[Seattle-editorial] Deflation (The Poem)

[M Silverstein]

This past week the government announced the biggest drop in wholesale prices
on record, and the biggest drop in retail prices in 18 months. Data such as
this has now got the Fed worried about deflation. But you have to
wonder...what took them so long to catch on?


Deflation‹The Poem

Deflation¹s become 
The Fed¹s new concern,
Prices are sinking 
They say they discern.
But Œbout this new thinking
I¹m way out ahead,
In deflation¹s cold realms
IŒve long had to tread.

My whole life¹s deflated
It¹s lost its old puff,
What used to be easy
Has now gotten tough.
By a host of deep downturns
I have been beset,
The only thing rising
Is my credit debt.

My salary¹s frozen
For hard cash I¹m strapped,
The kid¹s school tuition
My last savings sapped.
The pension I thought
Would make old age less weighty,
Has gone up in smoke
Now I¹ll work Œtil I¹m eighty.

Returns on my stocks
Range from awful to middling,
My bond dividends
Are so small they are piddling.
My home¹s equity
Has been tapped and been spent,
Now instead of a mortgage
I wish I paid rent.

We need not debate it
I¹ll come out and state it
My dreams have abated
To worry I¹m mated
On thin ice I skated
And got what was fated
I¹m crushed and deflated
And boy do I hate it.

©2003

**********
For more financial verse: http://www.wallstreetpoet.com
For satirical political verse: http://www.beltwaybard.com


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