Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Crash

Do ye remember when wall street fell
And the substantial hanged by shoelace?
No demons reached the Earth from hell,
No horsemen rode through space,
But marble crumbled,
Jobs were lost
Runners stumbled
At the cost.
Brokers went broke
Insurers unsteady
Accountants told jokes
Before they were ready,
And the mighty did fall
The stoic did weep
The courageous grew small
And the fatuous deep.
But we all slept soundly even so
Throughout that week so infernal
For wealth might vividly come and go
But greed and folly endure bland and eternal.

OVERSTATEMENT, n. The narrator's ornamentation of the listener's indifference to the suffering of some third party, never himself exaggerated.

15 comments:

Mutha said...

Overstatement: Communication style of the dramatic, adolescent, and Fox News.

Anonymous said...

crash - The smashing of a hard head against a harder wall.

TLP said...

Overstatement: Where you cry...
over your financial statement.

Great poem today.

Anonymous said...

I remember a commentator (a business mogul interviewed on National Public Radio, I think) who said that two factors dictate the fate of finance: "greed" and "fear". I suppose he didn't include "folly" for fear that investors would think he said "fall" and panic the markets. In any case, his remarks should have put the final nail in the coffin of creationism. For surely, any intelligently designed brain could devise an economic system that would operate well on the basis of something more than any ape could manage. Hell, at this point, the gorillas and orangutans probably could do better with Wall Street than We are.

Anonymous said...

OVERSTATEMENT n.
Isn't that what the administration keeps making? "Don't worry, it's over" statements? [see also -- lie]

Jamie Dawn said...

Overstatement: The sky is falling!!

Jamie Dawn's Statement: Leave me and my money the heck alone. Get off my back and lower my taxes and quit adding more gov't programs and promises to the list.

Have a nice day.

Doug The Una said...

Mutha, you are the queen of nuance if you can perceive the difference between Fox and its competitors. Good to see you, though.

Poobah, see, for me that's the definition for "BREAKFAST."

Thanks, TLP. I laugh as an alternative.

Arriba, to me it just seems smart that the human economy be calibrated for apes.

Quilly, not recently.

JD, were I running it would be on your platform. Can you carry a treadmill?

tsduff said...

Your poem today is no overstatement. Well done Dog,

Ariel the Thief said...

It is a gift to be able to tell the real threat from the fake one.

Jim said...

After the crash so many poured overstatements galore!

Well, galore might be somewhat of an overstatement.

For sure putting an exclamation mark after the first line may be somewhat of an overstatement also.

So many overstatements are spoken of as being "somewhat of an overstatement."
..

Anonymous said...

overstatement of the value of cars to houses,which was embraced by so so many,who really knew better...now there is shock,i am at a loss...Peace

Anonymous said...

overstatement has been the theme for years,yet no one questioned zero down,below prime interest loans on vehicles--and walk away with a 2000 dollar rebate to boot.Nothing is free......Peace

Doug The Una said...

Thanks, Terry. Nicely understated.

Ariel, not a common gift either.

Haha, Jim. Aplenty would probably be truer.

Bear, I'm not at a loss yet, wait'll I try to unload the house, though.

Hobbes said...

Overstatement: Lehman Brothers balance sheets, until lately.

Anonymous said...

overstatement: The act by which..... *tears open envelope, looks at negative bank balance, takes deep breath, and while placing it in the paper shredder says "I'm so over that statement.