Bovonomics

Some humour - cows and the economy.
Published on March 2, 2009

SOCIALISM

You have 2 cows.


You give one to your neighbour.

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.

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 analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON 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 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.

SUB-PRIME MARKETS

You have two cows. One is sick.


You package the cows as a milk producing security with guaranteed returns and low risk. You sell it to hedge funds, pension funds and mom and pop investors. They enjoy the income of milk and you enjoy the money they paid for your cows. The sick cow dies. Institutions ask questions about why your security is producing less milk and they discover the cow is dead. They can’t sell the security because no one wants a diseased cow carcass and everyone suspects the other cow might die too. They can’t borrow money to buy anything else because their asset base has reduced due to the death of one cow and the decline in market value of the other. This has reduced their liquidity and credit rating. The government pledges $750 billion of tax payer money to buy back securities for dead and diseased cows.


You don’t care; they’re not your cows.

FRENCH CORPORATION

You have two cows.


You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

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.

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.

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 **** out of you and invade your country.


You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of Democracy….

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