The Gold Rain
When an asteroid explodes
When I arrived at the Oval Office, the meeting had just begun. There were four of us in the room — the president, his chief of staff, the NASA Administrator, and myself, the economic advisor.
The NASA Administrator spoke first. “Three weeks from now, a fifty-meter-wide asteroid entering the atmosphere will explode over the Chugach forest in Alaska. Luckily it’ll be over an uninhabited area, so there won’t be any casualties. But there is a problem — this asteroid is entirely made of gold. It has ten times more gold than what the world currently has.”
The chief of staff said, “There will be a mad rush of people to the Chugach forest to get the fallen gold pieces. Managing a crowd of that size will be a logistical nightmare. I recommend we keep this under wraps.”
“I am hesitant to hide anything from the public,” the president said. He looked at me and asked, “What does our economic advisor think?”
I took a few seconds and then said, “I recommend we release this news immediately.”
“What is the reasoning?”
“If we release this news now, people have three weeks to act on that information. The news of gold supply increasing by tenfold will bring down gold prices sharply. For many, the reduced gold price won’t be attractive enough to make the trip to the forest.”
The president smiled.
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