Grimm's Tales of Grim Times

Wall Street bankers remind me of a particular fairy tale.

This couple live a meager existence until the husband saves the life of an elf and is granted a wish. He wishes he and his wife could be an Earl and Countess so they would have status and money. It's all good until the wife tells her husband he should have wished they would become King and Queen since he could have wished for anything.

The husband finds the elf and asks to change the wish. It's granted and they become powerful and wealthy. That is, until the wife decides that Emperors and Empresses have even more power and money and asks her husband to find the elf and change the wish again.

The husband does it and now they are rulers of the far and wide and mega-wealthy. But, the wife figures out that even the Emperor and Empress have to listen to the Pope, so she asks her husband to change the wish again.

The husband finds the elf and asks to upgrade the wish to Pope (for his wife). To his surprise, the elf complies. The wife is now Pope and has power to dictate to millions of people. Financial tributes pour into her. But it's not satisfactory when she finally realizes that even the Pope has to submit to God.

So she asks her husband to ask the elf to make her God. They argue about it until he's worn down. He finds the elf and makes the request.

When the husband returns home, he finds they are back in the meager circumstances in which they started off. All the other wishes have become null and void.

The endless quest for more money, higher successes, and faster profits finally did in the economy. Yet, fairy tales seem to mete out more justice than does real life. In real life the leaders of our world wide economic Ponzi scheme are still earning large salaries, getting bailed out of their troubles, and giving themselves bonuses. What's the answer to this?

In the next blog entry, I'll tell you about two completely opposing views on how these economic ills can be fixed.