Suppose you could have a conversation with President Bush about the state of the market and the economy generally. How might it go? The following poem seeks to answer this intriguing question.
The President And I
Discuss The Market—A Poem
"This market, Mr. President, is driving me to tears."
"Stay calm," our leader said to me, "there’s no cause here for fears."
"Good sir," I cried, "my worth has shrunk, I’ve tapped my last reserve."
He smiled reassuringly: "The strong don’t lose their nerve."
I pointed to gold buying as a classic sign of panic,
And worries about oil that are making some folks manic.
The U.S. dollar’s sinking and there’s growing unemployment,
This ain’t the economics that brings people much enjoyment.
And then I asked him (shyly) could war worries be the cause
Of the market’s downward spiral and the rush to exit doors?
Could the upcoming invasion of Saddam and his Iraq,
Explain the Dow’s predicament, the dive of the Nasdaq?
"My boy," the Chief Exec replied, "these worries are misplaced;
Your losses in a few weeks time will quickly be erased.
We’ll trounce the boys in Baghdad and depose them in a flash,
And then investors like yourself will reap a flood of cash.
"There will not be an oil shock, the dollar will recover,
The nations that now think we’re nuts, our wisdom will discover.
Consumers freed from terror’s angst will shop like mad again,
And tax cuts I’m proposing will make stocks a gravy train."
Our top man I felt sure was not deliberately deceiving,
Alas, his thoughts about the market don’t have me believing.
I see a rocky road ahead, a road that’s hard and long—
Let’s hope that Mr. Bush is right and folks like me dead wrong.
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