"Nowadays, you can't turn on the TV without some talking head telling you about the economy. Yet, in a world overrun by 'analysts,' only one man has the guts, the brains, and, quite frankly, the poetry to put it all in perspective.That man is Michael Silverstein... Silverstein is a true intellectual." — Gersh Kuntzman, The New York Post

"Few people have found much to laugh about in the stock market this year. Michael Silverstein is the exception. The Bard of the Bourse can find humor in losing money, globalization and stock options." — USA Today

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Deflation—The Poem
(Chris Biddle's version)

Deflation has become
The Fed Gang’s new concern,
Prices they are sinking
Greenspan’s boys discern.
But about this way of thinking
I’m way far out ahead,
In deflation’s icy realms
I long have had to tread.

My whole life’s now deflated
It’s lost its grand old puff,
What used to be quite easy
Has really gotten tough.
By a host of nasty downturns
I find myself beset.
The only thing that’s rising
Is my credit debt.

My salary is frozen
For hard cash I am strapped,
The kid’s college tuition
My savings, alas, has sapped.
The pension that I thought
Would make old age less weighty,
Has gone up in a cloud of smoke
Now I’ll work until I’m eighty.

Returns on my stock portfolio
Range from terrible to middling,
My bond yields are so pitiful
At best they are now piddling.
My home’s once soaring equity
Has been tapped and spent,
Instead of payin’ a mortgage
Wish I was payin’ rent.

It’s futile to debate it
Or even to berate it
I only need to state it
My dreams have since abated
On thin ice I too long skated
My life sadly deflated

*******

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