Thursday, October 30, 2008

587 - Email joke 3046.5

Monkeys and the financial crisis

Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them and keeping them for the man in a big cage. The man bought hundreds at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.

The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching. The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.

While the man was away the assistant told the villagers. 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.'

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. They never saw the man or his assistant again and once again there were monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how Wall Street and the mortgage Banks work.


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I'm going to spill the beans on where the secret link is on post 584 if more people don't start finding it.

And also, the small quiz at the left? It takes you to a libertarian site. The quiz is short. Only 10 questions. And you can change the answers around and see how it changes your ratings.

7 comments:

Bilbo said...

I took the quiz and ended up exactly on dead center...I must be the ultimate centrist. Neat quiz.

Amanda said...

I like that joke!

John A Hill said...

found the link. Now I have to do a complete cleaning of my hard drive!

Anonymous said...

Did you make up the monkey story? If so, I know it's true. Any way thanks for helping me understand how Wall St. Works.

I took the test and am a Libertarian

fiona said...

My mom was one of those Villagers and I was one of those monkeys!
7. In Scotland when a new baby is taken out in it's pram/stroller people put a silver coin in beside it for good luck. According to my mum she made big money with my little sister but had a problem carrying home the bananas she was given for me.
And people wonder why I am "oook" selfconscious.
Thank you Bilbo for highlighting my traumatic capture, at least I had the small comfort of thinking she wanted me!
OMG it's a cycle! I can't get rid of my kids either!

fiona said...

Did the quiz...just as I suspected,Liberal

Anonymous said...

Print out the monkey story so I can pin it on the bulletin board at church. I think a few people will swear it's a parable from the Bible.