A Tenured Professor

Galbraith takes on fellow economists with a novel about a tenured Harvard professor whose "Index of Irrational Expectations" brings him scads of money via pessimistic stock-market investments. With his feminist-economist wife and his partner, Montgomery Marvin funnels his riches back into the economy to do good. The couple work for peace and fiscal equality, starting with divesting Harvard of its prickly South African investments. Soon they are purchasing corporations, sponsoring female chief executive officers, and dismantling the lobbying traditions of Congress by counter-equalizing contributions. With his investment tactics well within the law and intended to combat the forces of evil, Marvin seems difficult to stop, though the Feds find a way. ISBN 0-395-47100-1: $18.95.