Who saw the crash coming? Well, careful readers of the FT would have recieved some warning. I refer not to the work of Gillian Tett or Martin Wolf – although both can claim some credit – but to this short story by Julian Gough, an Irish novelist based, which was published in the FT. Gough’s account of the inflation of goat-prices in Somalia and their impact on the global economy now seems eerily like an allegorical warning of what was to befall us.
Mr Gough has now been rewarded – either for his literary flair or his economic insights – by having his story dramatised on BBC Radio 4. If you hurry, you can listen to it here - before they take the link down next Friday. The Hollywood movie goes into production next year, although the part of the goat is yet to be cast.


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