Humor for finance/econ nerds 4-17-08

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Consumer Spending Mirage

"Like personal consumption expenditures, GDP also includes the government imputed value of "free" checking accounts and the value homeowners receive from renting their own house. Calculation of the latter is based on a survey of homeowners asking them what they would pay to rent their own house if they did not own it. This is as preposterous as counting the value of free sex one gets from one's lover as opposed to what one might have to pay visiting the local red light district. Heck, why not count the value added for mowing one's own grass vs. hiring someone to do it? What about free backrubs?"

FT Alphaville: Muppets on tour

"Whatever the message John Thain wanted to put out with his first quarter results, it didn’t involve muppets. Unfortunately someone in Merrill Lynch’s IT department - perhaps one of the 4,000 staffers facing the axe - thought the day Mr Thain announced a $1.97bn Q1 loss was the day to put the muppets on the front page of the company’s web site."

ibankcoin.com - flyblog: Inflation is Dead!

"It’s a fascinating thing with INTC. Lots of poor folk are without rice, due to high prices. Apparently, those same people are forgoing food, in order to stockpile INTC chips. That is very shrewd thinking on their behalf."

Until next time...words of wisdom:

“Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night”

- Dave Barry

(Source: thinkexist.com)