Written 21 Jan 09 about the British economy but this poem could easily apply to other economies...

The TOXIC SWAMPS of the economy

The debt time bomb
Is quickening its tickening
Bank stocks melt away
With each passing day

Into double digit declines
Despite treasury lifelines
Lloyds at 33.4 p
- where will the floor be ?

Sinking further and further
From fears of being nationalized
Burdening the nation with debt
But at what size and is it wise ?

For this toxic bog
Is enveloped in a murky fog
It Bubbles away
Bloated with toxic gases
Debt in the billions
Or in the trillions of masses
Obscure calculations
Nobody can understand

Bank stocks sink into the quicksand, sifted
With the help of the short selling ban, lifted

The rivers of credit
Have stopped flowing
‘Bad Banks’ are now reaping
What they have been sowing

The economy is stagnating
The House of commons is debating
Bank shareholders anticipating -
- which bank is next
With a noose around its neck ?

Bank stocks hit the floor
As shareholders push for the door
With banks’ debt a bottomless hole
Investors won’t touch them
Not even with a bargepole

Lifelines and rafts of blank cheques
From the now empty treasure chest
Of the treasury forced to ingest
This toxic debt
And new bills and measures
All linking, stinking and sinking together…

The footsie pulling and dragging along the floor
Our currency dropping and ebbing to its lowest score
And the wreck of the economy heavily
Weighed down with toxic debt
Sinking and clinking to the bottom of The Swamp floor

If I had known that the financial crisis would be on this scale I would have considered writing an entire collection on the economy alone !