This is brilliant. Most succinct way of describing the current mess I've read yet. Thanks to Darren at work for sending it to me.

Young Stern moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.00. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.'

Stern replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.' The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'

Stern said, 'OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

The farmer asked, 'What a ya gonna do with him? Stern said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'

The farmer said 'You can't raffle off a dead donkey!' Stern said, 'Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead.'

A month later, the farmer met up with Stern and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?'

Stern said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00.'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?' Stern said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him back his two dollars.'

Stern now works for Goldman Sachs.