Friday, April 10, 2009

Understanding Economics with Cows


LONG-AGO CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.  
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.

You sell one and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.  Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead.

VENTURE CAPITALISM (U.S. 2006-2008)

You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public then buys your bull.

U.S. 2009
You have no cows.
No one else has any cows.
The government buys you one cow, which your children will pay for.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one,
milks the other, and then throws the milk away.


A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads,
because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows,
but you don't know where they are. You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 2 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows.
None of them belong to you. You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.

You worship them.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of
Democracy....

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.You give one to your neighbor.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.The State takes both and gives you some milk.
\
FASCISM
You have 2 cows.The State takes both and sells you some milk.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Bargain Basement

"The New York Stock Exchange is now a 99-Cent Store!" ---David Letterman on The Late Show; March 10, 2009

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Quantities of Food

Q: "Where do mathematicians like to eat?"

A: "On multiplication tables!" ----anonymous children's joke

Saturday, February 14, 2009

EEEWWW!!!!!

Q: What has 2 tongues, 24 eyes, and smells bad?
A: A pair of old tennis shoes! ---Anonymous kids' joke

Car Troubles

Q: What happens to old car mufflers?
A: They become "exhausted"!!! ---Anonymous children's pun

Monday, January 5, 2009

Change of Fortune

"Don't forget---the stockholder of yesterday is the stowaway* of today." ---Groucho Marx in Monkey Business

*Stowaway, as in someone who sneaks aboard a ship without paying fare. (The first part of the movie, the Marx Brothers' characters were stowaways.)

Monday, December 29, 2008

Thoughts on Time

(on entering a new year)
From everlasting to everlasting
You are God.
For a thousand years in Your eyes
Are as a day just passed
Or as a watch served in the night.
The days which we are given--
In them is seventy years;
Or if there is strength,
Eighty years.
Teach us our days thus to reckon
So that we may obtain a heart of wisdom.
---Moses, from Psalm 90
(translated by C. Marie Byars)