Analogies

[EternalOptimist]

Sometimes things get so complex that a good old analogy is required. I want to understand sub prime, derivatives, credit swap insurance, banks folding and iceland all in one little analogy.

then its off to wetherspoons for a dodgy pint

[DimPrawn]

Imagine you had a magic box, where you push a tenner in one end and a fifty comes out the other. No one understands how it works, it just does.

Well all the bankers have been busy stuffing money through the magic boxes and lending it to anyone with a pulse. And the interest paid back has been stuffed through the box and lent out again, over and over.

Suddenly, someone says "what if the money coming out wasn't real, we just thought it was fifty pound note?".

And just like that, all the fifties that have been pouring out of the magic box turned out to be fivers.


That how I like to think it all worked.

[Bagpuss]

I prefer to use the simile

As bust as a Banker

[snaw]

Have you learned nothing from the insightful and relevant commentary AtW has been graciously bestowing on us for the last several months?

[BlasterBates]

Basically you give me £5 I promise to give you £7 in one year, I then give the £7 to someone else who then promises to give me £9, and so on. We all book bonuses and cash them in. In a year's time someone who's trying to get £1000000000000 from £9999999998 defaults.

[Bagpuss]

Basically you give me £5 I promise to give you £7 in one year, I then give the £7 to someone else who then promises to give me £9, and so on. We all book bonuses and cash them in. In a year's time someone who's trying to get £1000000000000 from £9999999998 defaults.

You just described a pyramid scheme!

[Churchill]

I prefer the analogy...

"Bankers are all bullsh!tting barrow boys who have now been found out!"

The emperor wasn't wearing any clothes!

[Bagpuss]

The emperor wasn't wearing any clothes!

That's Metaphor (I think)

[Churchill]

That's Metaphor (I think)

The analogy was the line of text in quotes.

Aye Thenk Yew!

[PRC1964]

The credit crisis as Antarctic expedition:

http://lifehacker.com/5066440/credit...tic-expedition

I got bored though and didn't watch to the end.

If any of you make it that far, could you let me know if it has a happy ending?