Thursday, April 9, 2009

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Economic Models Explained

Someone sent this to me and I thought it was amusing enough to publish. Stereotypes are always dangerous.

21 Economic Models Explained.

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.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

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

TRADITIONAL 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.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN 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.

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND VENTURE CAPITALISM
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 adebt/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.

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 ye ars, 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.Y
ou 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.

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

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 crap out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least you are now a 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.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Nationalization



At some point, we probably need to let one of the major car makers fail. It is ironic that the Government believes it can run the auto industry and the banking industry. Hard to fathom the level of nationalisation that is going on.

I suppose the Government does such a good job of running itself that it can bring that level of expertise to other industries.

Really enjoyed this cartoon.

I know Obama was dealt a bad hand by both the Democrats and the Republicans. This is not Obama bashing. I want him to succeed, but let's be honest the Government has a history of wasteful spending and poor management. Do we really want this spreading to other parts of our economy. The blind leading the blind.

Painful and not so funny, but unfortunately true


Cigarette price hike and cancer




Mike Lukovich, copyright 2009 Creators Syndicate

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Colbert & Beck

I know that everyone is not a fan of Colbert, but he is relentless in his pursuit of certain issues. I tend to agree with him on Glen Beck at the moment, whose behavior is increasingly strange. Click on the link below. His parody of Beck is funny.

http://www.theweek.com/article/index/94932/Video_Stephen_Colbert_tears_into_Glenn_Beck

Another Funny


Funny


Black holes and financial institutions


Tom Toles, copyright 2009 Creators Syndicate