Lorenzo Fontanelli developed in his article are, in part inspired by the essay I Want The Earth Plus 5% by Larry Hannigan, Australia 1999, which can be found on the Internet.
The suggestion of the dawning of a new Middle Age, which Paul Siegel described in the story, must be accredited to none other than Umberto Eco, Auf dem Wege zu einem neuen Mittelalter — On the Way to New Middle-Ages (Munich 1989).
The concept of a tax on foreign currency trading comes indeed from the economist and Nobel laureate James Tobin (1981 Nobel Prize in Economics), it is therefore also referred to as a "Tobin Tax". For details, I drew on the book Die 10 Globalisierungslügen — The 10 Lies of Globalization, by Gerald Boxberger and Harald Klimenta (Munich 1998).
The statements made by Nelson Mandela in the novel are, for the most part, taken from his speech on January 28, 1999, during the presentation of the Deutschen Medienpreises — German Media Prize in Baden-Baden.
And finally, I owe substantial insight to the work of Giovanni Sartori, Demokratietheorie — Theory of Democracy (Darmstadt 1992).
ONE TRILLION DOLLARS
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BASTEI ENTERTAINMENT
August 2014
Digital original edition
Bastei Entertainment is an imprint of Bastei Lübbe AG
This title was acquired through the literary agency Thomas Schlück GmbH, 30827 Garbsen, Germany
Copyright © 2014 by Bastei Lübbe AG, Cologne, Germany
Written by Andreas Eschbach
Translated by Frank Keith
Edited by Peter Millar
Cover design and illustration by Travis Harvey
Project management by Lori Herber
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ISBN 978-3-8387-5312-6
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