History Main / ArtisticLicenseEconomics

* ''Film/DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD''. One of the characters is Brockley, a black marketeer who sneaks into the Dalek mine to exchange food he's found in the abandoned towns for whatever jewelry and other valuables the slave workers have. However even those who collaborate with the Daleks are depicted as living barely above the starvation level, so there's no-one on the entire planet who'd be interested in such trinkets. Furthermore Brockley says he can easily find valuables in the abandoned towns, so why would he risk his life sneaking into the Dalek mine to barter for them?

* The obscure Creator/{{Tokyopop}} book ''Karma Club'' features an economic system where you get money every time you perform a good deed and lose money every time you do something bad. There appears to be no limit on how much a person can accrue. As such, everyone basically can print money. Yet, there doesn't seem to be a system in place to remove money from the economy (aside from penalizing for bad deeds), since taxes are never mentioned and businesses are privately owned (which is a plot point). Thus, the money supply is ever increasing, which should make it worthless.

* A strange, and amusing, example occurs in ''[[Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus The Lost Hero]]''. King Midas (yes ''[[{{TheGoldenTouch}} that]]'' King Midas) is bankrolling the BigBad's efforts by...turning things lying around his mansion into gold and selling them to investors, thereby lowering the inherent value of said gold and making the price drop.

** In one comic, Scrooge spots the Beagle Boys trying to break into his money bin (again), but after scoping them out and doing some unusual calculations, he leaves them be, and they successfully extract a whole truckload of money with a big hose and escape. It turns out that the money is ''absolutely worthless'' since it consists of a massively devalued foreign currency; the Boys can't spend it, exchange it, or even ''throw it away''. Scrooge reveals to his family that he got that money from a specific business deal years ago, and knew the Boys would hit it before reaching anything of actual value (since he knows perfectly the entire contents of the bin), which is why he let them do it. He then offers the Boys a pittance for the coins and uses them to fill his new outdoors swimming pool.

* The movie ''Harrowhouse 11'' focuses on a complex plot to rob a stockpile of diamonds from a company that has a near-monopoly over the trade, and is withholding the diamonds to keep the market price up. At the end of the movie after a successful heist, the protagonist is fully aware that if they put everything they stole into circulation, it would cause the value of diamonds to plummet. He ends up burying most of the diamonds in concrete, and keeping only a fraction.

** In a Creator/DonRosa Scrooge [=McDuck=] story, ''The Quest for Kalevala'', Scrooge briefly gets his hand on TheSampo, a mythic handmill that can produce infinite amounts of gold. Normally business-savvy Scrooge gets struck by a severe case of gold fever, and starts rolling out tons of gold. In a boat. In the middle of a storming sea. The economic implications were left unstudied, since immediate survival quickly becomes a more important matter. Knowing Scrooge, he probably wanted more gold ''just'' to swim in.

* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': The comedic Creator/{{Elseworlds}} book ''ComicBook/SupermanTrueBrit'': Superman tries to solve the UK's debt by turning all the coal in the British Isles into diamonds. Later at a press conference, a Lord tells Superman that because of "basic economic theory", diamonds are now worth ''less'' than coal. Not only does this make Superman's stunt useless, but thousands of coal miners have now lost their jobs and there is no coal for people to heat their houses with. Superman (a bit of a [[TheDitz Ditz]] in this universe) then proposes that he could [[ComicallyMissingThePoint go to outer space and bring back gold from other planets to give to each family]], causing the Lord to shout "You just don't ''get it'', do you Superman?"

* ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' runs into this ''hard'' with the plot point of Watto refusing to accept Qui-gon Jinn's offered payment in Republic credits for repair parts. Aside from the obvious solution of Qui-gon just hiring another ship captain who flies routes into the Republic and would therefore need Republic currency, the currencies of large, stable economies tend to be ''more'' valuable than local currencies in developing and fringe economies (c.f. the dominance of the US dollar in black markets). Though given the demonstrable corruption of the Republic in the film, it's possible that the Republic credit has become [[RidiculousExchangeRates severely devalued]] compared to the currencies favored by Tatooine's Hutt rulers. It's also possible that Republic credits are too ''traceable'' for Watto, a shady character, to wish to do business in them, though it's odd that he doesn't just suggest Qui-gon go to a money changer who'd be willing to exchange the credits for a form of payment Watto would accept.
** Yet another reason is simply convenience and trust. Having to do currency exchange, and everyone getting their cut is a pain. Even a small-time cashier or taxi driver may decline a foreign bill worth more than double the price of the goods and demand local currency. When in Rome, do as the Roman's do and pay their currency. Watto also has little reason to trust these off-world people explicitly trying to repair their means of leaving the planet. If they pulled a fast one or for whatever reason their credit stick is invalid, they'd have long left.
*** Watto could also be trying to "trade up" in a sense that he's wanting his junk in exchange for more valuable junk. He takes the credits, he runs the risk of getting screwed by the money changers. He takes a whole lot of shiny rocks, he'll be on an up trade. Tatooine IS a Hutt-owned planet full of gangsters and criminals. Anyone who can offer an exchange for credits may not be a fair, civilized world's banker but a mobster who'd strong-arm or even steal it from him. At minimum there would be suspicion beyond the legitimateness of foreign planet credit sticks. A key factor is Tatooine's economy is not being a clean, safe and fair planet but full of gangsters, slavers, and ne'er-do-wells.
** Additionally, Watto largely deals in junk and parts. His currency is not fiat, it's solid goods. To do currency exchange implies obtaining a considerable amount of comparable value items to haul and exchange. And given the crime of Tatooine, who's to say anyone who can provide currency exchange enough for the repairs wouldn't try to mug? They'd likely need many vendors willing to take Republic credits. Even trying to get a different ship and pilot runs the risk of muggers, not to mention being unable to buy Anakin from Watto who doesn't accept credits.
*** Adding to this, everyone takes dollars' thing is a myth. Dollars are only useful if you have a path to exchange them back to America, for the wealthy or foreign staff and people living near foreign controlled areas this is true. That influence often expands into densely populated areas thanks to access to functioning banks. Various rural areas in real life impoverished countries either abandon meaningful currency entirely or just accept anything based on the number printed on it not actual worth. If your local crime lord Hutt adopted another strong currency backed by a huge bank (like themselves) and banned dollar transactions you wouldn't trade in dollars because the risk of exchanging them would be much too high. Watto's a lower class trader of salvage and illegal goods in a backwater directly ruled by a gangster warlord. That warlord is part of black market trade group with it's own monetary and banking system. The Hutts are very powerful and Watto is scared of them.

** ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine]]''

** ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''

* A Paul Murry-drawn ''[[ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse Mickey Mouse]]'' comic has a villain that has discovered a literal mountain made of diamond. This makes him incredibly rich, as long as no one else knows it exists, since he can control the amount he sells. Hence, his villainy consists of seeing to it that no one who has seen his property ever gets away alive. Disturbingly, this sort of artificial scarcity is TruthInTelevision for how the diamond industry actually works (and it was worse under the infamous [=DeBeers=] monopoly).
* The comedic {{Elseworlds}} book ''ComicBook/SupermanTrueBrit'': Superman tries to solve the UK's debt by turning all the coal in the British Isles into diamonds. Later at a press conference, a Lord tells Superman that because of "basic economic theory", diamonds are now worth ''less'' than coal. Not only does this make Superman's stunt useless, but thousands of coal miners have now lost their jobs and there is no coal for people to heat their houses with. Superman (a bit of a [[TheDitz Ditz]] in this universe) then proposes that he could [[ComicallyMissingThePoint go to outer space and bring back gold from other planets to give to each family]], causing the Lord to shout "You just don't ''get it'', do you Superman?"

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Bs_nBrhbk This]] ''Website/GoAnimate'' video has a Red Lobster shutting down and a Buffalo Wild Wings on the verge of closing because of Daisy's BlatantLies and InsaneTrollLogic driving away a few customers. Keyword here being "a few": big restaurants wouldn't close up shop because of that unless they were doing ''very'' poorly.

* Tabletop role playing games in general are extremely vulnerable to this due to economics outside the party usually not being the focus of the game design and CombinatorialExplosion setting in: Since there's no engine limitation on what the [=PCs=] can or can't do, any imbalance in the economic system can be exploited. The usual result is a gentlemen's agreement about not abusing the most blatantly illogical parts.

** The way the game worked was that, when a railroad had its initial public offering, or float, the first share sold was the President's share and was worth two regular shares, and the player who bought it controlled the company. The company did not go into business, however, until a majority of the shares had been sold, all of which had to be sold at the initially offered value. Once the company had started operating, its share price could fluctuate, meaning that if the price went up, you could realize an immediate gain by buying leftover IPO shares at the initial value, even though they would immediately have the floating value. Obviously that makes no sense, since why would the company sell shares for less than their publicly traded value? Also, that's just not how IPO's work. In real life, obviously, there is no such thing as a President's share. Moreover, all issued shares will typically be sold in an IPO. If the shares do not all sell at their initial price, the price will fall until all issued shares have been sold.

* The Manga ''Manga/MagiLabyrinthOfMagic'' not only averts this -- it's also made a cause in one of the Arc! The King of Balbadd adopted the Kou Empire's Currency system, which used paper money as opposed to their coin one, without having the market prepped for the introduction of this new currency -- resulting in inflation rates that not only left a majority of the citizens destitute, but also fuels animosity towards the royal family and higher class (who ended up benefiting from this) to the point that the bad guys are able to incite a violent revolution against them. And what's worse -- the King and the other nobles became so addicted to the currency and the lavish lifestyle that came with it that the King agreed to marry the Empire's Princess and was willing to sign a contract that used the citizens as collateral via ''slavery'', [[MoralEventHorizon just to get more money]]!

* ''Film/ThePurge'' is guilty of a several failure: first in not understanding what is a feasible way to improve the economy radically, and second in what are the signs of a booming economy, thirdly how supply and demand work for some industries. The series eventually reveals that the New Founding Fathers of America is a corrupt party full of elitist, murderous madmen; which obviously would be willing to say such BlatantLies.

** In the third film, insurance companies are listed as one of the primary beneficiaries of The Purge, and this is shown when one character has their rates tripled hours before the Purge starts. In reality, the effects of damage becoming far more likely (such as with an increase of natural disasters) on the insurance industry are well-documented; companies can raise their customer's rates to a point, but will eventually collapse as more and more people drop their insurance (even the most essential industries understand you can't get blood from a stone), and the companies have to make more and more payouts until they go bankrupt.

* ''Film/ThePurge'' is guilty of a several failure: first in not understanding what is a feasible way to improve the economy radically, and second in what are the signs of a booming economy, thirdly how supply and demand work for some industries.