British Economic Comedy: John Bird and John Fortune's Routines about the Economic Crisis

John Bird and John Fortune are a British satirical team that participated in a four-part mini series in November 2008, called Silly Money. Their humorous sketches reflect truths about the ongoing economic crisis. Enjoy!

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Part 1 of 3


Part 2 of 3 (Discusses correlation concept, behavioral finance, quants)


Part 3 of 3



(Note: Some parts off the discussion might be offensive.)

Some quotes from the clips:
"You have to remember two things about the markets. One is that they are made up of very sharp and sophisticated people who are the greatest brains in the world. The second thing, the markets are, to use a common phrase, are driven by sentiment".

The two go one to explain the dynamics of sentiment on the market, the relationship between dodgy debt packages and structured investment vehicles, and so on, how this relates to hedge funds with fancy names.

"Somehow this package of dodgy debts stops being a package of dodgy debts and starts being called a "structured investment vehicle".

"Shouldn't you have seen this coming?"

"Well, we didn't exactly foresee it, in the strict sense of the word."

"Or in any sense of the word."

"Yes, but when it happened, we DID notice it, which is almost as good, isn't it?"

"It's not us that will suffer, it is your pension fund".

Related:
Silly Money Part 1 (48 minutes)
It's all down to incontinent grandfathers The Guardian, Thursday October 23, 2008
(Video clip and transcript of a Bird and Fortune routine about the economy.)

Laughs for the credit crunch days

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

Economists and Garbage - Link to article by Steven D. Levitt (Freakonomics)

Steven D. Levitt is the author of the opinion blog in the New York Times, Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything. He is known for his unusual sense of "humor" as well as pushing the limits from time-to-time. Levitt's recent post, "What Do Economists Have in Common with Garbage?" asks readers to respond to this question.

(Editor B's photo of garbage)

"And to compare economists to garbage, well that obviously means that I think all economists are garbage, including myself. " -Steven D. Levitt

For a humorous spin on the current economic crisis, read the the comments to Levitt's post.

Note: I do not intend to mock economists. I'm sharing these quotes because they fit the theme of the title of this blog.

Here are a few quotes:

"Both produce a Gross Domestic Product." -George

"Garbage creates micro-parasites. Economists create macro-parasites. Unchecked, both lead to epidemic catastrophes." -jbharshaw

"You don’t really notice them until things start to stink."— Cara

"Each one points to a stinky 2009." - Mitch

"You can learn a lot from both, if you take the time to look." -Chad Bergeron


RELATED
If you are a bit tired of economic doom and gloom, take a look one of my earlier blog posts with links to economic jokes and quotes.

Update: Also see my post with links to Williambanzai7's humorous lyrics about the economic crisis, set to tunes of popular songs - "Time-line of Songs about the Economic Crisis (some humorous).

Collaborative Interactive Multimedia Economic Timeline

I recently posted a ton of information related to our current economic crisis. but as I scrolled through it, it was clear to me that the blog format simply didn't do the topic justice. It occurred to me that an interactive timeline might be more effective, especially if it was created as a collaboration of people from a variety of disciplines.

Initially, I wanted to create something dynamic, in near-real time, but with my busy life, that would be an impossible feat. So I'm throwing this idea out there for people to think about. I'm searching for examples of interactive time lines, especially those that have a wiki component.

Here are a few examples I found since my long post:

• Editorial cartoons- Robert Ariail' response to a statement uttered by one of our nation's politicians, from the State newspaper, graphically depicts what was going on September 17, 2008: The Fundamentals are Sound

Note: This was taken from Robert Ariail's pages on The State website, and was created by Robert Ariail. I posted here for educational purposes and will taken down upon request.

• Jokes -The JokEc website is dedicated to jokes about the economy, would brighten up the interactive time-line experience. The website is a bit dated, as it was started in 1994. "On the One Hand" is a book full of jokes related to economists, written by economic futurist Jeff Thredgold, CSP.
  

• Quotes about economics from wise people throughout the ages would add an interesting dimension to the time-line.

Jokes and quotes could be incorporated into the time-line as spoken word. Maybe famous actors could do the voice-overs!

There is a rap song about the Economist magazine, written by lyricist Ike Edgerton, a high school student. You can listen to a June 01, 2008 interview with Ike on NPR.

Economic data visualizations would be an asset to the timeline, especially if they were interactive and allowed people to play around with various scenarios. The Visualizing Economics website is devoted to representing economic variables from a historical perspective. Catherine Mulbrandon is the person behind this site.

Here is a quote from her website:

"I believe design can contribute to public debates by creating information-rich, easy-to-understand graphics revealing the meaning of data without hiding its complexity. While the Internet allows even greater access to economic data than ever before, much of it is hidden in databases, spreadsheets and academic papers. At the same time, the discussion of economics in the media can be confusing and contradictory. Often numbers are quoted out of context, while political agendas distort the presentation of economic data. The goal of this site is to help people who are interested in the subject of economics (but are not experts) to understand and participate in public discussions about economics through data visualizations."