A Game of Loans? [warning, spoilers ahead] Another season of Game of Thrones is upon us: Climate change has hit the north, and a haughty white ruler is using scaley unmanned drones to defeat a desert insurgency. Back in war-ravaged Westeros, Queen Cersei is feeling the pain of poor fiscal and monetary policy. For all the magic, swords and scandals that keep us glued to our TVs, a little-appreciated aspect of the story seems to be the economics that underpin and drives the storyline. The Economist’s 1843 Magazine takes a look, drawing comparison with historical models. Cercei’s willingness to default on loans issued to her by the Iron Bank of Braavos has left her credit worthiness in shambles, weakened her army’s prospects, and left her at the mercy of religious fundamentalists. And she isn’t the only one: Khaleesi’s zeal to end slavery, without developing an economic system to replace it, has led to her ouster by an insurgency. It’s these subtle details that have allowed Game of Thrones to transcend the nerdiness of fantasy and establish itself more along the lines of Jonathan Swift than those of C.S. Lewis.