doomed to being minimized down to a small but qualified elite. By using his own money, he sets up another company and tries to entice away leading scientists in the research of the AIDS virus to withdraw their manpower from the development of an effective cure. Fontanelli, on the other side, is setting up a foundation to organize and enforce the election of a world speaker. In his belief, the multi-national companies can only be controlled by global laws to prevent a catastrophe. The opposing and contradictory strategies of Fontanelli and McCaine to save humanity from its disastrous fate culminate in an exacerbated struggle for power. Fontanelli achieves a partial victory: The election of a world speaker finally takes place. The book ends with the death of John Fontanelli, who gets shot by an old friend who gradually came under the influence of McCaine. Analysis It would be theoretically possible to build up a fortune as described in the book. The initial investment of 300 Florin, assuming an equivalent of 10,000 US-Dollars and an annual interest rate of 4%, would have grown to roughly $1 trillion in the 470 years mentioned in the novel. However, there are certain factors that would render it probably impossible under realistic conditions. Most of the capital appreciation would only happen during the later years of the process. In a time span of 500 years, there would be a great probability of catastrophic events like hyperinflation or even a national bankruptcy which could potentially wipe out the entire investment. But since the capital was spread across various banks in numerous countries at an early point, it is unlikely that it would wipe out the entire fortune. Member of the Vacchi family: "While there were some setbacks, we managed to achieve the average interest rate of 4% a year." Other possible causes for complete or partial loss of the money include theft and embezzlement. The lack of these, however, can be explained by the Vacchi family's faith that they are performing a sacred task, this also explains why they would continue said task even though the compensation was insubstantial for some decades. Strategies for saving humanity John Fontanelli first tries to fight poverty by forming, on the advice of its soon-to-be executive director McCaine, a multi-national company to achieve global dominance. To give this entity a positive image in the media, McCaine suggests several measures for