The economic slowdown impacts even the absurdly wealthy, and if given truthserum I doubt that you would find too many owners who care more about winning trophies than their own personal fortune.
She uses dozens of beasts from the mythological canon and establishes new myths with matter-of-fact ease. (The idea of a Parselmouth a person who can speak to snakes seems ancient and fully formed.) She uses plot devices that could each fuel countless romantic comedies: a truthserum, transfiguration, time travel, invisibility, immortality, alchemy.