Lucky

Lucky is mostly set in 2008, when a major financial crash dramatically influenced both investment banking and the ability to grift people involved with investment banking. The 2007 to 2008 crash, also known as the Global Financial Crisis, began in the American banking system. Banks had been issuing home mortgages without considering the risk because those banks could package the mortgages and sell them to other financial institutions. This trend continued until banks were signing off on mortgages with practically no due diligence whatsoever and using mortgage-backed securities, rather than cash, to meet federal requirements for banks. When customers failed to make payments, the value of these securities dropped, leaving many banks insolvent. While regulation did improve in several ways after the Global Financial Crisis, US banks are still vulnerable. The US did not adopt the same requirements as other countries, and mortgage-backed securities continue to be issued. In 2024, they are called collateralized mortgage obligations to try to avoid the negative associations that come with having collapsed the entire world’s economy.

After Lucky gets her business degree and “certifications,” she opens a “small investment and accounting firm” (162). Before the crash, she and Cary are able to move around her clients’ money without them realizing it. However, their scam comes to light when the market crashes. The economist John Kenneth Galbraith argues that financial fraud thrives in booming economies because people are more trusting and have more money, but the opposite is true when the economy goes bust (Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Great Crash, 1929. Houghton Mifflin, 1955). At the beginning of Lucky, Lucky and Cary are planning to leave the country and travel to Dominica to escape punishment for their fraud. Their crimes being uncovered can be compared to the real-life Ponzi scheme by Bernie Madoff that was uncovered in July of 2008 as a result of the crash.

Another piece of historical context is Lucky’s name, which alludes to Lucky Luciano, a 20th-century mafia figure. Luciano was born in Sicily, but in the early 1900s, his family moved to New York City. He is known for his involvement with organized crime, including extortion, gambling, drugs, bootlegging, and prostitution. Luciano was part of the Five Points Gang, the Genovese crime family, and the National Crime Syndicate, as well as other mafia groups. Like Lucky plans to in the novel, the real-life Luciano fled the USA for Cuba, only to be caught and arrested. He ended up living in Italy under police surveillance for the rest of his life. Luciano was a popular figure in the media. In the novel, Lucky’s father, John, belongs to a generation that saw many films about the mafia boss, such as Lucky Luciano (1973).