The Wall Street Poet's newest book, Street Verse, is now available. This 132-page, cunningly illustrated work can be ordered by phone from Diane Publications at (800)782-3833.

Someone Got The 2007 Market Right: A Poet!

At the start of 2007 almost every Wall Street economist and most other high profile economic commentators were predicting another banner year for the stock market. One person thought otherwise, and this visionary voice in the prognosticating wilderness got it right in rhyme! He's the Wall Street Poet: Michael Silverstein

In poems with titles such as  "The Great Stock Market Plunge," "Father Dollar," "The Last One Out the Door," "Bernanke At The Bat," "Stagflation Redux," "The Problem With Economists," and "Irrational Exuberance Anew" Silverstein described with great presicence what was going to happen with markets this year. In other poems such as "The Crude Brood," "Debt Rictus," and "Overpay – A Real Estate Poem," he predicted in rhyming fashion the reasons things would turn out as they have. In still other works such as "No Pain At The Top," "Three Job Mama," and "The Screw Deal" he shone a poetic light on appalling market inequities. Poignant rhymes like "Cash, Cash, Wonderful Cash," meanwhile, directed wise investors to safe havens.

Silverstein even occasionally went beyond Wall Street to skewer sacred cows in the media and inside the Beltway with poems such as "The NPR Begging Chant,"  and "The Faithful Old Retainer (A Dick Cheney Poem)

A former senior editor with Bloomberg Financial News, Silverstein combines long years of market experience with something even more valuable – common sense. To this mix he adds a unique ability to put it all into satirical verse.

Wall Street Poet
Michael Silverstein's
Satirical Verse

(Click a link to see a poem.)

