This is very funny, and cynical, but sadly it is probably more true than the market participants would ever admit. I was given this Powerpoint presentation (2.5MB) which presents some other aspects of the same stupidity, and is likewise hilarious. (Warning, it contains some rude words, in culturally correct contexts. Don’t download it if you get offended by the vernacular.)

The Lennon-Gunns government seem to be up with this process already.
Only problem is, the government is not particularly flush and the hedge fund in Tasmania (named Gunns) consists of government (public) trees - and water and power and pipelines. 
So government is both the hedge fund and the body that will bail out the investors who are, by default, members of the public (who own the assets of the hedge fund ... but not really) ... am I reading this correctly ... government (the public) is setting itself up for a double-whammy?

I received this from a friend. It is called Financial Wisdom.

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought hundreds at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.

He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. “Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.”

The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have an understanding of how the stock market works.