Monday, December 12, 2011

Jokes About the Fed, Central Banking, etc.

Since irony is the ultimate intellectual weapon, the Austro-libertarian bunch could certainly make use of more jokes about their favourite institution and the phenomena it gives rise to. Below are those very few I was able to find:

A waiter in a restaurant brings over a wine glass and fills it halfway up.
The optimist thinks the glass is half-full.
The pessimist thinks the glass is half-empty.
The Austrian economist thinks the restaurant industry has malinvested its capital into oversized glassware, probably because of the Fed.

I was at a pizza joint last night, and I noticed the man in line in front of me was none other than Ben Bernanke. Wow! Imagine that! The person behind the counter asked Ben if he wanted his pizza cut into 6 slices or 10. Ben said, “You better make it 10! I’m really hungry tonight!”

One beggar says to another:
“The Fed is propping up the economy with an infusion of cash.”
The other one replies:
“Looks like we’re gonna need bigger cups.”

Q: How many central bank economists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Just one - he holds the light bulb and the whole earth revolves around him.

Ludwig von Mises found consumer indifference “impossible to observe in practice.” It just bugged them too much that he was watching.

A Keynesian and an Austrian were stranded in a rising flood. They climbed upon the roof of the building and were getting very nervous as the swift waters kept on getting higher and higher.
As they were nearing the end, they looked in the distance and saw a local farmer passing in a small boat. The Austrian called out to the man, “Come help us and take us to safety!” The farmer replied, “My boat is full of personal valuables from my house – I have no room in the boat!” The Austrian said, “We are mere moments from death! I will pay you $1000 if you dump some of your belongings and pick us up!”
The farmer quickly motored over, threw some of his belongings into the rushing waters, and helped the Austrian get in. As he achieved his safety he turned back to the Keynesian and said, “Come brother, join me in the boat. $1000 is a small price to pay!” The Keynesian replied, “No thanks, I have faith that the government helicopter will be here in no time.” (by Jeffrey J. Hardy)

2 comments:

  1. Q: How many Austrian economists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

    A: You can’t make quantitative predictions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Q. Why did the Austrian rearrange his spice rack?

    A. Thyme preference.

    ReplyDelete