Here's A Cartoon Explaining The Types Of Bonds
Slate's "The Big Money" has decided it's time to start educating readers on some core financial principles, and they're starting with the very basics, presented in a "Schoolhouse Rocks!" style. Their first cartoon explains the four types of bonds. Visually, it's a perfect match to the style of the original cartoons, but we hope they work on a catchier jingle for their next installment.
"Musical Numbers: Bonds" [Slate's The Big Money]
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Comments:
Thanks Chris, I now have 4 different 'Schoolhouse Rocks' songs competing in my head.
"I'm just a Bill" is currently in the lead. :)
@gatewaytoheaven: PSSST: You can read consumerist and comment legibly. That puts you in the 98th percentile of all americans.
FUN TIP: The masses are stupid. Really stupid.
There's a Despair motivational poster out there which essentially states "None of us are as dumb as all of us". True indeed.
Another favorite misogynist quote: a person is smart. People are stupid.
The nice thing about calamity is that it makes what was formerly a dull but necessary subject interesting again.
@Trai_Dep: Misanthropic, not misognyistic. Women are pretty great.
It is fun to hear people throw around words like "coupon bond" and "adverse selection" again in everyday context. It's like an invitation to a special club of people who took Finance 101 and are reconvening their old study groups.
I might have been hard pressed to come up with 4 different bonds. Tbills, muni, corp and junk.
The tune was kinda lame but the graphics and writing were pretty good.
@Crabby Cakes wants some Dance Biscuits.: Yea, there's also the one about Taxes, the one about Budgeting, and oddly enough the Adverb song. My daughters watch the Schoolhouse Rock DVD at least every week, so I know most of the songs by heart.
a simple cartoon to explain (albeit, simply) a simple subject
sounds rather appropriate to me
Actually a pretty good cartoon; if it takes over-simplified cartoons such as that one to make people actually understand the financial industry, then so be it. I'd rather have people educated by goofy cartoons than to be totally oblivious to everything.
@rtmccormick: In some cases. In others, not so much:
"Mommy, I saw a move about 'bortions today! Thats when magical faries take your baby out of your belly and give him straight to god!"
You say there were 4 kinds of bonds, but the cartoon described only 3, treasuries, munis and corporates. Junk bonds were not a 4th type of bond but had to do with the credit ratings for the corporates. They were clear about this in the cartoon.
They said you had to be careful with junk bonds because they might default. What they didn't say is that A rated bonds could default as well...this is what happened with Lehman last Sept. 15. So perhaps they should have told us not to necessarily believe the credit ratings from Moody's and S&P.
@FrankGrimesJr: Whoops. Looks like we (well, I) need an Ambrose Bierce refresher course. Set to Schoolhouse Rock music, 'natch.
They left out James and Barry!
@downwithmonstercable: Great. I just HAD to come back here after work. And now Conjunction Junction will be playing in my head for the rest of the night.
Y'know considering the government needed a shit ton of money for the war effort and they sold bonds before.. why the hell weren't they pressing that this time around?
Are bonds not a good investment anymore?
My grandparents cashed theirs in in the 90's and made a KILLING!
Where are all the female bonds?
@gatewaytoheaven: @m4ximusprim3:
Quiet the both of you! We must keep the plebs complacent lest they revolt!
The narrator kinda sounds like Big Gay Al from South Park.
So our national debt and the interest we pay on it is all based on T-bills? Do T-bills ever mature, or do you just collect interest on them every 6 months?
See, I need to know this stuff.
Since when were abortions considered part of the financial industry? I knew that having babies was part of the financial strategies of the project-dwellers, but getting their brains sucked out doesn't yield more welfare money.
Little square men have a way of soothing me, especially during times of crisis. They're just so square, and precise. Who can't feel anything but calm around them?
Why is that organizations need to dumb down everything in order to educate the general public? Is it my dumbness that led to this crisis meltdown? I find this almost revolting at the state of our society when little square men must be used in order to placate the masses.