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With your minimum payments,
We'll be one of the claimants
Attending your last will and testament.

Weather Advisory

Today's limerick has been postponed due to inclement weather.

Overheard at Goldman Sachs

"We assume that you know what you're doing,
In this ill-advised trade you're pursuing,
But the opposite bet
That we place on your debt
May eventually hasten your ruin."

Overheard in Quebec

"It's a comfort, whenever I'm sick,
Zat our système, while not magnifique, 
Is financially sound, 
Unlike zat to be found 
In l'États-Unis d'Amérique."

Misbegotten Monetary Union

At the hour of the Euro's creation,
To belong was the yen of each nation,
But to meet its constraints,
Some resorted to feints
Of financially flawed derivation.

Who Rates the Raters?

"Credit ratings I don't understand,"
Said a moody young man from Jharkhand,
"Their standards are poor,
And conflicted, I'm sure -
And the outcome seems canned, if not planned."

Analytical, or Just Political?

That the macro-political element
'S where economists' work is most relevant,
May explain their proclivity
To drop objectivity
And run with the Donkey or Elephant.

(In answer to Sam Costanzo's lament.)

Good News and Bad News

American spirits were buoyed
When the Feds announced fewer unemployed,
But those factory jobs
Sought by uneasy mobs
May have vanished right into the void.

Snow Day at the Fed

'Mid the snowbanks, as Washington slumbered,
Stood Bernanke, by duty encumbered:
"When this credit freeze thaws, 
I'll hike rates, because 
If inflation's back, my days are numbered."

Thanks to Dorothy Lefkovits of San Francisco, CA for the suggestion of snow in DC.

Equestrian Tactics

Greek Finance Minister Papaconstantinou
Says: "The EU did not know what WE knew;
Our deft fiscal ploy
Is as ancient as Troy,
Or at least not in every DEGREE new."

Whose Dollar Is It Anyway?

The august Reserve Bank of Australia
Was to tighten their rates without failure,
When Beijing countered nimbly:
"You're tied to Renminbi -
Your policy tools won't avail ya."

CIT's new CEO

Ex-Merrill head honcho John Thain
Wants a life that is simple and plain:
"At the new CIT,
Meta-physic-ally,
I'm trading in Wall Street for Main."

Super Bawl

Said Hank Paulson, with trembling knees,
"Lehman's crisis blew in with the Brees
From the blue like a bolt -
Though I'm no Saint nor Colt,
'Twas un-Manning how credit might freeze."

Eagle and Panda: a Love Duet

"I can't do without your low prices." 
"Of your bonds I've cut extra-large slices." 
"It's wrong, we both know, 
But together we'll go 
Through our sub-prime trade imbalance crisis."

The New American Dream

The Smiths, of 212 Willow Lane,
Thought their mortgage a terrible strain;
They defaulted and then
Moved next door to 210,
Where they rent, and are solvent a-gain.

(Thanks to Mark Whitehouse of the Wall St. Journal)

Crunch Time in Kiev

When Ukraine, with a dread that was sickening,
Awoke to find bankruptcy beckoning,
They tried to postpone
With an IMF loan
Their day of Malthusian reckoning.

The Next Crack-Up

In Greece, Europeans suspect,
May occur the next financial wreck,
And each treasury bureau
Fears the hard-boiled Euro
May become a soufflé à la grecque.

A Mysterious Shiny Object

In forecasting iPad demand,
An analyst became quite unmanned;
"It's no use," he cried,
"I just can't decide:
What IS this cool thing in my hand?"