The Homa Files

3 variants of a very old joke:

Original
A dazed guy is standing on a street corner snapping his fingers.  Curious guy approaches and asks “Hey dude, why are you snapping your fingers ?”  Dazed guy answers: “To keep away elephants”.  Curious guy says: “There aren’t any elephants around here.” Finger snapper says: “See.  It works.”

Current
A President is standing on a street corner spending like a drunken sailor.  Curious guy approaches and asks “Hey dude, why are you spending like a drunken sailor ?”  Free-spender answers: “To avert an economic depression”.  Curious guy says: “There’s no depression around here.”  President says: “See.  It works.”

Recent Past Version
A President is standing on a street corner ordering troops to Iraq.  Curious guy approaches and asks “Hey dude, why are you ordering troops to Iraq ?”  Troop-sender answers: “To avert another terrorist attack”.  Curious guy says: “There haven’t been any terrorist attacks since 9-11.”  President says: “See.  It works.”

Hmmm.

Why are only 2 of these counter-factuals considered far fetched by the media?

This entry was posted on October 12, 2010 at 6:46 am and is filed under Economics, Financial Crisis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.