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The article traces the transformations of the flaneur in the aftermath of the global financial crisis (2008). The first part of the article consists in a short analysis of this modern figure and its history. It builds on Walter Benjamin’s interpretation of the flaneur and the economic context that determines this figure. The second part of the essay consists in a comparative analysis of two novels: The Financial Lives of the Poets (2009), by the American writer Jess Walter, and Pustostany (2019), by Polish writer Dorota Kotas. The key topics discussed in the article are the redefined relationship between private and public spaces during an economic crisis, and the condition of the contemporary urban wanderer. The categories of mobility and immobility, in a broad sense, are therefore central to this essay.