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Writer's pictureAustin from Austin

A Wall Street Nursery Rhyme

My time in the upper echelons of finance yielded me a wealth of fascinating true stories: some funny, some terrifying, and some a mixture of both.


This original nursery rhyme is inspired by a true story and should serve as a reminder that there are NO guarantees in life, no matter how smart or accomplished you are.


Enjoy!


NOTE TO READERS: My video performance of this original nursey rhyme is available on my YouTube Channel.  



A blurry picture of the street sign saying 11-21 Wall Street
Wall Street Nursery Rhyme

A WALL STREET NURSERY RHYME


Hear Ye Lords and Ladies

And all in your retinue

A story I know very well

That I will now graciously share with you


This tale is for all ages

It is a treatise about pride

Its intent is for the good of us

Not for those with black hearts inside


Your wait is finally over

And the present is the time

For my very own creation

"A Wall Street Nursery Rhyme"


**********************************


There once was a firm

On a place called Wall Street

Where the bulls and bears roamed

Amidst the pulsing New York heartbeat


There were financial wizards

And geniuses galore

Located in a pristine skyscraper

Nestled on the top floor


A view from the ground looking up a canyon of skyscrapers to a blue cloudy sky
Skyscrapers

Their degrees were from Oxford

And Harvard and Yale

Their names were Astor,

Rockefeller and Hale.  


These titans of finance

These sultans of stocks

Came from the finest white shoe firms

Not the School of Hard Knocks


Their hubris was large

Almost as big as their brains

Pride blinded them to the fact

That it would all go down the drain


****************************************************


But let us go back

To the earliest days

When hope was still alive

And our yearning hearts were ablaze


On the hedge fund floor

Mathematics was king

If you were a PhD

Then you were allowed in the ring


Formulas on a blackboard and a teacher in a tie standing in front of it
Serious Mathematics

Many simulations were run

By men and women with might

On giant supercomputers

That ran through the night 


Data was crunched

Fancy graphs were prepared 

Conference calls were conducted

And no expense was spared.


Meanwhile upstairs

In the main investment bank

We held our heads high

Because of our rank


We dined on free lunches

Flew first class flights

And graced five star hotels

Where I spent many a night


An exterior of a fancy European hotel with the worlds "Hotel" out front
Five Star Hotels

The startup sought clients

And made a big splash

But the one big difference

Was the firm made NO CASH! 


*******************************************************


One year went by

And then became two

Yet still the executives

Had nary a clue


One day, the CEO 

Got an idea in his head

"Pay us what you wish

No more and no less," he said 


We were stunned when we heard

This incredible plan

For clients to pay

Whatever they can


"What if they pay us nothing?"

We immediately said

Even the famous Wall Street paper

Was scratching its head


When clients caught wind

Of this ridiculous plot

They said “no thank you,

We think we would rather not."


The free food then vanished

Serious faces ensued

And all the the work anyone did

Was sit there and brood


The leadership met

In their fancy Board Room

And determined to continue onwards

And decreed publicly: "NO MORE GLOOM"


A Conference Room sits empty with black leather chairs sat at a wooden table
Board Room

Determined not to fail

And still move ahead

They embarked on a new strategy

And here’s what they said:


"If we hire more 

And more and more 

Then surely by next quarter

We will have money in store" 


For this was the logic

That had led them astray

Throwing good funds after bad

NEVER ENDS UP OK


For a moment, they survived

But then came a Black Swan

And finally in the end

$77 million was gone


So don’t be too smart 

Or big for your britches

As there’s no guarantee 

You’ll earn endless riches 


THE END



Be sure to check out the illustrations of my original Wall Street stories in Fabien Toulme's new global opus about Work and Life "Et Travailler Et Vivre."

The Cover of Fabien Toulme's New Graphic Novel shows comic book characters from Texas, The Comoros and South Korea
The Cover of Fabien Toulme's New Graphic Novel

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