Cookie Stories 2

Two Steps to Success

This novel consists of two stories told in parallel which converge at the end.  In the first story, all forms of gambling have been outlawed except for the stock market.  Casinos manage to survive by mapping all of their games directly to the market.  So slot machines deliver their payoff exactly when all stocks in the S&P 500 increase in value at the instant the lever is pulled.  At the racetrack, horses with the curious names of Sebl and Orcl gallop in precise accord to the movement of the stocks of the companies they represent.  To the spectator all that changes is that at times the horses are running in reverse.

Luke Germaine, a scientist at Long-Term Cookie Management, discovers that the influence of the stock market has extended even to the final location of the chocolate chips in the cookies he bakes.  However he also realizes that once the connection has been made, it is possible for the marionette to control the master.  This requires a great deal of energy, so Germaine uses a cookie particle accelerator, which acts as a heavy-duty mixer.  With this he is able to create cookies that control the behavior of the stock market.

In parallel the second story details the last days before total economic collapse.  Throughout history money evolves from bartering to the use of precious metals, then paper money, then credit cards, electronic cash, stocks and bonds.  It becomes more and more abstract to the point where it is completely divorced from reality.  The only thing left to support the public's tenuous belief in the value of money is the fact that when someone's wealth changes, there appears to be a cause behind it.

This all changes when Germaine's high speed cookies change the value of stocks in a way that no one can understand.  Any remaining confidence in the value of money disappears, and all existing cash, stocks and bonds become completely worthless.

In the epilogue, as society rebuilds itself people realize that only items which physically exist can have value.  Cookies become the common world currency.


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