Frightened Little Men
Return Of The Liberal?
No More Here From There
(A Small Town Resident's Complaint)
In Praise Of Gas Taxes
The Inheritance
The Numbers Fudging Poem
Uncle Sam
The Garbage Man
Policy Limericks 1968 and 2008
Driven To The Brink
Of Public Transportation
Enter The Vulture
A Wall Streeter Explains The Way Markets Were Run Up Until The Bottom Fell Out—And the Consequences That Followed
Shopped Then Dropped
George Bush Endorses John McCain
My Joe Lieberman Nightmare
Food: The New Luxury Item
Election (Under)Coverage
American Peon
Personal Data
Uncle Sam’s Money Tree
Needed: Hugger-in-Chief
The Federal Budget Poem
An Option Withers
Like A Rose
The Dems Will Drive You Bats
America’s Workers
Become More Productive
Wall Street
The Coalition Of The Shrinking
The Shaven
Stagflation Redux?
Pain At The Bottom,
Cream At The Top
Father Dollar
The Right Payroll Priorities
Cash, Cash, Wonderful Cash
A Credit Score Heavy To His Love
Debt Rictus
(A heroic debtor’s last hurrah)
moveon, speaksout, demslose
A Hecka Of A Trifecta
The Great Stock Plunge
The Hillary Poem
A NOTA Limerick
August in Baghdad
The Last One Out The Door
Bush & Cheney Impeachment Poem
Bloomberg For President?
Bernanke At The Bat
Stopping By Polls On Election Evening
(With apologies to Robert Frost)
"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, updated
The M&A Name Game
The Measure Of George Bush
Putting Limits On CEO Pay
A Tip For Republicans In Congress
Sporing Time For Neocons
The Frat Boy's Legacy
George Bush's Six Years In Baghdad
Guns, Butter, Penury
George & Hugo
My TV Week In
The Bleary Eyed
The Cluelessdoof Song
Bernie For President
A Republican’s Plea To The New
Democratic Majority In Congress
Home On The CEO’s Range
New Year’s Limericks
American Shopper
A James Baker Lament
Predictions for 2007
(and beyond)
Will Shakespeare focusing
on financial markets
Mr. Nobody Meets With
Mr. No One In Amman
The Coming Stock
Market Bubble Burst
Iraq Blaming
A Black Friday Sonnet
Big Tent Dems
Longer Term Oil Fears
Gay Marriage Poem
Diebold!
World Reality, Market Dreams
Nation Building Game
October Surprise
A Limerick Look At The Stock Market
Torture Now?
A Public Service Clan
A Passionate Congressman To His Constituents
Oh Pluto, My Pluto
Wal-martyred
The Week In Limericks
Sumertime TV
The Rich Have Suffered Long Enough
Condi Goes Forth To Save Lebanon
A Bummer Summer
She Comes To Work At
Dawn’s First Light
Identity Theft
The Higher Rates Poem
Haiku For The Financially Perplexed
America’s Workers Become
More Productive
Bush and Blair Confer About Iraq
Markets And Governments
The NPR Begging Chant
Convictus
The Wonderful Cash Poem
American Politics (In 12 Words)
Commentaries—in verse
How Not To Play The Gold Market
K Street
The Tax-Free Nation Poem
Lacking The Knack In Iraq
Mother’s Milk (The K Street Poem)
The Iraq Contractor Poem
The Eavesdrop Without A Warrant Poem
You’re Never Too Old To Go Back To Work
A Model Central Banker
incumbency
Credit Card Poem
King George
Debt, Debt, Debt, Debt
Corporate Warriors
Credit Cards May Soon Make You Frown
The GM Poem
A Merchant’s Black Friday Carol
My Record Trade Gap Dream
The Bush Economic Legacy
Energy’s Silver Lining
Supreme Court Angst
Wall Street
The Values Poem
Pity The Poor Health Insurer
Iraq: A Shareholder’s Queries
The Buck Stops Somewhere Else
The Oil Sag
Naming The New Politics
Global Economics
Yahoo Nation!
Captain Pork
Bush And Clinton, Bush And Clinton, Bush...
The Reformed Financial Felon Poem
Financial Tanka
The Ten Beltway Commandments
The Sweet Crude Polka
Mary’s Simple Credit Plan
Man, God, And Trickle Down Health Costs
Cheaper At The Core
Squeeze
Inscrutable Trade Policies
The Debt Song of The Potomac
The Battle Hymn Of The Bond Trader
The VAT Song
The Too Big To Fail Poem
A Wall Street Love Poem
Offshore Tax Shelters
New Limericks
When oil prices start to spiral
Airline Pillow Talk
The New Debtors’ Song
The Personal Privacy Poem
The Spitzer Blitz
Medicare Drug Poem
Dollar Dissing In Davos
The Screw Deal
The Market Reality Show
An Elegy For Airlines
The Baggage Build Up Poem
Overpay
O Euro, My Euro!
A Selfish Oil Investor’s Poem
The Payback Poem
The Great Gold Sell Out
The State Of The Economy Poem
The Presidential Visit Poem
The Saving Social Security Poem
The New IRS Helper Poem
The Food Bank Poem
The Traction Poem
Adversion
An Investor’s Politically Incorrect Truth
The Credit Card Poem
Government Funded Drug Ad Poem
The United Airlines’
Get-Out-Of-Debt-Free Poem
Experts Predict An Economic Boom (That Wasn’t)
A Crude Brood
The Problem With Economists
The Magic Circle
In Praise of Small Favors From Sam
Welcome Back, Little Guy
(A Bigger Fool Poem)
There’s No Place Like Home
Then And Now (A Poem Of Diminished Market Expectations)
An Elegy For Airlines
Shall I Declare Thee - in the style of Shakespeare
The President And I Discuss The Market—A Poem
Market Meltdown Fears—The Poem
Dead In The Water
Good Times A’Coming
The Gold Question
Market Nursery Rhymes
The Pension Fund Fandango
A Black Friday Sonnet
Ode To Cheap Labor
Ready Cash - in the style of Rudyard Kipling
The Fed’s At The Spigot - in biblical-style
Analysts, Spare My Stock - in the style of George Pope Morris
