Bailouts explained

It is a slow day in a little village.The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted.

Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day, a rich  tourist is driving through the village. He stops at the local hotel and lays a $100 bill on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one in which to spend the night.

The owner gives him some keys, and as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs the hotelier grabs the $100  and runs next door to repay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100  and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100  and heads off to repay his debt to the supplier of feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmer’s Co-op takes the $100  note and runs to pay his drink bill at the tavern.

The pub owner slips the money to the local prostitute who is drinking at the bar, as she has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him “services” on credit.

The hooker then rushes to the hotel and gives the hotelier the $100 to pay off her room bill.

The hotel proprietor places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes downstairs, picks up the $100, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

No one produced anything.

No one earned anything.

However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, my friend, is how the bailout package works!