“The Stock Exchange is something very different. There is no economy and no production of goods and services. There are only fantasies in which people from one hour to the next decide that this or that company is worth so many billions, more or less. It doesn’t have a thing to do with reality or with the Swedish economy.” (p 627)

This quote in the Epilogue connects with the ideas of Marxism that our class recently talked about, though in a different way than Marx would prefer. While he thinks the economy is everything, Blomkvist refers to it as something that's imaginary in the context of the Stock Exchange, which is a huge economic driving force. His disdain for Wennerström comes out during the interview when he says this, and the events of the novel has thus shaped his future views on the economy.


What exactly is the Stock Exchange, and is Blomkvist right to believe what he does about it? I encourage you to use the "Search" bar in order to do some research about aspects of it that you may not understand or have come in contact with, then consider Blomkvist's comments regarding it. Maybe there's more truth there than you would've guessed without the research.