‘Shall I jump out of the Window!’ - The Friar

Essential comic viewing from John Bird and John Fortune for understanding the sub prime crisis.

‘Damn…where’s my forklift?’ - The Friar

It’s the sort of question that would keep you up at night, ‘how many pallets would I need to transfer my $1 billion bucks down to the bank?’

Well….so long as you have it in crisp $100 dollar bills, the answer is 12!

So Barack Obama will need 9840 pallets for his economic stimulus package.

‘2008 will go down in history!’ - The Friar

It’s the year end, and if there is one thing that everybody will remember 2008 for, it will undoubtably be the Global Financial Crisis. And in memory of it we’ve found a ‘Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis’.

The guide walks us through how it all happened, starting from Alan Greenspan’s (of the Federal Reserve) not so inciteful quote, “ The notion of a bubble bursting and the whole price level coming down seems to me as far as a national nationwide phenomenon, is really quite unlikely”. Phew! Thanks Alan. And John Snow (Treasury Secretary) adding ‘ The idea that we’re going to see a collapse in the housing market seems to me improbable”, Phew, again! Thanks John.

The guide also has classic quotes, from Gary Watts (Orange County Association of Realtors) “It’s impossible for prices to go down this year” and Anthony Hsieh (CEO Lending Tree) “If you own your own home free and clear, people often refer to you as a fool. All that money sitting there, doing nothing.” and David Lereah (NAR’s chief economist) “Housing activity will remain healthy for some time to come” and Dale Akins (Market Edge) “The national media are reporting a housing bubble. Don’t believe it!” and Stan Sieron (President of Illinois Association of Realtors) “Housing is still the best investment, without question.” and Jeromith Sutton (NAR Investment) “I think investors will have a good reason to come out here and buy again.”

‘Watch This Space, Bernanke’ - The Friar

Recently, the Federal Reserve hasn’t been the most popular of institutions, hence it comes as no surprise that you can now get an Abolish The Fed T-Shirt easily online. I’m wondering if that the idea of wearing such a T-shirt is no longer the purvey of anti-capitalists and a little bit more mainstream. In saying that, I haven’t seen anyone wear one yet!