Monopoly, the board game, was invented in 1935. It's a game about economics, first and foremost. Hell, the name of the game is Monopoly. It's about making wise investments and bilking your opponents for cash in that most honorable of capitalist quests.
In the same sense that modern games are escapism, Monopoly must have been a capitalist fantasy escape for the world of the time. In 1935, Keynes was putting the finishing touches on his masterpiece, the book that set out what we now call Keynesian economics. (Remember all that stuff from high school about the business cycle and the government intervening in recession with public works spending to reinvigorate the economy? Yeah, we're talking about when he published that.)
The crash of 2008 showed us that the world of economics has changed. Why hasn't Monopoly?
Monopoly needs mortgage securitzation. And loan sharks. And since you can have loans, you can also have credit-default swaps.
It's sooo 1930s to simply "go out of business" - that is, lose at Monopoly - from being pushed out by competition and simple market forces. It's almost 2010, ladies and gentlemen! An honorable Monopoly winner actually saves his friend as he's about to lose by offering him mortgages on all his houses and hotels, creating a new 'deed' for the collection of those mortgages, and letting friends buy in for a share of all the revenue from the houses and hotels that people land on. Then, your friends see you're in a compromised position and take out bets on you going bust.
Not that people really want to keep an unsustainable game of Monopoly afloat at the 3-hour mark, but it'll be worth it for the payoff. Stay with me, trooper.
So now everyone has a stake in everyone else. Loser #1 is doing OK - he's given up any chance of making any money off his houses and hotels, but he's alive. You were peachy by taking advantage of Loser #1, but now you're starting to sink since your other two buddies invested in your securitized mortgages of all the Loser's houses and hotels and are reaping all the returns. But one of those two buddies *really* wants to see you lose, because then he'll cash out on the credit default swap he took out with the second of the two buddies. Buddy #2, meanwhile, does *not* want to see you lose because he'll have to pay out, which means he'll lose too.
But wait - Buddy #2 has a secret weapon! He took out a credit default swap of his own, financed by Buddy #1, on Loser #1 going bust.
Eventually, someone misses a payment somewhere - probably Loser #1 missing a mortgage payment - and he goes belly-up. Buddy #2 cashes in with money from Buddy #1. That sends #1 into bankruptcy. Now you go bust, because you can't afford your securitized payments to everyone else. Buddy #1 would cash in on his credit default swap with Buddy #2.. except he's already bust. Whoops.
Everyone loses in spectacular fashion. Rather than get mad after 3-and-a-half hours, yell at Grandma and swear never to play Monopoly again, you've all gone down in flames, and your board game session has turned from a get-rich-quick fantasy to a reminder of how connected we all are, thanks to money.
It's a brave new world out there, friends. Your board games should be ready. Just don't let Grandma be the loan shark - she will get medieval on your kneecaps if she really has to.
