Perfect Game

Wall Street's "too big to fail" titans
Had a quarter so good that it frightens;
On the trading parquet,  
They made money each day -
Is it rigged? Incredulity heightens...

Happy Limerick Day!

The limerick started with Lear,
Who could tell us, if he were still here,
That the soul of good wit
Is to carefully fit
In five lines all one needs to make clear.  

Thanks to Edward Lear, born on this day in 1812, who first popularized the limerick form in his 1846 Book of Nonsense.

Dear Uncle Sam...

Fannie Mae wrote the Treasury a letter
For a bailout that's eight billion better;
Although Fannie and Fred
Were both presumed dead,
It turns out she's quite a bit debtor.

Post Mortem on the Dow's 1000-Point Drop

Said CFTC Chairman Gensler
To Geithner, "Are we among friends, sir?
(I'd like to say how
They whipsawed the Dow,
But I really don't think that I can, sir.)"

Diagnosing the Dow's Dizzy Drop

While coaxing the PIGS from the trough,
Some bankers developed a cough,
Which an I.T. snafu
Turned into swine flu,
And a feverish market sold off.

(Acronym alert: PIGS = Portugal, Italy/Ireland, GREECE and Spain)

Happiness is Just Around the Corner

An economist wanted to teach
What the prophets purported to preach:
With material gains,
Satisfaction remains
Elusively just out of reach.

Thanks to Real Time Economics, for illuminating the economics of happiness through the work of Prof. Richard Easterlin.

Questions, Fundamental & Technical

"Dad," asked the girl with a frown,  
"Why are bond prices up, and yields down?"
"In a bull market trend,  

One will likely expend  

More pence for that guaranteed Pound."    


"Mom," asked the boy with a frown,
"What makes equities hop up and down?"
"Earnings releases,  
And stock-picking theses  
With words from wise men of renown."

Great Financial Crises I: "The Trouble Stops Here"

Among Wall Street's Croesian bosses,  

J.P. Morgan stood tall as Colossus;

He laid down the law  

With the clench of his jaw,  

And the point of his purple proboscis.  


In the 1907 collapse,
Mr. Morgan saved Wall Street perhaps;
He commanded the banks
To pay up and close ranks
With a contract he dropped in their laps.


Before they created the Fed,
Mr. Morgan did not fear to tread;
With an effort titanic
He stemmed a bank panic:
"The trouble stops here," Morgan said.

Greek Debt Crisis, Explained

There are two indisputable facts
That toppled the Greeks on their backs:
Every third Greek today
Works for government pay,
And the rest are evading their tax.