One of the main characters in the novel is presidential candidate and sitting-Senator Sedwick Sexton. Early in the novel we learn that his political fortunes and poll numbers have been buoyed by his relentless and well-informed attacks on NASA. Although the president is a big fan of the space agency, he is being increasingly put on the defensive by Sexton’s calls for NASA to be disbanded, its efforts privatized, and the savings to the taxpayer allocated to school spending. With every new high-profile, billion-dollar NASA blunder and cost overrun, the senator gains ground. But of course there’s a twist: Sexton, we later learn, is taking illegal campaign donations from a consortium of private companies anxious to provide a wide range of space-related products and services to private individuals and nation-states alike. These include satellite launches, space tourism, and waste disposal.

The company officials feel that NASA uses its government-granted monopoly to forestall or even stifle competition. For example, it is alleged that NASA is not only a less cost-effective provider of satellite launch services, but that it then offers those services at well-below cost, even lower than what private firms charge. By undercutting private launch firms the American taxpayer is left to foot the real cost. In the novel it is in a meeting between Sexton and these company officials that the Bentonville-based retailer’s name is invoked. (All emphases in the original):

“Kistler Aerospace,” Sexton said, shaking his head in despair. “Your company has designed and manufactured a rocket that can launch payloads for as little as $2000 per pound compared to NASA’s costs of $10,000 per pound.” Sexton paused for effect. “And yet you have no clients.”

“Why would I have any clients?” the man replied. “Last week NASA undercut us by charging Motorola only eight hundred and twelve dollars per pound to launch a telecomm satellite. The government launched that satellite at a 900% loss!”

Sexton nodded. Taxpayers were unwittingly subsidizing an agency that was ten times less efficient than its competition. It has become painfully clear, he said, his voice darkening, “that NASA is working very hard to stifle competition in space. They crowd out private aerospace businesses by pricing services below market values.”

“It’s the Wal-Marting of space”, the Texan said.

Damn good analogy, Sexton thought. I’ll have to remember that. Wal-Mart was notorious for moving into a new territory, selling products below market value, and driving all local competition out of business.

“I am goddamned sick and tired,” the Texan said, “of having to pay millions in business taxes so Uncle Sam can use that money to steal my client!”

“I hear you,”, Sexton said. “I understand.”

Actually, it’s a darn bad analogy. Even Wal-Mart’s most determined critics don’t allege the firm sells products below market value. Rather they asserts that low prices come at a high societal and economic cost. Critics do allege that Wal-Mart pays low wages and provides no benefits thus making employees more reliant on government services like welfare and Medicaid. They also allege that Wal-Mart’s low prices come from it squeezing its suppliers, i.e. paying them lower prices, forcing them to adopt expensive new technologies that disproportionately benefit Wal-Mart, increasing penalties on them for deliveries not made on time, and pushing on to them the costs of holding inventory. None of these things are remotely analogous to what NASA is alleged in the novel to be doing.

But that’s what so brilliant about what Brown wrote. He accurately placed words in the mouth of a character whose ambition knows few bounds, a Senator who aspires to the presidency, a politician for whom perception trumps reality. And how interesting it is to find that the fictional Senator’s political instincts concering Wal-Mart tack so closely to those of several real ones. According to the New York Times, Senators Biden (D-DE), Bayh (D- IN), and Clinton (D-NY), as well as Governor Bill Richards (D-NM), are all currently trying to make Wal-Mart a political issue in their own as-yet-to-be-announced presidential campaigns.

And that makes me wonder whether there is an idea here for another Dan Brown novel- something like “The Wal-Marti Code.” Perhaps the protagonist could be a business school professor rather than a religious historian. And perhaps said b-school prof could be trying to discover the real reasons for Wal-Mart’s success. And perhaps while doing so he uncovers a web of deceit, exposes lies, and receives vital clues from the President's Council of Economic Advisors. Or perhaps I just read too many Dan Brown novels this summer and it’s time for a new semester to begin and serious work to commence.

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