"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

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About Silverstein's Verse

 

Ode To Cheap Labor

It used to be so easy
To increase our money flow
We’d move a plant from Tennessee to Northern Mexico
And if that wasn’t good enough
We could always cut costs finer
By finding a relocation site in far-off mainland China.

But then our chief competitor
Devised a slicker plan
He moved soft goods production to a site in Pakistan
When even that change didn’t
With his profit planning mesh
He tapped the child labor pool in nearby Bangladesh.

The nice guy time was over
We now got really mad
And got in touch with folks we knew who called the shots in Chad
They guaranteed their workers
Would never ask for perks
The deal came with bosses who were former Belgium mercs.

We now believed our overhead
Was just too low to beat
‘Cause even the world’s poorest, have sometimes got to eat
We thought below Chad’s wages
You’d have to be a slaver
Alas, we had forgotten ‘bout Andean prison labor.

We are but simple merchants
We merely seek to thrive
And sell our wares in upscale shops that line Rodeo Drive
But unfair competition
May cause us soon to perish
And fire our remaining staff—whose work we dearly cherish.

*********

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