Feature

What is financial crisis?

The Monkey Business
Once upon a time in a village in India, a man announced to the villagers the he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10, as the supply started to diminish the villagers stopped their efforts.

The man further announced that he would now buy at $20. 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 rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let along catch it! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, 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 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.”

The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere.

Welcome to Finance 101 Course.

(Contributed by Prof. Abdul Mannan, School of Business, ULAB, Dhaka)

Economist Jokes:

-- An econometrician is a trained professional paid to use computers to guess wrong about the economy.

-- Bentley's second Law of Economics: The only thing more dangerous than an economist is an amateur economist!

-- Berta's Fundamental Law of Economic Rents: "The only thing more dangerous than an amateur economist is a professional economist."

-- Three econometricians went out hunting, and came across a large deer. The first econometrician fired, but missed, by a meter to the left. The second econometrician fired, but also missed, by a meter to the right. The third econometrician didn't fire, but shouted in triumph, "We got it! We got it!"

-- Economics is the painful elaboration of the obvious.

-- An economist is someone who doesn't know what he's talking about - and makes you feel it's your fault.

-- A woman hears from her doctor that she has only half a year to live. The doctor advises her to marry an economist and to live in South Dakota. The woman asks: will this cure my illness? Answer of the doctor: No, but the half year will seem pretty long.

-- I asked an economist for her phone number.... and she gave me an estimate.

-- Economists have forecast 9 out of the last 5 recessions

-- An economist is someone who gets rich explaining others why they are poor.