The current financial crisis – Calvin & Hobbes Style

With an almost clairvoyance on how we got to the wonderful little situation that we are currently in, a 15 year old Calvin & Hobbes comic strip breaks today’s financial situation into its most basic form:

 

 

Courtesy of reddit.com, here is an alternative dialogue:

Calvin (to Susie): Look at this glass of lemonade. You’ll be able to sell it for 50 cents tomorrow, but I’ll sell it to you for 25 cents today.

Susie: I don’t have the money.

Calvin: That’s okay, I’ll loan you the money because you’ll be able to pay me back with some interest… say… 35 cents. The lemonade will surely be worth 50 cents tomorrow… You can even drink part of it and sell the rest and you’ll still be able to pay me back.

Susie: Well, I guess… you’ve been selling lemonade for so long, you should know

Calvin: Here ya go.

Random kids: wow, what an easy way to make dough… we’ll take some of your lemonade too on exactly those terms.

Random kid: If I can get another kid to loan me money against the value of this lemonade a week from now, I can invest it in lemons today and be a millionaire by the time the day is through. Who knew getting rich is so easy?

(meanwhile just in eyeshot)

Moe 1 to Moe 2: I bet Susie and those kids won’t be able to sell that lemonade tomorrow.

Moe 2: You’re on.

Calvin to Moe 2: Say Moe 2, I just sold a bunch of glasses of lemonade and will get paid at least 35 cents tomorrow after they sell part of it to pay me back, can I borrow some money to buy more lemons. I sure am glad lemonade’s a fungible commodity.

Moe 2: Sure, I’ll be making some dough when Susie and them won’t be able to pay you back, so I feel comfortable loaning you more money now.

Mom: Geez, look how much lemonade Calvin is selling… and if the Moes are still lending him money, it must be a good model. If I want to sell any lemonade I better do like he does or I’ll lose my market share.

(next day)

Susie: Gee, I drank only a sip of that lemonade, and now no one wants to buy it. I won’t be able to pay Calvin back all the way. at least I got a sip… I’ll pay him for that.

Calvin: Where’s my money?

Susie: I couldn’t sell your lemonade. But here’s 15 cents… it’s all I can pay.

Calvin: WHAT!?! But it’s so valuable… it’s worth at least 50 cents.

Susie: sorry, I know… I thought I would be able to make a fortune.

Calvin: Crap, me too. Well I’ll have to take back what’s left.

Susie: I don’t think anyone else will want it.

Moe 2 (to Calvin): Where’s my money?

Calvin: I don’t have it. Here’s some lemonade.

Moe 2: Don’t have it? day-old lemonade? yuck.

Moe 2 (to Moe 1): see he doesn’t have it, pay up.

Moe 1: I don’t have any money, I was betting with those other kids that they’d be able to sell their lemonade, that was the only way I’d be able to pay you.

Moe 2: no money?

Moe 1: no money?

Calvin: Well I’d have some if you let me borrow some more.

Moe 2, Moe 1 and Calvin fall into a dust storm of fighting… Calvin narrowly escapes the fray

Mom: Geez things are looking hairy out there. I sure loaned out a lot of lemonade… crap, I don’t think I’m ever getting paid back from those kids. and now they’ll all come whining to me about how they didn’t get money or lemonade… Maybe Calvin’s system isn’t working out so hot, but If he has to shut down his lemonade stand, nobody will have lemonade ever.

Mom (to Calvin): Here, Calvin… this is 2 dollars. Buy some lemons and sugar.

Susie: I lost all my lemonade too, and my quarter, now I can’t buy anything.

Mom (to Susie): Here Susie, this is 2 dollars, you should be able to plant a lemon tree with this, and you’ll have all the lemonade you want. You can help me with chores if you want more.

(Mom continues paying out to all the neighborhood kids and the bullies for the blunder she and Calvin made.)

Mom: What the hell am I gonna do with all this day-old lemonade?

Dad: Where’d all our friggin money go? and What’s with all this day-old lemonade. And why are you in the lemonade business to begin with?

Mom: What matters is that all the neighborhood kids have been made whole.

Dad: WTF, sweetie… made whole. They bought lemonade for free and then treated it as if it was worth a fortune and created an intricate web of bets and loans and ran the neighborhood economy into the ground.. and your answer is to dole out the cash?

Mom: Well, we have to keep them occupied somehow or else they’ll be in their houses bugging their parents and breaking things.

Dad: Well I guess you’re right. We can’t just do nothing

Calvin: MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY!

Hobbes: Maybe you should try to just.. you know.. sell lemonade.

Calvin: But how am I supposed to make money doing that? I’m gonna sit on this wad of cash until Mom gets out of my hair, and then take Susie for all she has.

 

Brodie

VP Admin