Suppose Will Shakespeare had opted to focus his writing on financial markets...

The Merchant of Venice might have discussed huge CEO compensation packages this way:

Their quantity of earnings is not strained.
A droppeth in their comp’ny’s stock, though brutal,
Toucheth not those above; comp here’s twice blessed;
It bloateth in good times and when sales tank;
It’s embedded for the embedded; it rewards
The throned execs better than a crown...

And Hamlet would likely have ruminated over whether to stay with stocks:

To buy or not to buy,
Now that’s a question;
Whether ‘tis smarter to think stocks are cheap
And risk losing what’s left of my paltry fortune,
Or flee from a market that could pop its bubble
And by so doing—go where?
Money markets? I’d better sleep,
But ‘lo in dreams my mind would see
Those piddling rates, stuck just a tad above inflation.
In such times confused,
‘Tis great consolation, that there’s a Wall Street muse.

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