If Oil Prices Start to Spiral - in the style of Oliver Goldsmith
Race To The Bottom (Dollar, Euro, Yen)
Jubilee! - in the style of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Wall Street tidbits - in the style of Shakespeare
A 2002 Financial Calendar in Verse
Written In September - in the style of William Wordsworth
A Puzzlement
Broke, Broke, Broke - in the style of Alfred Lord Tennyson
Haikus
Time And Gain - in the style of Andrew Marvell
The Dreaded Double Dip
The Masters Of The Game & On Bankruptcy
The Meltdown Blues- in the style of Alfred Noyes
The Dead Dog Bounce
The ‘90’s Market Hero - in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan
Who Do You Trust?- in the style of Ogden Nash
Smitten At a Hamptons Lawn Party
I Don’t Despair When Stocks Go Bust- in the style of Alfred Lord Tennyson
When I Was A Grad - in the style of Gilbert & Sullivan
Stock Fever - in the style of John Masefield
I Have Seen Great Companies’ Fortunes Sunk - in the style of William Shakespeare
Casadebonkers - in the style of Felicia Dorothea Hemans
The Tight Market Leveler - in the style of James Shirley
Nasdaq Off The Mat - in the style of Ernest Lawrence Thayer
Ode To Penny Stocks- in the style of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
On The Reef Of Enron’s Woes- in the style of Carman Bliss
The Ballad Of A Now Defunct Enron - in the style of Lawrence Durrell
Congress, Cut My Tax! - in the style of John Pope Morris
Down Where Day Traders Play - in the style of Arthur Chapman
The Battle-Hymn of The Stock Trader - in the style of Julia Ward Howe
The Auditors’ Song - in the style of "The Tarrier’s Song"
A Friend To Sam - in the style of Sam Walter Foss
Investus - in the style of William Ernest Henley
Those Old Golden Ducats- in the style of Samuel Woodworth
There’s No Place Like Home - in the style of John Howard Payne
I Remember, I Remember - in the style of Thomas Hood.
For Every Market Strategy There’s A Season - in the style of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Financial Nursery Rhymes
Alan Greenspan - in the style of Edwin Arlington Robinson
Boom and Bust - in the style of Charles Kingsley
To A Venture Capitalist Who Got Out Too Late - in the style of A.E. Housman
Irwin Kahn - in the style of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Home Alone - in the style of Alexander Pope
Profit From Chaos - in the style of Robert Herrick
More Wall Street Poet Limmericks
September 1, 2001 - in the style of William H. Auden
Original "Currency" Limmericks
What I Most Dread, Dear Client - in the style of Christina Rossetti
Before The Opening Gong - in the style of Algernon Charles Swinburne
Alka-Seltzer - in the style of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Keeping The Faith - in the style of William Cowper
Smitten At a Hamptons, L.I. Lawn Party - in the style of John Clare
World Recession Fears - in the style of Alfred Noyes
The Plight Of The Charge Brigade - in the style of Alfred Lord Tennyson
Wall Street Poet Haikus
If I Could Keep One Client Happy - in the style of Emily Dickinson
The Ten Market Commandments - in the style of Sir Arthur Hugh Clough
The Analysts’ Song - in the style of "The Tarrier’s Song"
Honey, I’m Off To The Futures Pits - in the style of Richard Lovelace
Myron Ben Byron - in the style of Leigh Hunt
Say Not Your Gold Fund - in the style of Sir Arthur Hugh Clough
Don’t Buck The Fed - in the style of Lord Byron
"Fed" and "Mob" - in the style of Carl Sandburg
Song to the Poor Tax Payer - in the style of Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Why Do Investors Ignore Inflation" and "Say Not Your Gold Fund" - in the style of Carl Sandburg and Arthur Hugh Clough
"Nashing The Chairman, A Millay Market (Burned At Both Ends)"and "On Lambs Following A Shepherd Down A Hole" - in the style of Ogden Nash, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Sarah Josepha Hale
Faded Financial Cherry Blossoms - a Haiku
Composed When the Nasdaq First Hit 5,000
(March 7, 2000)
-
In the style of William Wordsworth
Greed and Fear - In the style of Robert Frost
Hedging Our Bet on a Risky Merger - In the style of Robert Frost
"Where Went My Money?" and "Market Preferences" - In the style of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Arlo Guthrie
The Next Recession - In the style of William Butler Yeats
The Guru Men - In the style of T.S. Eliot
Torpedoed - Edna St. Vincent Millay
Do Not Just Grumble ‘Bout The Market’s Plight - In the style of Dylan Thomas
FASB, Change No Regs! - In the style of George Pope Morris
Where Went The Nasdaq? - In the style of Elizabeth Browning
The Arb - In the style of Ogden Nash
The Bleary Eyed - In the style of Vachel Lindsay
She Walks To Work At Goldman Sachs - In the style of Lord Byron
When I Was Up A’Plenty - In the style of A.E. Housman
The Vulture Funds - In the style of Alfred Noyes
Hedging My Bet On A Risky Merger - In the style of Robert Frost
Georgie Soros - In the style of Edwin Arlington Robinson
I Owned A Penny Stock - In the style of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

©2007 Michael Silverstein

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