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Old 07-16-2009, 10:02 AM
 
Location: Oxygen Ln. AZ
9,319 posts, read 18,752,843 times
Reputation: 5764

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This is a good example of ... how we got into our current economical mess ::>


Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit . She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar.
To solve this problem, she comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.
She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar.
Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit .

By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages.
Consequently, Heidi's gross sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit.
He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS.
These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets.
Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics.
Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar.
He so informs Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.
Since, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%.
The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.

The suppliers of Heidi's bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the various BOND securities.
They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.
Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations.
Her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the Government.

The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers.

Now, we hope, you understand?




Author unknown, from an email.
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Old 07-16-2009, 10:04 AM
 
35,016 posts, read 39,168,101 times
Reputation: 6195
it's interesting to see all the places this email is reprinted. From alt.dreams.castaneda to, well, naturally, freerepublic....arkansasgopwing to lotterypost to spacecoastprogressivealliance.

that's an excellent explanation though
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Old 07-16-2009, 10:06 AM
 
19,226 posts, read 15,328,875 times
Reputation: 2337
Excellent post.
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Old 07-16-2009, 10:11 AM
 
35,016 posts, read 39,168,101 times
Reputation: 6195
except at the end it takes a wrong turn: "the banks and brokerage houses bailed out...." in other words, the brakes were applied.

otherwise it's great.
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Old 07-16-2009, 10:14 AM
 
769 posts, read 888,012 times
Reputation: 199
It seems to be missing something. There should be a AA (alcoholics advocacy) group that tells the bank to lend Heidi more more so more alcoholics can drink because they need booze, and AA guarantees all the loans.
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Old 07-16-2009, 10:32 AM
 
35,016 posts, read 39,168,101 times
Reputation: 6195
Quote:
Originally Posted by WalterK View Post
It seems to be missing something. There should be a AA (alcoholics advocacy) group that tells the bank to lend Heidi more more so more alcoholics can drink because they need booze, and AA guarantees all the loans.
lol... it's a disability, an affliction, so Health and Human Services agrees to assume the loans from AA (and pay AA for having done the legwork) because it's cheaper than treating all those alcoholics.
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