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Avon Calling

lipstick.jpg

Comments (11)

GarandFan:

Nancy Pelosi putting some lipstick on. Instead of Wall St, should have been Fannie and Freddie. Could also use a bottle of ACORN highlight on the table.

Terwiliger:

I'm with Garandfan. The bloated hog shouldn't be Wall Street (which is simply a capital market).

The pig should be the centralized banking system. I'd have chosen the Fed (because of interest-rate manipulation, fractional reserve banking--& the fact that they're in bed with Freddie, Fannie, 535 legislators, the bailees-yet-to-come, yada yada yada).

Should have drawn it this way:

A gargantuan hog in a filthy 3-piece suit (the FED) sitting on a crumbling milking stool (The NYSE) watching the market plummet on a laptop connected to a milking machine (the IRS) which is in turn hooked to the teats of an emaciated cow (American taxpayers). I'd also have included a lilliputian band of Representatives (or maybe a little donkey & a little elephant) standing on the make-up table hoisting a giant tube of lipstick (with the "bailout" logo) to the pig's mouth (the pig's head turned away from the computer towards the lipstick) & saying, "Hey baby, you need a touch-up". There could be big hose running from the milking machine to a hole in the ground, with little piglet bankers gobbling up money "milk & cream" that is leaking from all points of the hose.

Sorry...I had a Rube Goldberg flashback...of course I get the gist of your original 'toon, but this is one of those rare occasions where I think you missed.

Terwiliger:

Man, I hope I don't incur the Wrath of John for that.

Steve M:

Hey Terwiliger-are you serious? Do you think that's just a tad overkill? It's a cartoon-not the Sistine Chapel. Ha!

GarandFan:

I do agree with John that the bail out would be lipstick. It would be just the beginning.

This perfectly captures how ugly this bailout really is. The problem is, no one knows if it will work! Harry Reid and others have said "We're in uncharted territory."

Tom Wms.:

I think the smplicity of the cartoon says it all. Speaking of simplicity, it doesn't have to be as hard as they're making it. Anyway you dress it and make it up, it is not going to be pretty.

Hey Steve.

Th-th-thanks Steve...*sniff*...I was starting to doubt my existence....

GarandFan:

Awwwwww. Hey John, you're tougher than that! :o)

HEY G

I'm just a sensitive artist trying to find love....*cue the musical build-up*

Terwiliger:

Overkill? Nah. That would be nowhere near as complicated as a Rube Goldberg 'toon.

I'd at least take Garandfan's suggestion & re-label the pig. The fall in stock prices was a reaction to the big fat hogs in banking & credit markets in bed with gubmint.

FYI: Barack Obama has essentially blamed both the banking debacle & the market reaction to it on "excesses of a free market."

I'd say this 'toon is playing into Barack Obama's hands (& the dumb masses who follow him) by perpetuating the misconception that free markets & a lack of gubmint oversight is the problem, when in fact artificially manipulated markets & gubmint over-involvement is the problem.

The banking problems result from banks & insurance companies making bad loans--pure & simple. Gubmint leaned on them to do it, gubmint authorized them to do it, gubmint gave them lax rules to do it, & nobody in either the banking industries or gubmint said, "Hey, this is wrong."

Are there corporate hogs? HECK YEAH. But that's a problem with corporatism, not capitalism--& I happen to think naming the pig "Wall Street" attacks the later instead of the former.

About

John Cox is a painter, cartoonist, and illustrator for hire. For information about purchasing existing work or commissioning new work, contact him by e-mail at john555cox [at] hotmail.com.

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