"Nowadays, you can't turn on the TV without some talking head telling you about the economy. Yet, in a world overrun by 'analysts,' only one man has the guts, the brains, and, quite frankly, the poetry to put it all in perspective.That man is Michael Silverstein... Silverstein is a true intellectual." — Gersh Kuntzman, The New York Post

"Few people have found much to laugh about in the stock market this year. Michael Silverstein is the exception. The Bard of the Bourse can find humor in losing money, globalization and stock options." — USA Today

More Of What The Critics Are Saying
About Silverstein's Verse

 

The Magic Circle

As federal deficits grow and grow,
And build like dental plaque,
Some say: "We can’t finance tax cuts,
Afford war in Iraq.
Such games have nasty endings,
They lead to default’s door,
We’ll reach the debtor’s limits,
And then we’ll all be poor."

But thankfully another source
Sustains us with its cash.
We’ve stumbled on a cunning way
To fund our debtor bash.
We’ve tapped into a bottomless
And self-renewing hoard;
I speak, of course, of all those funds
Now coming from abroad.

What makes these inflows possible?
Our mall-based spending spree!
With Washington’s prolific ways
Consumers here agree.
The more imported goods we buy
The more dollars go offshore,
Until coffers of goods sellers
Simply can not hold no more.

For want of better parking place
This money then flows back
Into U.S. treasuries replacing
Revenues we lack.
It’s a kind of magic circle,
A perpetual machine,
Endless wants of shoppers subsidize
A vast cash-strapped regime.

Thus the shop-until-you-dropper
Is our real patriot,
Sans this hero’s great consumption
Our whole government would stop.
If this circle stays unbroken
Everything for us is cool,
We can overspend forever
And live off a bigger fool.

*********

Poem of the Week

Past Satirical Verse

Books by
Michael Silverstein

Guest Poems

Wall Street Poet Blog

Financial Essays

Reviews of Silverstein's
Financial Verse

About the Poet

Contact

back to top