I ran across this today, and not only is it very educational, but it's gaming related too! [Here's just a sample, see the original for the full text.]

Source: http://bygonebureau.com/2008/10/01/the-financial-crisis-as-e...

"The Financial Crisis, as Explained to My Fourteen-Year-Old Sister"
by Kevin Nguyen on October 1, 2008

Economist Kevin Nguyen explains the country’s economic woes to his younger sister, using Pokémon as an analogy. Seriously.

The following is an actual conversation I had with my younger sister, Olivia. She likes to draw, play World of Warcraft, and now, she’s the only fourteen-year-old girl who understands the U.S. economic crisis.

Kevin: Have you been following the news?

Olivia: Yeah, I don’t really get it.

Kevin: Imagine that I let you borrow $50, but in exchange for my generosity, you promise to pay me back the $50 with an extra $10 in interest. To make sure you pay me back, I take your Charizard Pokémon card as collateral.

Olivia: Kevin, I don’t play Pokémon anymore.

Kevin: I’m getting to that. Let’s say that the Charizard is worth $50, so in case you decide to not return my money, at least I’ll have something that’s worth what I loaned out.

Olivia: Okay.

Kevin: But one day, people realize that Pokémon is stupid and everyone decides that the cards are overvalued. That’s right—everybody turned twelve on the same day! Now your Charizard is only worth, say, $25.

Olivia: Uh-huh.

Kevin: At the same time, you’re having trouble paying back the $60 you owe me. So what would you rather do: try and pay me back the $60 or just default and give me your $25 Charizard?

Olivia: I’d give you the Charizard.

[See the article for more.]

That's an excellent explanation.

Between Ken Fisher and BGG, I think it's time to buy stocks.

A great piece of writing. Thanks!

cool

Pretty amusing.

That's all fine and dandy, but what about my Dark Charizard from the Team Rocket set?

I'll loan you $75 if you give me that in collateral! I can't lose, right? That's way more secure than a standard Charizard!

For the people who don't want to read the actual article, the ending is pretty funny as well:

It all makes sense now! Magic: The Gathering is the ulimate of nerdiness!

Wait! Pokemon caused the global financial crisis? I knew that game was evil!

Can we send this man to take charge of the situation? That's the simplest way I've heard it explained.

Just think...we could change our currency to cards and many of us here would become the filthy rich!

Fortunately Kevin didn't tell Olivia the unbelievable bit where bets have been made on things like, "Will it rain on Xmas Day 2008?" and, "Will Dark Charizard be worth more than 3 times a normal Charizard on April1 2010?". These bets (aka "derivatives" by our communists on Wall Street) total about 10 times the global GDP.

Who would be gullible enough to believe this bit of the story?