Monkey Business

The best medicine for distress is levity.


My buddy Kenny K, the sage from my youth in the Bronx, sent this out.......

"I don't know about you, but I am confused about all this talk on the economic crisis. In fact, I confess that as a simple man do not understand the stock market and this so called "buy out" or "rescue" or whatever plan. Interestingly, I have found an explanation that puts the stock market into perspective for those of us that are having trouble understanding..."

Once upon a time, a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.  The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out into the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands of monkeys at $10 each and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so small that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now purchase them on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected.

I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50 each." The villagers rounded up all of their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then, they never saw the man, nor his assistant again -- only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.