Systemic risk is coming to a bookstore near you.
"Union Atlantic," a forthcoming novel by Adam Haslett, tells the story of a (fictional) president of the New York Fed who tries to prevent a market meltdown after the collapse of a (fictional) bank the Fed regulates. The book got a glowing write-up in the current issue of Esquire, which compared it to the sweeping works of Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe.
Haslett told the magazine that he finished the book in September 2008 — just as Lehman Brothers was failing and the real-life Fed (and other regulators) were trying to avert a systemic disaster. Passages like this one seemed eerily prescient: "Five hundred points off the Dow was one thing.
Esquire has posted an
Spoken like a true heir to Henry F. Potter, the villainous banker in "It's a Wonderful Life." But we may have to wait until Feb. 9, when Random House's Nan A. Talese imprint releases "Union Atlantic," to know if Fanning measures up to the