Was the destruction of the Death Star merely an Imperial trap to financially bankrupt the Rebel Alliance?
Assistant professor of Washington University of St. Louis, Zachary Feinstein and Economics Editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, Peter Coy discuss whether a financial crisis in the galactic world of Star Wars could have been avoided.
In Feinstein's academic paper - It's a Trap: Emperor Palpatine's Poison Pill -- the two discuss fundamental connections between the destruction of the Star Wars 'death stars' and the crashing economy.
In the academic text, Feinstein puts forward the theory that Star Wars villain Emperor Palpatine planned that if defeated during the "battle of valdor" in episode 6, there would be economic repercussions on such a scale that the "rebels" would never be able to take power.
He calculates the cost of construction of each "death star" and talks about if the Stars Wars universe would be able to deal with debt, the absence of a central bank and the repercussions of these joint events - a staggering blow to the "Galactic Economy".
