This book by John Kenneth Galbraith, a Harvard economics professor, is simultaneously a fascinating story about political, economic, and academic ethics, as well as an enjoyable satire.

The central character, Montgomery Marvin, a Harvard economics professor, creates a prediction model for stock movement, which allows him to uncover the hidden mechanisms in politics, economics, universities, and journalism. He attempts to demonstrate the unchecked paranoia of individuals motivated by greedy profit.

Marvin incites mass stock market hysteria that drives investors to believe that the upward trajectory of stocks is a one-way street. The book is a provocative satire, hailed by the New York Times as “the wisest and most clever” novel by John Kenneth Galbraith.