Joke for Finance FReepers

4/18/2003 | Me

[Thane_Banquo]

Two PhD's in financial economics are walking along a sidewalk.

One of them spots a $100 bill and excitedly exclaims, "Look at that! Someone left 100 dollars right here on the sidewalk."

The other, more learned financial economist replied, "No, there is no money."

Somewhat flustered, the first financial economist interjected, "Of course there is. See, right there. We are both looking at it. It is clearly a $100 dollar bill. See, right there it says, 'Federal Reserve Note,' and in the corner it reads, '100.'"

The second one calmly replies, "There is no $100 bill on the sidewalk. It can only be an illusion."

By now extremely frustrated, the first screams, "OF COURSE THERE IS! LOOK, IT'S RIGHT THERE! HOW CAN YOU SAY IT ISN'T RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR FACES?!"

The second financial economist, still quite calm, retorts, "Efficient Market Hypothesis: If there was free money lying around, someone would have picked it up already."

[w_over_w]

If you had bought $1000.00 worth of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $29.00. With Enron, you would have $6.50 of the original $1000.00. With WorldCom, you would have less than $4.00 left. If you had bought $1,000.00 worth of Budweiser (the Beer, not the stock) one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the 5-cent deposit, you would have $107.00. Based on the above, the current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

[longtermmemmory]

bump

[martin_fierro]

"Milton Friedman and Ludwig Von Mises walk into a bar..." <|:)~

[anthony634]

Thank you! I'm writng up a paper on an experiment concerning EMH . . .you don't mind if I use this joke to end?

[americafirst]

This reminds me of the Steve Martin routine where he tells a joke to a convention of plumbers. Only there are no plumbers, and they don't get the joke. I don't get the joke. Well, I understand it, but I don't get it. Not that anyone cares. Happy Good Friday.

[Thane_Banquo]

Sure. Not mine anyway. My investments professor told it to me.

[PaulJ]

Q. What's the difference between an economist and a befuddled old man with Alzheimer's?
A. The economist is the one with the calculator.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Works for me.

[groanup]

Two economists are stranded on a desert island with a can of beans. The problem: how to open the beans. After a long period of discussing various solutions one has an idea that is acceptable to both:

Assume a can-opener.

[IYAS9YAS]

Reminds me of an old Dilbert cartoon...Dilbert's taking courses to get his MBA. He's in an Economics class. The professor says something along the lines of.."the formulas I have written on the board will explain to you why I'm an expert in money matters but dress like a flood victim."

[longtermmemmory]

Didn't Ronald Reagan have an Ecconomics degree from Eureka College?

[Thane_Banquo]

Yep. Although economics has changed a lot since then. I'm guessing in his time Keynesian economics was the most popular theory. Not so today.

[Liz]

ping

[Lee_Atwater]

Concerning Reagan's undergraduate economics degree you said...

Yep. Although economics has changed a lot since then. I'm guessing in his time Keynesian economics was the most popular theory. Not so today.

I am of the understanding that classical economics was the prevailing theory during RWR's college days. He graduated from Eureka College right before the Keynsian revolution in academic economics.

This was probably a big reason why he was so receptive to the ideas of Drs. Mundell and Laffer.