Grand Theft Auto IV achievement and trophy loyalists will remember the “Impossible Trinity” reward received after completing the “Museum Piece” mission. Speculation abounded over the nature of the name and its significance, and later it was more or less revealed to be a teaser for the next two playable characters in the GTA IV episodic installments [Kotaku, Giant Bomb]
For me this discussion went by the wayside until just recently, when Professor Jeffrey Frieden lectured about the “unholy/impossible trinity” in international economics (formally derived from the Mundell-Fleming model). Basically, a country can at any time only choose two of three goals: 1) a fixed or pegged exchange rate, 2) an independent monetary policy, and 3) free capital mobility. Given a world where there is free capital mobility or capital controls can be avoided, countries will have to choose between 1 and 2. Although this is a simplistic way of looking at the model, one could argue that the US, which lets its currency float, has chosen 2. More information about this here and here.
What does this mean? Probably nothing. Maybe the person in charge of achievements had studied economics and was just having fun with the idea. Or maybe “impossible trinity” is one of those blanket terms that can refer to many things that come in 3′s, not just economics. Heck, I could write the religious hypothesis after this. But that should not stop the mass speculation! If you can only have 2 out of 3 characters, what are the GTA-specific reasons why you can’t have the 3rd? Is Niko Bellic representative of fixed exchange rates or free capital mobility?
…
Ok, it was probably just a broad term or a reference to religion. Extending economic models and hypotheses to try to interpret video game lore will just lead to a cluster****.
