Saturday, January 17, 2009

Timeline of Songs about the Economic Crisis (some humorous), from Williambanzai7

I recently discovered Williambanzai7 when I came across his comment to an article on the Seeking Alpha financial information website, "Madoff Hedge Fund: Wall Street's Biggest Ponzi Scheme Yet? " Sean Maher, Seeking Alpha 12/14/08

Williambanzai7's comment consisted of the lyrics to a song about the Bernie Madoff scandal, set to the tune of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. It gave me a chuckle, even though it is well past the holiday season. (Williambanzai7 often posts his lyrics as comments in response to on-line articles and blog-posts related to the current economic crisis.)

I checked out his blog, and discovered that most of his posts are lyrics dedicated to the "Great American Subprime Disaster". A few posts relate to the politics of our times. The songs are in lyrical form only. As far as I know, there is no audio.

Here is a solution- KARAOKE. Gather some friends and belt out the tunes while singing Williambanzai7's lyrics! (Your economic woes will disappear, at least for a while.)

SOME OF MY FAVORITES

September 2008
SUBPRIME BAILOUT PROTEST SONG (One, Two, Three What Are We Fighting For? -Joe McDonald)

I AM THE WAMU ("I am the Walrus" -the Beatles)
"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. See how they run like hedge fund bums from a gun, see how they fly. I'm crying."

STUCK IN A MORTGAGE WITH YOU (Stuck in the Middle- Stealer's Wheel)

October 2008

MONEY FOR NOTHING -Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (Money for Nothing - Dire Straits)

I like the following two songs, because you can sing AND dance to them:
LET'S DO THE SUBPRIME WARP AGAIN! (Let's Do the Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show)
BAILOUT THRILLER RETURNS (Thriller- Michael Jackson)

November 2008

THE AIG BALANCE SHEETS (The Adams Family)
BABY CAN YOU BAIL OUR CARS (Baby You Can Drive My Car - the Beatles)
WHERE HAVE ALL THE BAILOUT BUCKS GONE? (Where Have All the Flowers Gone- Pete Seeger)

December 2008
MADOFF, THE WALL STREET FAKER
(Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer)
HEDGE FUNDS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE
(Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
THE TWELVE WALL STREET DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
(The Twelve Days of Christmas)

January 2009

YOU'RE JOHN THAIN (You're so Vain - Carley Simon)
CITIGROUP BITES THE DUST (Another One Bites the Dust- Queen)


"Wall Street: The Musical", anyone?

(Think Mama Mia and Moulin Rouge.)


RELATED

Seeking Alpha
THE WILLIAMBANZAI7 BLOG: The Great American Subprime Disaster

4 comments:

williambanzai7 said...

Thanks for positive feedback on the lyrics. One of these days I will get a group together
to lay down a some utube tracks. If you are interested in Photography you might want to check out my photo space:http://www.flickr.com/photos/expd/

Cheers,

WilliamBanzai7/Colonel Flick

williambanzai7 said...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
January 28, 2009

KLAUS SCHWAB, FOUNDER OF WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNOUNCES SURPRISE PANEL

GLOBAL PONZINOMICS: THE VIEW FROM WALL STREET

The following are excerpts from today's surprise panel discussion:

KLAUS SCHWAB: Distinguished guests, today we have arranged a surprise panel to lead us through the cutting edge of Global Ponzinomics. As you all know, the modern day version of Ponzinomics has its origins on Wall Street. I know you are all keen to hear directly from the leaders of Wall Street as well as the regulators all of whom made this remarkable feat of financial wizardry possible. The organisers of the Forum have spared no expense in bringing you a first rate panel. I would like to thank the United States Marshall Service for its cooperation in making it possible for Mr. Madoff to attend the Forum. That is a custom designed Cartier bailout bracelet Bernie is wearing. It is designed to explode if he gets within 50 yards of any UBS Branch in Davos. Mr. Madoff requires no introduction. His genius and modesty is well known. We thought it would be appropriate for Bernie to lead today's panel discussion. At this time I would also like to thank Citigroup for providing special air transport services to bring the panel participants straight to Davos on such short notice. Without further delay, I turn the discussion over to Bernie.

BERNIE MADOFF: "I would like to express my sincere gratitude to many of the participants in this forum. Without their undying support for so many years, my achievements would not have been possible. They deserve much of the credit for making the modern paradigm of this fascinating art possible. As you all know, Ponzinomics were invented by Charles Ponzi some 100 years ago. Who would have thought that the genius of this humble man would become the driving force behind today's global financial markets. Dick, before I forget, would you please be good enough give me the number of that Real Estate lawyer in Palm Beach."

DICK FULD: "We thought we had all the bases covered. We were hedged up the wazoo. I was certain that we managed to make ourselves too big to fail. In the end I was wrong. I underestimated the financial tsunami of 2008. My big mistake was not finding a way to put a Lehman banker in the Treasury Department. Lloyd you snookered me on that one."

JOHN THAIN: "I would like to start by saying three things: First, I have posted my French Commode along with my resume on Craig's list and Monster.com, Second, Ken you can take that faux hand Grenade sitting on your desk and shove it you know where. As we shall see, BAC is one big live hand grenade and Ken has already pulled the pin, Third, can anyone tell me where I can find a reputable antique dealer in Davos? Oh, and one more thing, Stan O Neal owes me my bonus."

KEN LEWIS: "John, you and I both know that I'm the CEO of BAC and you are not. You did not jump on the bailout hand grenade like a good bailout soldier. For this you must suffer the consequences. If this is not good enough, I will meet you on the top of the Weissfluhgipfel at O-700 hours for a Chinese downhill. The downhill will decide everything."

HANK GREENBURG: "You are all a bunch of rascals, give me back my Company so I can lose it fairly!"

LLOYD BLANKFEIN: "As I have said on many occasions, the Goldman investment banking model remains sound. We concentrated our efforts on putting men of Gold in the halls of power. This has paid off handsomely. Hank Paulsen saved us from the AIG explosion. The primary purpose of TARP was to save Goldman Sachs and this goal was achieved magnificently. Hopefully, the hiccups we are experiencing will dissappear in due course. Then we can all get back to business as usual."

VIKRAM PANDIT: "In response to yesterday's negative press we have decided to divide the Citigroup jet fleet into two halves consisting of good jets and bad jets..."

JIMMIE CAYNE: "Anyone know where I can find a decent bridge game around here?"

PHIL GRAMM: "If we could just stop all the whining."

ALAN GREENSPAN: "Where am I"

CHRISTOPHER COX: "I just did what I was told to do."

VLAD PUTIN: Gentlemans, you are all cordially invited to spend a few days with my Dacha in Chita Sibera, following this Summit. We Russians would like to thank you (the Russian way) for the financial Chernobyl engineered by your kind selves.

Anonymous said...

There's another great song about no money in these economic times "If You Ain't Got The Money" by "Who Are Those Guys". The song has been used on CBS televisions "Without A Trace" . If you want to hear the tune for free go to their website at: www.whoarethoseguys.com, or you can find links to buy the song from there. Enjoy!!!!

REPLYTOHILLARYBLOG said...

There's another great song about no money in these economic times "If You Ain't Got The Money" by "Who Are Those Guys". The song has been used on CBS televisions "Without A Trace" . If you want to hear the tune for free go to their website at: www.whoarethoseguys.com, or you can find links to buy the song from there. Enjoy!!!!